I am currently exploring ways of using my fusing and cutting skills with flat glass and mixing that up with my painting (not so skilled, ha ha) on watercolor on paper. My ideas of mixing the paper and glass have been in the beginning stages since I first thought of it in November of 2011. There was a brief period of 15 months before that when I was staying in a cabin on the Fox River in Wisconsin where I was mixing photography, painting and mixed media. I felt I needed a break from jewelry production and wanted to explore. These efforts looked something like this.
I had just gotten my new iphone 4 and started photographing the river and was coming up with some really great nature photos. I started seeing white sticks laying in piles next to the river and when I inspected them they had little teeth marks on them. The beavers were busy munching! I used these sticks and since I was close to Lake Michigan I started collection driftwood and rocks fromt he beach and was using them as well. These efforts I labeled as "netski artworks" and tried to sell them at farmers markets but they were a bit arty for that crowd. You can see more of them here.
So when I got back to Georgia in the summer of 2011 I kept up with my glass jewelry and kept thinking about the wall work. Then I was inspired by a friends fused glass work to put the glass on a surface and have it framed. That's what opened me up to mixing the glass with the painting. I started building these "faces" and sort of stuck with that for some time while I was getting used to the change. In the meantime I kept up the jewelry making and I still do. Hard to let go of a well established career and pieces I also love to make. Here is one of my early efforts.
Now I am moving into other designs that don't have faces on them and have even gotten into using words in my pieces. They are a lot of fun to make! Still, I have a desire to grow this idea and have been attracted to many other glass artists I have seen using glass and painting.
Most of these people are using glass ENAMELS which are crushed glass applied to the surface piece of glass. One of my very favorites I found on Facebook is an artist from Edinburgh Scotland named Rachel Elliot. I love her simplicity of designs and the fact that she used very cool shapes to enamel her patterns on. (which is another blog entry, water jet cut glass... but lets not go there now!) Rachel is silk screening here patterns with glass enamel onto her shapes and firing them on. I really love the effect. Here is an example of her work and you can find her here.
Then through the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts page I discovered an artist who is just now opening a show at their gallery, Joseph Cavalieri, is showing his glass etchings and screen printed enamels. This just really started to get my head spinning about printing on glass. Which is what I had been thinking about anyway since I took silkscreen printing in college (UW Madison) with Professor Dean Meeker. Here's Joe's work.
Of course, this is not a new thing, images on glass. It's age old all the way back into mediaeval times and the cathedral windows. Ever since I became aware of contemporary art glass I have been a huge fan of Judith Schaechter who is a stained glass artist extroadinaire! I must say though, her imagery is rather dark... which makes it so much more interesting! Check out her website!
So all these possibilities have my interest in creating images on the glass and on the paper. Or maybe just on glass? I'm not sure yet. It's a journey for sure. There is glass, there is crushed glass (enamels) and there are different ways of mixing them up. There are also glass decals which are used widely... a commercial process that can instantly transform a piece of glass. Such as this pendant here, found on this website that has glass decals available.
It's an exciting time for me. Nevertheless, my jewelry calls! I am currently building a new online store I am calling Mod Glass Girl. Check it out! ModGlassGirl.com! It's new! lots more to do... OH, TWO CLASSES COMING UP......................SIGN UP HERE BEFORE THEY FILL UP! 
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