Handmade by Earl Whitaker · Hocking Hills, Ohio
Donna's Handmade Halloween Stained-Glass Lamp
Donna's Handmade Halloween Stained-Glass Lamp
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Donna's Handmade Halloween Stained-Glass Lamp
From a stained-glass studio on Silk Road, Bennington, Vermont
Donna Boehm, 70. Forty-one years of church windows, 190 of them across three states. This October she closes the studio for good — and the Emberpane® is the last thing she made.
“On Halloween a kid comes up a driveway in the dark. If the window is dark he keeps walking. If there is a light in it, he knows that house is glad he came. I spent forty-one years putting light through glass into rooms full of people. This is the same job. It is just smaller.”
— Donna Boehm, Bennington, VermontWhat arrives in the box
What makes it different
Not a drawing of a stained-glass window — a scan of one. Donna’s rebuild drawing of an 1897 hall transom went to production as it was, pencil corrections included.
The left wing runs about half an inch long. The original window had a hinge on that side and the lead had to run around it. She never corrected it. It is on every single one.
Coloured glass panel, then the raised black lead-line lattice, then the hand-worked detail. Cheap lamps flatten that black grid to save money — which is why they turn to mud the moment you switch them on.
8.27 inches clears the bottom rail of a standard sash window, so it reads from the street. 5.12 inches wide, so the curtain still closes behind it.
No bulb, no socket, no wall outlet. That is the only reason a lamp like this can sit in an upstairs window with no cord running down the wall.
Not a hollow shell. The four figures under the shade are structural columns and the weight sits low, so a curtain brushing past it does not put it on the floor.
“People underestimate how much of stained glass is arithmetic. The width of the black line against the size of the coloured field decides whether a piece reads from across a room or across a street. Get that ratio wrong and it turns to mud the moment you light it. Boehm spent four decades getting it right on windows eleven feet tall. On something eight inches tall it is not a hard problem for her.”
Dana Whitcomb, conservator, New England Glass Trades AssociationPerfect for
Quality, honestly stated
- The pattern is hers, the glass is not blown by hand. This is panel glass made to Donna’s tooling. A window she builds by hand takes eleven days — nobody sells that as a night light, and she would be the first to say so.
- The black lines stand up off the glass. Run a thumb across the shade and you can feel them. That is the part that makes it read as a window rather than a printed shade.
- The colour is in the panel. It is not a film on the surface, so it does not scratch off and it does not fade to salmon after a season on a sunny sill.
- Assembled, detailed and checked one at a time. No conveyor belt, no crate of identical parts tipped into a box.
- Every unit carries the same flaw. The long bat wing is the proof it came off a real window and not a stock clipart file.
Put it in your own window and look at it from the street. If it does not do what you hoped, one email and the return is arranged. Nobody is going to make you justify it.
A note on the last run. Donna closes the studio on the thirty-first of October. There is no successor and there will be no second run. Around 2,376 Emberpanes® were on the shelves when her granddaughter counted them — when they are gone, that is the end of it.
Product details
| Shade | Tiffany-style panel glass, raised black lead-line lattice, scalloped rim |
| Motifs | Bat across the crown, carved jack-o’-lantern centre, ghost right, web structure |
| Base | Solid cast resin, antique bronze finish, figural relief columns, orange pumpkin centre |
| Colours | Amber, red, orange with black leading |
| Height | 8.27 in / 21 cm |
| Footprint | 5.12 in / 13 cm square |
| Light | Warm-white LED, no bulb to replace |
| Power | USB — any phone charger or power bank |
| Care | Dry cloth. No cleaning products on the leading. |
| Origin of the pattern | 1897 hall transom, Monument Avenue, Old Bennington — rebuilt by Donna Boehm in 1998 |
| Remaining stock | Around 2,376. Final run. |
Meet your maker: Earl Whitaker
34 years a shop teacher. Now he builds birdhouses the slow way — one at a time, signed by hand.
Read Earl's story →
The Back Road Guarantee
If anything ever fails on this birdhouse — a joint, a hinge, the roof — Earl repairs or replaces it for free. For life. No receipts, no forms, no fine print. That's the deal he made us, and it's the deal we make you.
Before You Order
When will my order ship?
The maker keeps a small number finished and ready. Orders ship straight from the workshop within 3 business days, and you'll get a tracking number the moment it's on its way. If a batch sells out, the page will say so honestly — and you can join the waitlist for the next one.
What if it arrives damaged or I don't love it?
You have 60 days to change your mind — send it back for a full refund, no questions asked. And if anything ever fails on it, the Back Road Guarantee covers repairs or replacement for life, handled directly with the maker.
Is every piece really made by one person?
Yes. Every piece is made start to finish by one maker — cut, finished, signed, and wrapped by hand. That's why batches are small and why yours will carry a hand-written number.
Will mine look exactly like the photos?
Almost — but not perfectly, and that's the point. Natural materials vary in grain and tone, so every piece is one of a kind. What never varies is the craftsmanship behind it.
Is it a good gift?
It's our most-gifted item. Every order arrives hand-wrapped in kraft paper with twine and a signed note from the maker — no receipt in the box, so it ships straight to the lucky person.