My fascination with how colors, patterns, textures and light play
against each other has drawn me to the medium of glass. Glass allows me to use
all these elements to develop brightly colored images to tell a story or evoke
a feeling. Sometimes the stories or thoughts are personal or based on nature,
but they can also be fragments taken from stories I have read. Through my
personal experiences, I draw on moments in time where I have experienced life’s
emotions or transitions. These perceptions are developed into designs or
illustrations to convey that moment. When an idea is formed from a story I have
read, I interject a personal ingredient to make the story my own.
The influence of architectural rendering and
drafting techniques are emerging in my illustrations with the use of weighted
lines and shading detail. Using powdered frit glass I am able to create flowing
illustrations with depth of color and freedom of design. The images are created
as line drawings which are traced from the reverse image onto a clear sheet of
glass with a paste of powdered glass. I use a strong black line as the primary
outline for the major parts of the image. I use thinner lines often with color
to add secondary features and accents. The image is then filled in using mixed
colors of powdered glass to achieve the desired depth and shade of color. When
all color is filled in, a coating of clear or white powder is layered to
entirely cover. This is then fired in the kiln to a lower temperature to tac
the glass together before the image is then turned over and fully fused
