Fused Glass

Glass is endlessly amazing.  It can be made in any color, or it can be perfectly transparent.  It can be easily broken, but it will last virtually forever.  Handmade glass beads have been found in the sands of the Middle East that are tens of thousands of years old. 

When I was a small child, I was fascinated by the glass marbles that I inherited from my older brother.  Not as a competitive sport, but I was a spaceman exploring exotic new planets and imagining landing and exploring them.  Many years later, my wife and I bought an old Victorian house in the outskirts of Boston which, of course, needed very substantial rehabilitation.  And it had not one pane of stained glass anywhere.  I eagerly sought to make my own windows and learned very quickly that glass is quite easy to work – if you know how!  If you don’t, it is very unforgiving, and more than a little dangerous.  I was fortunate that the local adult education programs periodically offered courses for stained glass novices like me. 

Many more years later, I was contemplating retirement with the awareness that the things I wanted to do in my next life required skills that were far beyond my capabilities.  But I was a member of a local group of glass artists – real professionals who made a living at it – and formed some wonderful friendships.  I was fortunate to be able to transition out of a grueling professional work life and do a mentorship with a fabulous glass artist in Pawtucket, Rhode Island – Penny Faich (“The Glass Act”).  For the next few years, it was like graduate school all over again, and it changed me from a semi-serious dabbler to a relatively serious dabbler.

Today, I consider myself to be a “glass fool.”  I spend a lot of time in my studio on a daily basis, often exploring ideas that come to me at that magic hour of 3 AM.  Sometimes they work out, and more often, they don’t.  But I don’t really care as long as I get to explore things.  I really don’t try to do production work or commissions because I have been pedal-to-the-metal all my life, and I just want to enjoy myself doing things that I love.  My studio is an uncontrolled jumble of materials, tools, and projects in process.  Just the way I like it.