SOLD-Bright Reds, Oranges, and Yellows

This bowl is so simple, and yet so eye catching, colorful and interesting! It stands out with bold color on the top, where I used cherry red, red opal, orange opal, tangerine, light orange and marigold frits. The bottom shines in gold-bronze-ish mica. The shape is just barely slumped. Very unique!

3 Saucy Sushi Dishes

Here are three petite sushi condiment dishes for the roll fanatic. Perfect for any dipping sauce (like my favorite-Wasabi) or even small little nibbles (like Wasabi covered peas, another favorite of mine) to go with your meal. I suppose if you were feeling imaginative in your cooking, or if you don't like sushi, these could be used to beautifully display other condiments like olives, tapenade, oil and herb dipping sauces for bread, horseradish sauce, mustards...as you can tell I like to cook, AND the list is endless.

I am currently working on some sets to go with these three little dishes. I will make sets of four in each design and sell them in sets rather than individually. For now I just wanted to show them off. I hope you like them! Look for sets in future postings!

Large Dark Blue Swirl Bowl-Matte

Don't let the picture fool you-this baby is pretty big! It measures 7 x 7 inches. What is so interesting about this bowl is the matte finish on the inside, which is bordered by a thin strip of shiny glass right around the edges. Truly amazing. The outside is Amazon Green glass, which is bolder than the pastel green in some of the other dark blue swirled pieces you have seen on my blog. Still nature inspired, but more midsummer as opposed to early spring!

Again, you can see the raindrop pattern I added to the design to give it that watery feeling. This bowl has it all-texture, color, and style.

SOLD-Dark Blue Swirled Bowl and Tile Set

These pieces were sold as a set recently. The small bowl rests on the tile to make a lovely nature inspired display of glass. The bottom side of both pieces is a light pastel green that just peeks through the swirled dark blue glass above. As detail, I added some "raindrops" to the pattern. These pieces are serene, like water and rain and wet leaves.

Sky Blue Prototype Small Bowl

This is another prototype bowl that is a winner for our sculpture. This bowl is made with sky blue frit instead of the deep aqua and is no less beautiful for it. We will be using different blues for the sculpture, hence the differences in the prototypes. This piece is also made with copper leaf and frits, and has a silver mica back. It is slightly smaller than the other prototype, but was slumped over the same mold so holds the same shape.

SOLD-Prototype Small Bowl

I call this a prototype bowl because it was designed for a sculpture that Chris and I are working on. Our new sculpture is inspired by water, and will combine steel and glass in a cascading pattern. We still haven't decided if it will be free standing or if it will be a wall mount sculpture. But I digress. I made several 4 x 4 glass prototypes of the "water" we will be using for the sculpture and here is one of the winners. For the sculpture I will not be using 4 x 4 pieces most likely so I slumped this prototype into a small 4 x 4 bowl.

The back of this bowl is silver mica. The inner layers are made of copper leaf, deep aqua and blue orchid iridized frit, and it was fired at a lower temperature than I would normally use for a full fuse to capture a bit of copper oxidization. Overall the effect is amazing. From the sides of this bowl you can see layers of copper and frit, magnified by the clear glass I used.

The best part about this bowl is that it is an inspiration for a much larger sculpture. It is part of the art process that just happened to look so awesome on its own. You will see this design again!

Sorry all prospective buyers, this bowl is sold. Fortunately the sky blue version is still available. Please see my next post.

Swirled and Textured Plate

This plate was so fun to make! It started with a wire melt, which is the oblong swirled piece of glass you see in the middle. I fused the wire melt onto dark purple glass and added frits all along the outside. I used Red Opal, Orange Opal, and Marigold Opal frits all in coarse to mosaic sizes. I fired it at a low temperature (this is relative) so it was more than a tack fuse, but less than a full fuse (the low 1400s). By firing at a lower temperature, I maintained the textures of the wire melt and also the frits. And the texture of this piece is so much the charm! I slumped it into a sushi style plate.

Alfonse Maria Mucha, 1860-1939

Czechoslovakian Alphonse Mucha was THE Art Nouveau artist. In fact, Art Nouveau was termed "Mucha Style" for a time before it was termed "Art Nouveau". Most of Mucha's Art Nouveau style work was produced commercially, and in his life, Mucha sought to distance himself from his commercial art. He believed commercial art was a betrayal of fine art and he hated to be considered a "sell out" essentially. He believed that all art conveys the spiritual and comes from within, but much to his chagrin, the fame in his life came from his commercial art, leading to great frustration for the poor man.

I admire the Art Nouveau style and you can see it in some of my work. What I am drawn to is not the images of Neoclassical women, or the pastel colors, because neither of those inspire me much, but it is the way nature is portrayed in this style that truly appeals to me. In each photo I have posted, take note of the trees, the leaves, the flow of nature that runs through each piece. Again, this liquidity and swirls of color can be translated to glass. Glass is a liquid medium (some would say a highly viscous liquid, or better yet, an amorphous solid) and that is what draws me to it. It is unlike any other substance on this planet. When I see nature represented with such flow, it reminds me of the beauty of glass, and better yet, what I can do with it!

So while Mucha didn't fully appreciate Mucha, he was a pioneer in art who continues to inspire artists to this day.

Steve Tobin: Metal Sculptor and Inspiration

Every once in a while I post another artist's work that inspires me. This is a sculpture made from cast bronze letters that were then welded together. Lucky for me I live only 20 minutes away from Steve Tobin's workshop so I can drive by and ogle his sculptures as often as I like! The other day when we stopped by, he was out in the yard welding something that is sure to be ingenious like everything else he does. If you live near the Quakertown area, be sure to drive by Tobin's, you won't be sorry. Check out his site, which has more info about him and also more photos of his excellent work, at http://www.stevetobin.com/. When you check it out you will see that Tobin has used glass in his work in the past, and used it very well. Glass and metal are natural companions and I admire those that see the compatibility like Chris and I do. You will be seeing a lot of sculpture coming from our studio in the future as we blend the two mediums together.

For a Wedding

These two pieces, a votive holder and resting tile, were commissioned as a wedding gift. The groom I am told is interested in martial arts and meditation, cool colors. The bride likes iridized and dichroic glass, and is also an accomplished artist, art critic, and jewelry maker. I blended the two styles together as well as I could to make this gorgeous set that is a combination of cool colors in a very peaceful and watery design, with an iridized backing that shimmers and shines. I hope they both enjoy these pieces for years and years to come! Congratulations to the bride and groom!