How my pieces are constructed
The video above shows how Fused Dichroic Glass works. My work is the perfect blend of engineering, artistic vision, and blind luck. I start with a large disc of dichroic glass, The disc runs the entire spectrum from one side to the other.
Then I break the disc into a bunch of pieces of various sizes and shapes.
The glass is clear, and the colors almost invisible. So we liberally sprinkle these pieces all over a sheet of black glass to give the Dichroic chunks a background to stand against, and suddenly their colors jump out at you!
Once I’m happy with the layer of rainbow pieces, I cover it with a sheet of clear glass and drop it all into the kiln, leaving it there for 3 days at 1,800 degrees. The glass melts and merged into a single sheet, which is why this work is called Fused Dichroic Glass.
Now comes the luck. The process of heating, melting, and cooling down shifts the color of the pieces I dropped in. I can’t be at all certain what I’ll find when I open the kiln, and its both a surprise and celebration every time.
What makes these handmade jewels so beautiful
I’ve been working in this kind of glass for nearly 30 years and I have a hard time explaining why I love it so much. I know It’s partly the brilliance, and intensity of color, but there’s more.
Another part of spell they weave, is the intricate patterns and shapes of the pieces themselves, it’s so easy to get lost in their beauty.
Perhaps the thing I find most beautiful about my pieces, is the way people’s eyes light up whenever they try one on. We talk about what the piece means to them, and it becomes personal. It never fails to make me happy how people enjoy my work.