Nancy Luce sees stained glass patterns in black and white, but when Arlene Walters looks at the same patterns, she envisions them in color.

"I can look at the design and I can pull glass out," Walters said. "That's my favorite part."

The women, both of Moneta, complement each other by each bringing a novel perspective to the Smith Mountain Lake Stained Glass Group -- a small group that gathers once a month to share ideas, offer advice and swap secrets about the art of working with stained glass.

The group gathers in Luce's basement studio, where it is hard not to be inspired by the tranquil view of the rippling lake on a breezy, sunny afternoon.

At this month's meeting, the group met to brainstorm ideas for a stained glass piece to be donated to the Smith Mountain Lake Association.

Last year, they donated a piece of their work to the American Cancer Society's Discovery Shop in Moneta. The shop held a raffle for the piece and raised $1,000.

The five members who attended the meeting at Luce's home agreed on a lake sunset landscape that would feature a mountain, the lake and a dock with a heron on it.

"Your assignment is to watch sunrises and sunsets," Luce told the group.

She wanted the group to look at reflections on the water and come up with ways to reproduce them using stained glass.

Luce volunteered to draw the design before the group's next meeting.

"The design, to me, is the hardest," Walters said.

Luce, of course, disagreed.

"Oh, the design is the easiest. Getting the glass is hard," she said.

Marian Kern of Union Hall settled the debate by telling Luce, "You design it and we'll find the glass."

That's when the minor complications came in, but it was nothing the women could not handle.

The group has approximately 20 members but there are no membership dues. No dues means no budget, which can be a problem when the group wants to work on a project such as this one for the SMLA.

"My job is to use up the glass in this studio," Luce said.

So she and other members of the group donate glass from their personal inventories to use for the projects. If any additional glass needs to be purchased, the women decided to collect a small amount, such as $5, from the membership.

"What we really need is a stained glass studio at the lake," Luce said.

The closest place to buy stained glass is Salem. There are also shops in Christiansburg and Martinsville.

The group intends to finish the piece for the SMLA by June so the group can begin its raffle during the tourist season.

While Luce and Walters might have the most experience, Doris Neudorfer of Huddleston has been doing the "old type" of stained glass since the 1970s.

Dorothy Williams of Hardy has been working with stained glass for six years and took two classes before moving to Southwest Virginia from Maryland. Williams stayed after the meeting to discuss plans for her front door and two sidelights with Luce and her husband, Bob Luce.

Kern said Nancy Luce taught her most of what she knows about stained glass.

"We all started out as beginners, but there was no medium or advanced class," Nancy Luce said.

As a result, the group came up with their own way to teach and learn from one another. Together, they have become stained glass artisans.

For more information about the Smith Mountain Lake Stained Glass Group, call Nancy Luce at 721-6109.