It’s like a big puzzle, a 30,000-piece puzzle.

That's how many individual pieces of stained glass are held together by soldered iron to make up the 700 windows installed in the new Draper Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One man and his studio were responsible for putting that puzzle together.

Tom Holdman of Holdman Studios in Lehi spent 2-1/2 years working with temple designers, and then drawing, planning, styling, cutting, joining and mounting the stained-glass windows for the new temple at his Thanksgiving Point studio.

A rainbow of color shines through the studio's 20-foot windows as finished pieces hang along one side of Holdman's 20,000-square-foot creative space.

With several projects going on at one time, workers like studio manager Debora Zalazar and her husband Claudio find themselves busy with commercial, private and LDS Church-commissioned pieces.

A small radio plays rock music in the background today, but that's only because the studio isn't working on a church-commissioned window.

"When we work on the temple pieces we say a prayer and ask the Lord to help us," says Debora. The studio bans heavy metal music during work on the temple pieces.

Holdman, 38, makes his way through each station usually with a smile and other times with a concentrated look in his face, ready to make an artistic decision.

He checks in on the light tables and inspects each piece of colored, translucent glass, making sure it is fit for the commissioned window. He stops at the shelves full of large stained glass and holds up large sheets of colored glass, looking for display potential in each hue and shade.

"I love glass," said Holdman -- an obvious understatement. Holdman has been working with glass for almost 25 years.

"I felt moved and that I needed to work with glass," Holdman said. He was introduced to the stained-glass medium by his art instructor James Cloward at Orem High School. "From there I just really enjoyed it," he said.

Cloward, a trained stained-glass artist himself, became Holdman's mentor through all four years of school.

"Tommy just had so much fun with it and really got in there," said Cloward, still excited about Holdman's success more than 20 years later.

Holdman turned his parent's Orem garage into a stained-glass studio while in high school, dedicating most of his free time to the art. His father, accomplished landscape photographer Willie Holdman, had trained Tom and his three other brothers on form, composition, color and line while on hikes trekking through Utah's backcountry, carrying their father's gear. All of his brothers would eventually become artists.

Holdman has operated his studio in several locations in Orem, Vineyard, American Fork, Highland and most recently at Thanksgiving Point, since he returned from his mission in Dallas, Texas, in 1991. He spent the next several years knocking on doors asking homeowners if they needed stained-glass work done in their homes. He did so well with privately commissioned work, in fact, that he left his studies at Utah Valley State College to pursue glass art full time.

It wasn't until 1995 that he saw the opportunity that would eventually shape his career. The Orem Library's large windows along the west side were calling out to Holdman.

"I saw that big window and thought about how wonderful it would be to see fairy-tale stories in that area," he said.

The library couldn't afford the project, but Holdman was so dedicated that he found donors himself.

"I had never done such a large-scale window. I was doing homes!" he said, still surprised that the library allowed it. "They put a lot of trust in me."

The piece would subsequently lead to Tom's first contract with the LDS Church for the Palmyra Temple, his famed First Vision window prominently displayed therein, which in turn led to 13 other temple contracts and world-wide recognition.

Holdman's next large project is "The History of Knowledge and Written Word" a 200-foot-long piece that has been contracted for the Digital Learning Center at UVU. "This will be my Sistine Chapel," he said. Holdman is planning for at least two years to complete the UVU piece.

But all of Holdman's success has not been easy. He suffers from a serious speech impediment that hinders his ability to simply get out certain words and sounds. You don't notice it right off, but in a split second he will begin to stutter at the start of certain words (usually the "K" sound). He heaves, tilts his head back, closes his eyes, concentrates and eventually gets the word out and continues his conversation right where he left off.

"That weakness has now turned into a strength," he said.

Cloward remembers Holdman's stuttering, and how it held him back in school. Holdman found a way to communicate his feelings through stained glass.

"Around the world they can hear me through my artwork," he said. "I don't have to be in the same room with people to speak with them."

He credits Jesus Christ as his ultimate source of inspiration for his talent and triumph over his speech impediment.

"His approach to stained glass was sacred," Cloward said. "Tommy chose religion, things that were uplifting and positive."

Perhaps that's why Holdman has sought so many contracts with the LDS Church. His studio has worked on all the historic temples including Palmyra, Nauvoo and Winter Quarters.

"Every teacher dreams of a kid to go on and become exceptional," said Cloward, who worked with Holdman many sleepless nights on the Nauvoo windows. "I claim him as one of my No. 1 prodigies."

"It's a humbling experience to be an artist and to feel that you are inspiring others," said Holdman, whose office and studio are decorated with drawings, renderings and photographs of his most prized works of art in temples throughout the world. "I say that my favorite (piece) is the next one I'm about to work on"

Info Box:

• www.holdman.com for more information on the studio and more photos of Holdman's pieces.

• Visit the studio in person at 3001 N. Thanksgiving Way in Lehi, across from the red barn.