Design Concepts and Technical Information
Life as we know it, is a continuous series of moments. Each moment is richly filled and influenced by the past, present and future. Essentially, each moment has a life of its own. The "Of the Moment" series represents a view of a moment.
This series is created from fused glass. The facial images have been penned and shaded with vitreous paint and underglaze crayon and pencil. The base glass (bottom-most glass) has been fitted together so that the separate pieces will merge together during fusing. The decorative elements on the base glass are sand carved prior to fusing. A clear lens is placed over the base and fired in a glass kiln to about 1500 degrees F.
While in the kiln, the glass expands as it approaches the softening point. Often this results in a painted line being dragged, broken or rearranged. I consider this to be part of the ‘life’ of the piece. Also in some cases, I choose glass that can ‘trap’ the air between the layers of glass. This gives me an added design element from the trapped air bubbles.
After the initial firing, the piece is returned
to the kiln and is slump formed into the shape of a shallow bowl. Each
firing, along with the annealing cycle takes approximately 10 hrs. The
last decoration is sand-carved into the surface of the vessel after the
firings have been completed.
Earthstar
Glass