Elayne has always loved stained glass, especially intricate and very colorful designs on church windows and hanging decor. She owns several purchased hanging pieces - a large oval green and gold flower with a clear ashtray-like center on cobalt background from Provincetown MA that hangs in her dining room and that she thinks of as the great crystal rising out of Atlantis; a clear square with a red heart containing a light pink lotus and oval crystal center from Sedona AZ that showers rainbow light on the walls of her office; and a small red circular piece with a pink-lavender five-pointed star that hangs in her kitchen window.
When Elayne did a temporary job for Digital Equipment Company in Maynard, MA, a coworker named Georgiann Zaglakas asked if she wanted to take a stained glass class with her. Elayne did and it was a lot of fun. She created an iridescent lavender 8-pointed star that is hanging above the sink in her master bedroom, a red rose window decor that is sitting in one of her office windows, a lamp that was given to her cousin Bret Robinson Moynihan as a wedding present, another star that broke and got tossed away, and there may have been other smaller pieces as well. Because Elayne's stained glass tools and glass were stored in a poorly lit basement of an old house in Waltham, MA in a cellar used by four tenants, it was difficult for Elayne to get into the mood for creating stained glass artwork, and after moving to Woburn she sold everything except her large artist's portfolio that she used to store/carry the glass. Her heavy white Sears folding table and vacuum were given to her brother Tommy.
Elayne found that cutting stained glass pieces to fit a pattern was more difficult than wrapping them with tin foil and welding them together. She really loved welding.