SignalsAZ.com Prescott News Podcast - Custom Stained Glass and Light Art in Prescott AZ at Bella Light Studios

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

Send us a text and chime in!Bella Light Studios in Prescott, Arizona, offers unique stained glass and dichroic art created by artist Siobhan Wisdom. The studio features everything from small nightlights to large custom installations. Each piece is handcrafted and designed to interact with light in a dynamic way. As the sun moves, the colors shift and create a vibrant visual experience. #bellalightstudios #prescott #handpainted #customdesign #studios Check out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

Hey, everybody, welcome back to Signal's AZ News podcast. I'm Alicia, and today we have Chauvin Wisdom. And you're with Bella Light Studios. You're the owner of the studio. Yes, I am. Tell us a little bit about what your studio has, what you do. Well, I have stained glass windows, and I've done everything from nightlights to 12-foot Victorian ceilings, which I install myself. Oh, my gosh. And I do dichroic art, which I came up with eight years ago when I was living in Honolulu. And I also have painted furniture that I paper the drawers really wild. And I also have Carrie Weldon's paintings, which are gestural abstract paintings that are wonderful. And our art goes really well together. Well, and it's, you know, people are, you always

wonder what an artist was like when they were a child. Tell us a little bit about your first couple pets that you had as a child and how you kind of, you know, because to do the things that you do, obviously you're very deeply rooted in nature and animals. And people say that. And it's like, oh, yeah, I've had a dog since I was at. Tell us, tell everybody about where your journey started with pets. Okay. Well, I will say I have had an unusual and wildlife. And that throws back with my my connection with nature. And when I was, I don't know, five, six years old, I was working on my uncle's farm in Texas. And he somehow, we ended up with two little baby skunks with their eyes closed. And so I fed this little skunk with a little doll bottle with a special recipe and had him

desented so I could take him home. And I had him for 14 years. His name was Sam. And he was a one little person. I call all my animals persons because they have fabulous personalities and they deserve respect as well. Do you try to tell your mom, this is a cat mom. Don't worry. This is, she was like, oh my God. We all saw Looney Tunes where that cat was done. And then I've also had two North American gray wolves from the time that they were little babies. And we had cats in the house and a son, Conyer, and my two daughters. And then we also had a raven, a baby raven that had been, two, people had been around it. And it could not just, like, survive on its own.

It needed help. A little more domesticated. So we had the wolves, the raven, the cats, the son Conyer, the kids. And we have one rule in our family. We eat together. We don't eat each other. And that has always been the rule. And everybody has always gotten along.

All of my animals have had wonderful relationships with each other. Two years ago, I had the joy of having a baby chipmunk. And her name was Juniper Jones. Of course. She and my cats, Felix Greenfire and Casper Caspian. They were all friends and love each other very much. So I just, I love animals. And it shows, it's what I, it transfers into my work.

Is that your favorite thing to, you know, is that your biggest inspiration as animals with your art? Yes, animals and nature, plumerias and mantaray's, ocean creatures, hono, which are turtles. And it's, it's just really fun. It's uplifting to me for people to see something. It's just not a regular painting of an animal, you know. And you've spent time in Hawaii, so what a great place to get spiritual and to, you know, be one with nature. What are some of the favorite parts of Hawaii that you enjoyed while you were there? Well, I have to say that I love the ocean.

I absolutely love the ocean and the beach and swimming with the dolphins. So jealous. And dolphins, when they sleep, they just travel in a giant circle. The whole pod just swims in a giant circle underwater. And then when they are awake and they want to play, they're quite playful. And if you take a leaf from a tree out there, they are just in heaven. They love leaves. They'll steal it from each other.

It's very funny. Yeah. How did you end up in Arizona? Prusket. A friend asked me to move here, so I did, yeah. It's been a great friend to leave Hawaii, but... He is a great friend. That's awesome.

And then you ended up in Prescott, and you opened a studio. How long have you been, and where's the studio out? I've been in the studio about four and a half years. It's at 514 East Sheldon, and I'm right across, I'm in the number five building, and it was, I mean, it's painted mushroom gray. And this last summer, I carry and I painted it. And it's painted very wild Arizona colors and has three sororocactuses out there and all kinds of furniture and art during the day when I'm open. Because that's the problem is getting people to stop and come in.

Because once they come in, I mean, look at these pieces that you have. So you've got small pieces. You've got big pieces, large pieces. You brought in a special treat for us today. we got to go outside and see it in the light because seeing it just even in here is not going to do it justice but you see the different um tell us a little bit about this so this is um called the forest spirit and this is uh designed after shadow wolfington my wolf of course now my animals all have like really funny names um and then i use antique jewels for the eyes and it's actually set behind

the framework of the piece so that when it's hanging, it looks like she's looking at different directions. It's very cool. And the dichroic shifts colors when you change it in an angle, and it's really activated with sunlight. That's the best light. But I also have another type of some other lights that are RGB, which is a red, green, blue light. And so for that, I turn the lights off and make the space dark and then shoot it on there. And you can make the pieces. I have made this piece at night with my iPhone light across the alleyway. I have made her the whole size of the side of the building. Really? And a total crisp image. It's really fun. Well, even just seeing it outside, which is sunlight. But I was looking at your Instagram. You've got

amazing pictures of there's one video of an eagle on there and just in your kitchen window and you can see how the colors just changed depending upon, you know, the direction of the sun, how it's hitting it and how the colors dance across the spaces. And you mentioned that in one of those. It's like, this is, you know, dancing colors. And I just, you know, it makes you feel a certain way when you when you look at that. And I mean, how can you ever be mad when you're walking around with all this color and light and beauty? Well, I will say that it really does uplift your spirit.

