Back in the late 1960s, there was a resurgence of interest in stained glass in the US.

Jacqueline Helitzer Winch, an accomplished potter, began her career in stained glass in 1969, by exchanging lessons in ceramics for stained glass with a young master glass craftsman’s apprentice from the UK.  As a student of art, fresh from UCLA, Jackie already had several years immersed in the arts, especially printmaking, weaving and ceramics before her first hands-on experience with a medium she had long admired.

Immediately after UCLA, she opened her commercial studio, "The Pottery" which was featured in The Egg and The Eye's publication, "The Los Angeles Guide to Craft Instruction" and her work also found its way into the prestigious gallery's collection alongside those of notable names such as Ruth Duckworth, Peter Volkos, John Lewis and Ken Price.   

Back in the late 1960s, there was a resurgence of interest in stained glass in the U.S. However, there were few modern tools nor much in the way of raw materials for serious stained glass-making available, and so Jackie fashioned many of her own having learned the "Old World" centuries-old fabrication techniques.  She was also purchasing the majority of her large glass sheets from Europe until some high quality domestic glass became more redily available.  Although she continued to work in clay, printmaking and in fiber, her love of glass keeps her rooted there.

For several years, Jackie worked as a studio artist and instructor for the prestigious Meredith Stained Glass Studios, Washington, D.C., where one of her greatest thrills was being selected to repair and restore a rare, antique Louis Comfort Tiffany lampshade for one of Meredith's clients.

In all her works; fitted panels, mosaics, three-dimensional, functional pieces, reproduction Tiffany lampshades, and her ever-evolving collection of Judaica and silver jewelry, Jackie insists upon the highest quality, both in her materials as well as in her own workmanship. Jackie’s work can be found in private homes, professional offices, restaurants and other public sites from coast to coast in the U.S., and most recently at the gift and book shop of The Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California.

A former student of the Wichita Art Association, Stephens College, UCLA and Cranbrook, Jackie has been making her personal mark in the arts for over 40 years. When asked about how she feels about herself as an accomplished artist, Jackie responds that her greatest satisfaction is when her work pleases others. “There will never be enough time to create all the designs I’d like to and each piece I do leads to the next with eager anticipation”. A recent thrill in the 1990s, was the commission of one of her personalized kaleidoscopes to the art collection of Ringo Starr, London, England.

Jackie has participated in many invitational and juried art exhibits over the decades including “Art Music and Flowers” at the Cape Cod Conservatory of Music and the annual Barnstable County Daffodil Festival where she took first-place and best of show with her wonderful leaded and foiled "functional" Greenhouse.  Her work has also been sold in many prestigious galleries from coast to coast including each of the four Signature Galleries along the Eastern Massachusetts shores as well as in Connecticut;The Giving Tree, Cape Cod and A Stone’s Throw, Brookline, Massachusetts; Gotthelf in Vail, Colorado;The Skirball Jewish Cultural Center's Museum’s gift shop in Los Angeles; Laura Downing Boutique in Laguna Beach and in Fern's Garden, Long Beach, California.

Jackie’s work has been featured in several publications throughout the U.S. as well as abroad including newspapers, magazines and in four books. These publications include The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine; Better Homes & Gardens magazine; two of the Celebrate the Season series books by Meredith Publications, two Orange County Home magazine articles and as the contracted artist for the book, It’s Never too Late to Plant a Tree, by the late Melvin and Morrie Helitzer where the 65 awards she made were presented to the participants/subjects (including former U.S. President, Jimmy Carter) of the book as gifts of appreciation from the Helitzer authors. Another special honor is to have been selected to show at the highly regarded, invitational Artisan’s Market Show at the Long Beach Museum of Art, for the two years she lived there.

Now finally settled in her year-round, Palm Springs desert home with her author/actor/bookseller husband, Ronnie Winch (to whom she intends on teaching techniques in porcelain clay), Jackie is most often found working in her private studio on some amazing new creation, where her skills are only surpassed by her endless imagination. So many ideas, so little time...