FUSED GLASS DESERT DIORAMA, PT. 4
Before assembling the finished desert scene layers, I wanted to build one more optional layer that could sit in front of them all and emphasize the voyeuristic feeling of peeking through a…
FUSED GLASS DESERT DIORAMA, PT. 3
I kicked off this layer with test samples of various green sheet glasses and stringers to see which color combos, sizes, and placements would work best for the interesting cacti textures that I wanted to serve as the focal…
FUSED GLASS DESERT DIORAMA, PT. 2
The midground layer of this piece actually consists of two glass layers fused into one. Although visually there’s no reason that the dark brown mountainscape can’t just be a single piece, the cuts dividing it into three serve a very important function…
FUSED GLASS DESERT DIORAMA, PT. 1
This project was meant as a glass artist’s take on the diorama, which to me, is a window into another place or time—a world within a world. As an ultimate endpoint, I envisioned an entire wall hung with dozens of little diorama boxes, each one depicting a slice of scenery with a…
BUILDING A TORII GATE ORNAMENT
To create a background for the torii to be fused onto, I cut and shaped a black ring to an exact 1/8” width, and then added a white circle that fit tightly within its center. I fused these pieces together at a full fuse firing schedule. I opened the kiln to an unfortunate unintended result: the post-fuse circle had…
FUSING FISH IN FRIT
As an artist that prides herself on attention to detail and exactness of design, the fact that glass expands and contracts as it heats, sometimes causing entire millimeters-worth of deviation from a pattern, plagues me with many a sleepless night. Recently, while contemplating this persistent vexation, I wondered whether a solution might…
DESIGNING A JAPAN-INSPIRED ORNAMENT
Technically, I don’t take commissions outside of pet and wedding portraits. However, every once in a while a client will approach me with a proposal that tugs at my artistic inclinations too strongly to refuse. In this case I was hooked by a request for a Japan-inspired ornament. I’ve been intrigued by Japanese culture since…