I use pieces of glass and/or ground glass to melt together or melt onto a glass sheet to create a landscape, seascape or underwater scene. I am not typically using paints or enamels on the glass. It is more painting “with” glass rather than painting “on” glass. Photographs I’ve taken are often the source I use in creating my fused glass landscapes, seascapes and underwater scenes.
The abstract glass art pieces in my collection include fused glass wall art, stand-displayed art, sculpture and decorative bowls. I take great care with my combinations of colors so as to produce rich, vibrant and interesting hues. Whether in my abstracts or nature scenes, I frequently use the juxtaposition of complementary colors to provide the greatest contrast for interest and take advantage of the effect that colors have upon each other to strengthen my compositions.
In my glass art studio I also use “fused glass” techniques to create functional glass art and glass jewelry, such as dichroic glass bowls and fused glass pendants. Flat pieces of glass are cut into shapes that I create, placed in layers inside a kiln, sometimes augmented with bits of ground glass as additional design elements, and melted together or fused at between 1425 and 1480 degrees Fahrenheit. This fusing process was used by the Romans and Egyptians 4000 to 5000 years ago. Little used in the glass industry today, it is a method enjoyed by glass artists to create unique glass art, jewelry, and decorative utilitarian glass objects.
The very brightly colored glass is a special glass called “dichroic”— from the Greek words for “two-color.” First developed in the space industry, various coatings on the glass create an interference effect similar to iridescence observed in nature. It produces the unique characteristic of appearing to change the color of the glass when it is viewed from different angles.
