Processes
As a guide to describe the processes used to create the work you see on my web page I will explain the following terms:
Fused Glass
Glass that has been heated in a kiln to temperatures between 1250 F and 1525 F to form layers or to apply designs or to shape the glass into dimensional forms.
Kiln
An appliance used to heat glass to temperatures where layers of glass melt together or slump (sag) into a mold.
Pattern Bars
Glass that consists of different colors of glass strips fired together in a bar and then cut with a tile saw into chunks or wafers. The chunks or wafers are fired again in certain arrangements that create complex designs.
Printmaking on Glass
The printmaking technique I employ most frequently is silkscreen printing using glass powder instead of ink. The imagery is prepared on the computer, “burned” onto a silkscreen coated with photo emulsion, and glass powder is pushed through the screen onto a sheet of glass which is then fired in the kiln. With proper preparation, photographs and other imagery can be reproduced on glass.
Relief Printing
High fire papers can be cut into shapes and placed under a sheet of glass in the kiln. The temperature of the firing melts the glass around the paper shape resulting in a relief image impressed in the glass.
Woven Glass
Strips of glass are fired over a mold to give a wave design. The waves are aligned so that flat strips of glass can push over one wave and under the next one, creating a truly woven construction. The woven piece is fired in the kiln into a stable flat shape and then fired again into a mold to give it the desired vessel shape.
Sandblasting
Glass is covered with an adhesive backed paper that can be peeled away for successive layers to be ground away with a stream of abrasive grit resulting in dimensional imagery or in a particular finish on the surface of the glass.
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See examples of the many glass processes in our store.Recent Blog Posts

Wall for Hamilton/Walker
These clients has just had a wall constructed and wanted to have decorative tile installed before the color coat was applied. Peace and justice issues were important to this person and she wanted to make a statement in the wall's tile design. After several...

Creating the Photo Transfer “Eugene”
My sister and I were going through family photographs one day and we found a photo of my grandfather in his World War I uniform. I knew my grandfather as a much older man and I was taken by his youth and vulnerability in the picture. As a student of history I also...