In 1971, Dan Gamaldi accompanied his neighbor to a stained glass studio near Golden Gate Park. Little did he know the visit would introduce him to a passion that would last for more than 40 years.
“I’ve always made things with my hands since I was a kid,” Gamaldi said. “I’ve learned how to deal with glass, so it’s pretty easy for me. The colors, the light — it’s a fantastic medium. I love it.”
Soon after, he attended a 14-month stained glass apprenticeship program to master the labor-intensive, gritty and precise craft. From design to cutting glass to soldering and more, a project takes between six and eight weeks to complete.
In 1977, Gamaldi opened Cradle of the Sun in Noe Valley, where he took commissions, sold supplies and taught classes. In 2015, when his rent was tripled, he moved his shop to Ingleside.
Gamaldi has created thousands of compositions for his clients. He almost always has commission requests in queue, leaving him little time to create compositions for leisure.
“Every once in a while, I get uninteresting work,” said Gamaldi, who particularly enjoys making Victorian panels. “But for the most part, I’m the one coming up with the design, so I pretty much have to like it.”
Gamaldi teaches his craft to six classes of nine students each. They work side-by-side on their individual projects while Gamaldi provides advice and answers on a need-to-know basis.
“As you progress with your own skill, you’ll eventually run into a problem that only Dan has the answer to,” student Sara Strickler said.
Strickler, who has a studio in the East Bay and does not get as much work done at the shop like she used to, still sits through two hours of traffic every week because she looks forward to catching up with Cradle of the Sun’s close-knit community of craftspeople.
Some crafters known each other for as long as 30 years.
“We feel like we’re family,” said student Rosie Welch, who has taken Gamaldi’s classes since 1988. “It’s been my therapy group, and it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than therapy.”
Classmates often discuss personal lives over champagne and snacks while music plays in the background. Classmates hold get-togethers, Gamaldi hosts poker night once a month, and he invites all of his students to a holiday party at his shop at the end of each year.
“I think Dan’s personality is a huge reason why people keep coming back,” student Andrew Kent said. “He’s just such a warm person, and he’s a jokester, always playing great music — great rock n roll — which I can get behind.”
When Gamaldi’s rent tripled in 2015, Cradle of the Sun seemed likely to close like
many other small businesses on 24th Street. It almost seemed par for the course for the neighborhood, which had in recent years lost the toy store The Ark, Noe Valley Music and Noe’s Bar.
Gamaldi informed his students that he might have to move out.
“I cried when I got the email,” Strickler said.
But when an affordable storefront opened in Ingleside, Gamaldi spent three months designing and preparing a new workplace. He and his students carefully moved more than a thousand pieces of glass to the new location.
“If I had known how hard it was, I’d have probably thought twice,” Gamaldi said.
Gamaldi’s location at 2377 Ocean Ave. has more space than his previous location, allowing him to increase class sizes from six students to nine. Although there is less foot traffic, he appreciates having fewer interferences. The back porch provides a place where he and his students can scrub putty off their compositions outside.
“Now that I’m settled in, I’m very happy to be here,” Gamaldi said.
Elaine, Gamaldi’s wife, helps him sell works as gifts. Every winter, the Gamaldi family, students and their families crowd inside Cradle of the Sun for a holiday party with dinner, desserts and a margarita machine.
"I am having too much fun to think about retiring,” Gamaldi said.
Cradle of the Sun is located at 2377 Ocean Ave. and can be reached at 415-585-7667.
