Art In The Pearl: Fine Arts & Crafts Festival

Description:

I have a glassblowing studio with a furnace in which I melt clear and black glass. I use other colored glass such as powdered glass (enamels), frit (different sized chips of glass) or bars of colored glass that are incorporated with what is melted in the furnace. At times, I make murrini, complex layered glass rods made in an Italian style, that become inclusions in my work. Sometimes I incorporate dichroic glass, 23K gold leaf, silver nitrate, tin chloride and other materials to produce certain effects. I have been using a fuming technique where I spray hot glass with a metal solution which creates iridescence. Some of my work is cold-worked, cut and painstakingly taken to a polish. I experiment with a lot of different techniques, some of which may have been learned in a class or by quietly watching an Italian master. Some of my techniques were stumbled upon as something that just worked for me! My work continues to evolve as I have the joy of having the glass making bug along with the means to live it out.