And one of the things that I like to say is that like when you look up at the rainbow in the sky and, you know, we all look up for, you know, 30 seconds maybe. And we all say, oh, wow, that's so beautiful. And it makes you feel better. It uplift your spirit. And this artwork does the same thing. And you can just leave it hanging in your window and enjoy the light as the sun goes across the sky and it will change and do different things. It'll be different every day, a little something different too.

What a treat. What a joy. And you hand-make these yourself? I do. Yeah. What is, how long does it take to make a piece like this? This piece took about 80 hours. And you have smaller pieces that, you know, a little quicker to make.

what is the biggest piece you've ever done? And the dichroic is a four-foot mantaray and a four-foot eagle. And I have plans to do bigger pieces. I have a welding cart that I'm going to put together. And I have a jeweler's torch that I'm going to have somebody teach me how to use. And so Carrie, my friend, she and I are actually going to start welding the copper together because I have this dream of doing a cheetah standing up, you know, on all four legs and doing it out of dichroic. So I want to go into the, you know, the dimensional pieces. So even though, how long have you been doing this? I started, I came up with this art form eight years ago in Honolulu.

And it just keeps evolving, keeps getting different and better. It does. And then if people wanted to see some of the stuff that you're doing, What is your Instagram for people to find? It's Bella Light Studios, all one word. And my daughter does my Instagram for me. As does mine. I'm a little technologically challenged.

It's just one of the things I haven't put my time into. And what are some things that you want people to know about your store, about your gallery? Well, I carry dichroic, hand-painted furniture, and then I also have stained glass windows, and I have all kinds of affordable gifts, and I do custom designing for people, for houses. The largest piece I've done in stained glass has been a 12-foot Victorian ceiling in Colorado. Wow. And we build all the crates, do the installations and everything with our pieces. Well, and think about that with Prescott.

You have people that have these big, beautiful homes, and they try to do so many things to make them different or, you know, feel, you know, their space. What better way than to, you know, to get you to create something one of a kind for them and their space. That would be. It's great fun. Yeah. And a lot of times my clients will not really know. what they want. They'll say, I want stained glass, but they don't specifically know what they want. So I usually just sit down with them and have a cup of tea and start having a conversation like you

and I are having a conversation. And from that, I can glean little things and intuitively figure it out. You would make any dolphins, wouldn't you? I would, yes. A dolphin girl. So a couple, one of the things you shared with me, they want you to, if you don't mind, to repeating it because it was kind of your words of wisdom that you, you know, live by if you wouldn't mind sharing that because it just made me feel so good to hear it. So my partner, Kim Hicks, who was in the movie industry, he's the one that he came to my studio in Honolulu, and he's like, Shabon, he's like, as amazing of a stained glass artist as you are, I know you have another art for him in you. So he's the one that sent me down the road of the Dichroic.

He gave me Dichroic to work with. And so he carried this little typed up hand-typed thing in his wallet for 15 years that I knew him. And this is our mission statement. Someday after we have mastered the winds, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness the energies of love. Then for a second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire. That's by Péar Telhar de Chardin. And he was a French philosopher. And so that's how you live every day and that's how you live your, you know, your studio.

And I promise you seeing this on camera is not going to do it justice. We'll post some of your videos as well. We took a little video outside. You're just, you need to see it in person. You guys need to come to go to Bella Light Studios. You will not regret spending a few, you know, I would probably could spend an hour to there just looking at all the pieces. But again, tell them where you. You are right there on Sheldon.

On Sheldon across the street from the bike shop, and it's the number five building at 514 East Sheldon. And it's painted real wild, and you'll see it. You'll see it now. And there's parking behind it. And I think that people have got to remember, there's parking right behind. And people are like, oh, that's cute store. Go inside.

Go inside and check this out. And, um, this has just been, you know, it's one of the first podcasts of the day. and you get busy and it's like, oh, we've got to get in and it's a busy day and then you get a treat like this. So I really appreciate you coming in and spending some time with us and showing us the amazing things that you do. And this made me feel really good talking to you and seeing your art. So thank you. Well, thank you for allowing me to share it with you and other people because that's really what this is about. It's about uplifting humanity. I know we're going through dark times right now, but we will, this two shall pass.

This two shall pass. Yes. Hopefully quickly. And keep looking at a rainbow. Keep looking at a rainbow or your beautiful, your beautiful art pieces. Bring your rainbow indoors. Exactly. That's a good thing.

Yeah. Thank you so much. Well, thank you. We will see you guys next time. Aloha.