Staff photo / Ashley Fox ... Canfield resident Frank Micchia stands with a stained glass lamp he created, which took 400 hours to complete.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of a series of Saturday profiles of area residents and their stories. To suggest a profile, contact features editor Burton Cole at bcole@tribtoday.com or metro editor Marly Reichert at mreichert@tribtoday.com

CANFIELD — Inside Frank and Marcia Micchia’s Canfield home, stained glass works immediately are observed.

That’s because 35 years ago, the General Electric retiree took up making stained glass, a meticulous and lost art.

“The hobby is labor-intensive,” Micchia, 82, said.

The craft doesn’t necessarily come easily and immediately for many, as precise cutting and soldering are involved.

In his 35 year-long hobby, Micchia has about perfected it, making between 50 to 100 pieces that include window and door panels, lamps and night lights.

In their house alone, the Micchias have more than 20 lamps, but he’s likely done making them.

“I’m not making anymore because there’s no place to put them,” he said with a laugh.

Micchia also has gifted many of the lamps through the years.

One piece that sits proudly in front of a window, with his manicured garden on the other side, is a larger lamp with countless small pink and green glass pieces.

It’s the most complex stained glass in his collection, with more than 1,200 pieces he put together. The project, Micchia said, took about 400 hours to complete.

Although a labor of love, Micchia said it is “rewarding in that you see something you made, and it’s going to last forever. These don’t wear out.”

When he was starting out with stained glass, Micchia said there were studios where customers would go to pick out patterns and colors.

Through the years, internet sale sites have made the lamps easier to purchase at a low cost, but the quality “is not nearly what you’d get from a custom piece of work,” he said.

He’s found that many shops don’t make lamps anymore because of the amount of work and time it takes to finish a project, but some local businesses do repair work.

Micchia was born and raised in Youngstown, attending The Rayen School and Youngstown State University, where he obtained an engineering degree.

He retired in 2000, and spends a lot of time reading up on the United States military branches.

His creative outlet isn’t limited to mastering Tiffany lamps.

Micchia also gardens and ran a framing shop out of his house at one point. “I did it as a creative endeavor,” he said. “You put your own thoughts and style in to whatever you’re creating.”

He also has painted and makes wine, of which he said: “I just decided I would do it. It worked out good.”

For someone looking for a new hobby, Micchia said to consider stained glass. “It’s time consuming. The thing is, once you get started, the time just flies by. You spend all day on a project.”

afox@tribtoday.com