Many people have asked, "Where did you come up with the business name, Neil Neil Orange Peel?" When I was a child, my father called me "Neil Neil Orange Peel" and when I was younger, I hated it - but as I grew older and raised a son of my own - I realized it was a term of endearment and I embraced the name. When I was looking for a business name, I thought "Neil Neil Orange Peel" would be the perfect name for my stained glass business.

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I started my stained glass journey when I was nineteen years old. I was a teenager who love playing video games and needed to find a passion, not in front of a television screen. I tried various trades and nothing really stuck with me. One day, I went to a stained glass store in Northampton, Massachusetts, and was drawn to all the colorful glass. I was immediately intrigued by all the different types of glass. I purchased some glass and tools and started making my first project. After completing my first stained glass piece, I was hooked. I opened an antique store that also featured my stained glass work in Westfield Mass and began doing various custom projects and selling my art on eBay. 

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In 2002, I moved to the Boston area and started a career in advertising and also had a part-time job at Jim Anderson Stained Glass in the South End. I then decided to move to San Francisco in 2007 where my advertising career flourished, and stained glass took a back seat for a while due to the lack of space in my apartment, although I took stained glass classes when I could. In 2012, I bought a home in Berkeley, California and there was enough room to start my stained glass business up again. I designed and constructed several projects for homes in the Bay Area, including my own home in Berkeley. 

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In 2017, I decided to quit my career in advertising after 16 years and moved back home to Massachusetts. I purchased a home in Cotuit, Mass, and started planning a full return to my stained glass business. In 2018, I taught my very first class at the Cotuit Center for the Arts and I fell in love with teaching stained glass. Teaching my passion to students and seeing them fall in love with the art form is extremely rewarding and exhilarating. I decided to convert my three-car garage into a glass studio and teach out of my home studio.

 

 Last year, (2023) marked me being a stained glass artist for 30 years! My work has been featured in Cape Cod Home Magazine, Princeton University Art Museum, Boston College, & several galleries and boutiques across the country. Neil's internationally popular stained glass agave plants have been featured on Buzzfeed, Pioneer Woman, Yahoo Life, & Delish.

I have sold art through online retailers such as UncommonGoods, White Flower Farm, and my Etsy shop has been a bestseller for multiple years.  

 

I am embarking on my fifth year of teaching and have taught 350+ students and counting.  Several of my students have gone on to start their own businesses & define their own creative paths working with stained glass. I cannot express how proud I am of each and every one of my students. They are all a huge part of my heart <3.

The following businesses are former/current students of mine:

Cape Cod Glass Worx, Riled Glassworks, Glass Over Teakettle, Grind & Shine Glass, OysterDesignStudioCC, Prickly Pear Stained Glass, LoveLight Glass Designs, Suncatcher Heaven,

Art Monkey Studio & GC Glass Creations. Proud of my students for starting their own businesses, staying original & following their passion for stained glass! I'm a proud teacher! If you would like to learn the art of stained glass, head over to my classes page, and book your spot. Take a class with me and change your life!