Blog

March 2023

OK, I’ve been living the cliché about the shoemaker not having shoes…. As a marketing consultant/executive, I’ve written enough web content over the years to make me almost phobic about launching a website to showcase my glass. Delay, avoid, procrastinate – guilty as charged!

But to everything there is a season – and here we are….

The funny thing is,  I love talking about glass and the process of making fused glass pieces.

So, let’s make this fun for both of us  – you, the person curious about fused glass, and me, the artist. What I do know are the questions people have asked me over the years:

What’s the difference between fused glass, stained glass, blown glass – and is there any other kind of glass work that we should know about?

I’ll start with some basic q/a and then add periodically to talk about special techniques – using reactive glasses, layering with tints, what happens with fusing/slumping etc and then I’ll focus on specific pieces that I’ve made.

Along the way, I can highlight any demo’s, classes or in-person opportunities that you might be interested in attending.

If you have specific questions, please feel free to write them in comments section (Home page).

What’s the difference between fused glass, stained glass, and blown glass?

Artists use different tools to work with these three very different forms of manipulating glass but one huge difference is the temperature it’s handled.

Stained glass is cut and assembled without heating it in a kiln or furnace. The artist has a design and cuts glass.  Then, the artist assembles the design using grout or copper foil or lead to hold the glass pieces together. Copper foil and lead came need soldering (and heat) to keep the pieces together.

Many people are familiar with blown glass through popular TV shows or seeing a glass blower at a local fair. Typically the artist is gets the glass to a molten state – in the range of 2400 degrees, and uses a big furnace to keep the glass hot and malleable. Since glass blowing involves a large furnace and other heating and cooling chambers, it is typically done at a studio.

Fused glass is the process of joining multiple pieces of compatible glass in a kiln, typically working in the range of 1450-ish degrees. We can fire multiple times to join, texture and shape the glass.

Other popular forms of glass artistry include casting glass and flameworking.

Curious about any of my work? Ask away.  Questions are fun!