Helpful Information

 

All photographs have been only digitally watermarked with the artist’s name: M Melissa Childers. That name is definitely not written across any photograph as it might seem in the website photographs.

 

All works of glass art do have a small signature etched into the glass by the artist. Photographs will have a small acid-free penned signature.

 

All measurements of glass art are given up to the next larger 1/8” that includes the dimensions of the artwork.

 

The dichroic glass used in some of this work is a special brightly colored glass developed by NASA that has the ability to display more than one color from a single piece of glass. The word dichroic derives from a Greek word meaning “two-colored.” Dichroic glass comes in a variety of colors and can be described as a color-changing glass.

 

The glass is coated with oxides that are vaporized by an electron beam while in a vacuum chamber, which gives it shifting colors depending on the angle of view.  It can display one transmitted color and a completely different reflected color.

 

The prices of these glass art pieces are determined by a multiplicity of factors that might not be immediately apparent to the first time viewer. In order to have the ability to be heated, “fused” or melted together, and cooled in a kiln, the glass must be manufactured to have the same coefficient of expansion (COE) so that it does not break or become unstable after firing. The pieces would shatter as the different types of glass cool. The variety of colors made available to the glass artist is a function of the chemicals used in their composition and is based on a constant process of research and development. Some colors use more expensive chemicals in their composition than others, so prices of the glass colors themselves vary greatly. The chemicals in some of the glass colors can react with the chemicals in some of the other colors, so extra time and care must be taken during the creative process to not allow those colors to touch.  When using ground glass or “frit” these colors cannot be simply mixed together as one would mix paints to accomplish a desired color. Reactive colors mixed together turn brownish rather than retain their original colors. Separately, the treating of some glass to take on the bright dichroic colors provides an additional expense for that glass.

 

The cost of the art is also a function of the time required to create a design, since the pieces of glass or ground glass must be laid down color by color, frequently on different firings so they don’t unintentionally get mixed together and alter the design. And some designs are far more complicated and labor-intensive to create than others. The frit must be laid down fairly thickly to produce the desired color or the color remains quite faint, and the thickness required can be determined by experience and frequently necessitate multiple firings. A single firing of the kiln can take from about 14 hours to several days, depending on the thickness or variability of the thickness of the glass, a time during which nothing can be added or removed from the kiln.

 

A single firing can only include art pieces that will be fired to the same ultimate (or “process”) temperature because different process temperatures accomplish different results.  For example, a “full fuse” that would yield a fairly flat, totally melted together, smooth surface is accomplished at a higher temperature than the firing that allows smaller pieces of the design to remain raised a bit above the base in relief (or ”tack fused”), or for frit to remain in impressionistic multicolored lumps of glass this artist uses to render texture and coloring in a different technique.  This mid-range temperature can also be used to “fire polish” or change a matte surface to a shiny one, and to gently round the edges of the piece. Even lower is the temperature at which a glass piece is melted or “slumped” to a particular shape over a mold. So each of these desired results require totally separate firings to different ultimate temperatures.

 

It is natural for bubbles to be trapped inside the glass during the firing process (the glass sheets even start with some bubbles from the sheet manufacturing process itself), and creating a glass piece across multiple firings may be part of the design plan for limiting the bubble flow. The appropriate firing schedule of times and temperatures must be carefully chosen or it can damage the art piece irreparably, thus negating all the creative time and effort.