This summer I took the “Fused Glass” workshop at the Sarratt Studio Arts / Vanderbilt University. Our instructor was Nancie Roark, an artist that combines fused glass with silver jewelry techniques to create wonderful wearable art.
It was a fabulous class and I made all kinds of things from pendants, earrings, glass frames, a slumped bowl to a whole new little art-series of “BUGS”!
Here is one of the “bugs” I made, used as an illustration for a web-e’Stamp!
More of these will be coming up…
“The Glasshopper”
• fused glass illustration printed as an archival pigment print, 100% rag paper
Grasshoppers have two pairs of wings, five eyes and no ears.
They hear with an auditory structure called “tympanum”,
that is located on their two front legs near the “knee” joint!
Fused glass is glass that has been fired in a kiln at a range of high temperatures.
Most contemporary fused glass methods involve stacking, or layering thin sheets of glass, often using different colors to create patterns or simple images. While fused glass techniques are generally used to create glass art, glass tiles and jewelry.
The slumping process allows the creation of larger, functional pieces like dishes, bowls, plates and ashtrays.
There are 3 main distinctions for temperature range application and the resulting effect on the glass:
• low = “slumping” • middle = “tack fusing” • high = “full fuse”
This is one really neat “glasshopper”, Lisa. And a great eStamp, too!
wow! that is so beautiful. i would love to see it in person. 3D art is so fascinating.
I love the Glasshopper both in concept and completion. What a wonderful and whimsical creature to have patroling one’s glassware.
Best,
John