Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Why did you start working with glass and why do you always wear a glass butterfly wing ...

Whenever I travel to shows with my fused glass work I am almost always asked by at least one person what got me started in glass work and why I always wear one of my glass butterfly wings, so I have decided to share the answer here.

I have always been fascinated with glass art and wished to take up stained glass as a hobby. After a bit of research my mother and I found a little stained glass supply shop that also had a studio where you could purchase some dichroic glass by the ounce and make your own glass pendants which would be melted in the back studio of the shop. Well we gave it try and it was instant love, so much so that my mother and I went out and bought a little used 4" x  4" kiln and started to teach ourselves how to work with the glass. 

My very first fused glass pendant. 
Yes, for some reason I did believe that glass 
worked on shrinky dink logic. 

After months of grueling trial and error I learning that the thermometer on the kiln was not working properly (the hard way). We finally started to get the hang of it. Even after nearly overheating and ruining most everything I made I still loved working with glass and knew it was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.   

To get started I needed a loan from my family to buy some better equipment and supplies and my mother being the fantastic and clever person she is decided to give me a challenge. I was told to earn that loan I would have to make a butterfly wing out of glass. It took me months of trying to work out a way to do the design work in glass with no classes, tutorials or books to guide me but eventually I managed my first butterfly wing. The rest started to fall in place from there.

My very first fused glass butterfly wing beside a newer one.

Until next time thank you all for reading,
~Lindsey 

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