About My Glasswork

Firing glass to temperatures of over 800 degrees Centigrade can be both exciting and challenging.  Glass can be extremely unpredictable and volatile and great care needs to be taken when cooling (annealing); most of my kiln firings take a minimum  of 22 hours!   I use Bullseye hand rolled art glass, which I purchase from Warm Glass in Somerset, for most of my designs. This is a high quality art glass with a huge range of  colours and forms. 

The pieces of work I create are made from at least two layers of glass, sometimes with items included between the layers and sometimes with items placed on the surface - occasionally both!   Glass Powder, Stringers (long thin sticks of glass),  Confetti (fractures of very thin glass) and broken glass fragments are sometimes used on the surface of a piece of work and when fired in the kiln fuse fully into the surface. 

I create designs with Glass Powder onto pieces of glass to be fired in the kiln  at a 'tack fuse' temperature; this allows me to create additional elements to include in a piece of work, such as those in some of my Panel Dishes.

Inclusions can be metals, such as copper, brass and aluminium or a specifically produced form of coloured paper called  'Glassline' paper.  I occasionally use Mica (a mineral) powder as an interesting inclusion.  The use of  copper and brass is particularly exciting as the brass reacts in a different way when it comes into contact with copper!  Special care has to be exercised when including metals as they have a different coefficient of expansion to glass and therefore require particularly careful annealing to prevent fractures when cooling.

Having been fired to a 'full fuse', dishes are returned to the kiln for a 'slump' firing at a slightly lower temperature when the glass bends and takes on the form of the mould it is resting on.

My glass kiln!

Confetti

Tack fuse panel

Copper & Brass

Slump into mould

About My Jewellery

My Dichroic Glass jewellery is created by fusing together either two or three layers of  art glass - a base glass (for the pendants), a Dichroic Glass layer and a cap of clear glass.    I like to create unusual shapes for my jewellery pieces which are fired in my kiln to a 'full fuse' temperature of around 800 degrees centigrade.

The main characteristic of Dichroic Glass is that it has a transmitted colour (where light passes through the glass) and a completely different reflective colour (where light reflects off the glass).  Furthermore, these two colours shift, depending on the angle of view.  With the play of light, together with its vibrant colour, Dichroic Glass is the perfect material for stunning and exciting glass jewellery.  Dichroic Glass is a multi-layer coating placed on glass by vaporising quartz crystal and metal oxides onto the surface of the glass in the form of a crystal structure - there can be as many as 30 layers of these materials with a depth of approximately 35 millionths of an inch!  The coating that is created is very similar to a gemstone and was originally created for the aerospace industry.  I use CBS (Coatings by Sandberg) Dichroic Glass which is a high quality Dichroic Glass.

I refuse to compromise my glass with anything less than solid Sterling Silver, therefore, my glass pendants and earings are completed with quality solid hallmarked Sterling Silver findings.  Pendants have a heavy silver leaf bail attached for the necklace to thread through and each earring has a small silver leaf bail and jump ring.  The silver earring wires are a fish hook style with the extra finishing touch of a silver bead and wire.  Purchasers have a choice of Sterling Silver snake necklaces in two weights (1.4mm and 2.4mm) or a quality silk or black rubber necklace with Sterling Silver fastening.

Photographs by Jacqueline Abbott

Glass before fusing

CBS Dichroic Glass

CBS Dichroic Glass

Sterling Silver findings