Jill Kooken’s 52-hour stained-glass winner

Creating a stained-glass artwork is a process that demands patience, precision and time. For Sun City resident Jill Kooken, it took about 52 hours to craft the intricate piece that earned her the People’s Choice Award in the stained-glass category at Sun City Creative Vision 2026 (CV2026).

Sun City residents attending the annual exhibition selected Kooken’s vibrant work, titled “Pink Pirouette,” as their favorite among the stained-glass entries. The 2026 event brought together members from four Sun City clubs — the Photography Club, All About Art Club, Glasscrafters Club and the Woodworkers & Model Makers Guild — in a collaboration celebrating creativity across multiple art forms.

For Kooken, the recognition was both gratifying and a little unexpected.
“I was surprised,” she said when she learned her piece had received the People’s Choice honor.

Creating a stained-glass piece involves multiple careful steps that require patience and skill.

“You choose your glass, cut your pattern, score the glass and break it,” Kooken explained. “Then you grind it, foil it, solder it and frame it.”
Despite the complexity of the process, the work brings her a sense of calm and concentration.

“It’s my therapy,” she said. “I like choosing a piece to make. I like scoring the glass, breaking the glass and fitting it together. I like doing puzzles, and stained glass is a lot like that.”

What makes Kooken’s achievement even more notable is that stained glass was not a hobby she brought with her to Sun City. She and her husband moved to the community eight years ago from Columbus, Ohio, and she discovered the craft after joining the Sun City Glasscrafters Club in early 2018.

“I was pretty addicted,” she said with a laugh.

After completing the club’s required training courses, she spent many hours working in the studio and eventually helped teach introductory stained-glass classes.

When the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily closed the studio, Kooken adapted by creating her own workspace at home.

“I built a studio in my garage so I could keep working,” she said, allowing her to continue developing her craft.

Creative Vision pairs a photographer with an artist, glasscrafter or woodcrafter, with the photographer’s image serving as inspiration for a new work interpreted in a different medium. In CV2026, Kooken’s winning stained-glass piece was inspired by photographer Everett Denning’s photograph “Pretty in Pink,” which she transformed into her glass creation “Pink Pirouette.”

Today she remains active in the club and recently took on responsibility for organizing studio monitors who help keep the glass studio open for members.

With “Pink Pirouette” capturing the People’s Choice honor at CV2026, Kooken’s dedication, creativity and the many hours required to shape and assemble each piece of glass clearly resonated with Sun City residents — a shining example of how inspiration and craftsmanship come together in the Creative Vision tradition.

Creative Vision highlights the collaborative spirit among Sun City’s creative clubs. Kooken’s award-winning piece reflects both the skill required to master stained glass and the inspiration that comes from transforming another artist’s vision into something entirely new.