Working with glass fascinates and challenges me. It’s like painting a canvas that I bring into three-dimensional form.

 

My nature and abstract designs are multilayered compositions comprised of glass fragments and shards that are cut and shaped by hand, fine glass powders sifted from my crushed pieces, and a variety of components such as curled glass strings and accents that I cut from cane and rods of glass. Each design is 'painted' onto a glass canvas and then fired at temperatures reaching up to 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit. 

 

My sculptures are all about constructing something from scratch, piece-by-piece. These works are free-formed with individual shards of glass, carefully arranged and layered to create their organic shapes. Because each one is constructed without a glass foundation, this technique requires a delicate balance of space and weight in the layers in order to successfully withstand the firing process while forming to its intended shape.

 

In my newest series, Crystalline, each sculpture is crafted entirely with small fragments of glass that I crush into different sizes, sift, and then layer in varied densities shaping and forming as I go. Many of my designs feature open cavities that allow the glass to stretch and drip into areas as it becomes molten, while still holding to its planned formation. This technique is my most difficult. It's a risky balancing act to avoid collapse and meld properly during the firing process, but each and every attempt is a quest that I love.

 

Depending on design complexity, it can take up to ten days to complete a single sculpture from concept, preparation, design and construction, firing cycles, cold working and the finishing process. Each sculpture is an individually crafted work of art. No two are ever exactly alike.

 

For all of my works, forecasting how the glass will pull, expand, and meld during the heating and cooling cycles is essential from the start. It's like working backwards. Ultimately, my process is a creative fusion of prediction and precision. Sometimes I get it right and sometimes I don't, but the risk of failure never outweighs my love for the challenge.