Carrying on the American Studio Art Glass Movement!
Welcome to Studio Glass Company! I apprenticed in art glass making in the 1990’s in the hot shops of Santa Fe, NM, and have been exploring this demanding and beautiful material ever since. Pittsburgh’s manufacturing history and tradition of innovation has awakened my admiration of the 19th-century glassmakers like Lalique, Tiffany, and Gallé. While I've lived and worked here in Pittsburgh, I have become inspired by the juncture of functionality and elegance in the lighting, housewares, and architectural embellishments these artist-designers pioneered that can be seen throughout our city.
I see my work as emerging from this movement; my designs are steeped in this tradition but are deeply influenced by contemporary technologies that incorporate new processes and materials, especially powder printing on glass.
Powder Printing is an adaptation of screen printing techniques that replaces ink and paper with powdered glass and sheet glass. I begin by digitally manipulating images taken from the living world around me or from historical photos. Just like in traditional screen printing, each image is broken down into its constituent colors, screens are produced, and then placed above a layer of flat sheet glass. I create the image by forcing powdered colored glass onto the sheet glass, which becomes the canvas for the design. When fired in the kiln, the glass particles fuse together, and the resulting glass panels can then be used flat or set up over ceramic or metal forms and heated until they slump into desired shapes.
