Widdershins Glass

Third out of three panels and on to the cement/putty stage! Next ,to the carpenter who will build a black walnut frame for each panel. I’ll wax the frames and add the hangers. And, finally, I will deliver these babies to their owner!

If flash glass is unavailable simply make your own. Stencil, blasted and waiting for the tracing lines.

Spent a week in Vermont working with Debora Coombs on wet application of stainer on glass. We worked over and over applying light value through paint layers as it pertains to transparency in the glass. I deeply appreciated the lesson on mixing paint properly and the wide ranging applications of paint to glass. I left with her class profoundly changed and for the very first time feel as though I found my voice. I can’t thank my art teacher, Wil Fathi, enough for teaching me the foundational lessons that helped me better understand what Debora teaches in her class. Above all, I met three new friends.

Looking at value scale and line placement on a design for a customer. It’s going to be a very small piece, 10”x8” and 1/2” thick. I see loads of stencil work and considerations in placement for depth perception, which will be a challenge in glass powder in a small space! Let the fun begin!

I never use patterns for the same reason I never colored in a coloring book as a child, I can’t stay inside the lines and I always make adjustments to the given design. Save this lamp shade. Almost ten years ago, I left Baltimore, my job, my family, and my friends and moved back to my hometown in Kansas with my husband to heal and be with our parents. After months of walking around in circles, I determined I needed to get back to my art, but I had no workspace and was living in the middle of a DYI home renovation of my husband and my own making. I determined I had to start somewhere or I would get nowhere. I needed create something even though everything was still in boxes and crates. I opened a box pulled out the Tiffany Spider Web lampshade mold and cut off the last design I had taped on top of the mold and got to work. Using the traditional Tiffany design, I worked within my own exacting parameters, I cut from one sheet of glass, the cuts had to match the movement in the glass, and I couldn’t waste any glass. This allowed me to focus solely on technique and it gave me the structure that my life at the moment was lacking. Every day I escaped to the garage where I had set up an impromptu build table and worked until I was exhausted. Here I could think as I worked. I don’t remember exactly when I finished the shade but it along with a locally made ceramic base sits waiting for me to build the lamp so it can be sold.

A fun, whimsical birdbath made from a 14” square reclaimed (failed) glass square I had set to the side some years ago. I brought it out, fixed the flaws and added more detail, then slumped in to a bowl. I then repurposed a small plant table by molding concrete in the base for stability and weight. I painted the concrete and called my endeavor done! This glass piece can never be copied. Only my fellow fusers know why! 🤭