About David B. Helfant
My stained glass work began while I was completing a doctorate at the University of Chicago while analyzing data at UC Berkeley in the early 1970's. At that time, Berkeley was experiencing a Renaissance period in which a hands-on approach to the arts and crafts became quite popular. Stained glass art and crafts became popular, and I embraced them and built my own shop in a neglected basement of an old home where I rented a small apartment. Soon thereafter I did a post doc in architecture and continued learning and developing the skills necessary to design and build stained glass windows to compliment the architecture I studied. I often worked late at night into the morning hours designing and building my windows as a joyful relief from the intense work required in my academic pursuits.