The Color of Prayer

In the western world we're used to the idea of seeing stained glass in churches. People even sing about them. But in Israel, for many generations, most synagogues were small, poor and without much decoration. Fortunately, glass art, particularly stained glass, is becoming more popular and I've been privileged to create glass art for 2 synagogues.

My first commission was for a family who wanted matching, but not identical, panels to commemorate 2 family members who had fallen in the wars. (One panel is shown above). I'm not sure there was any aspect of this project that wasn't challenging! They were - and remain - the largest pieces I have ever made, each about 2 meters across. Designing them was tricky - the client had a very definite idea of what he wanted - and changed his mind 4 times. In the middle of the project he changed the size, which required that I recut some of the pieces. I didn't have any place to easily store the larger pieces, and once accidentally stabbed myself in the leg with a particularly pointy piece. (I still have a scar). I didn't have a work table large enough so pieced and soldered the panels on the floor of my display room, with the door locked so that no one could enter and trip over me or step on my work-in-progress. Transporting them was the worst - we had to find a vehicle with a long cab and I prayed all the way to the framer that we wouldn't hit a pothole. Prayer was probably appropriate since they were eventually hung on a synagogue wall.

The second synagogue commission couldn't have been more different. The clients wanted windows depicting the Jewish holidays and holy days, gave me bare bones of design requirements and left the rest up to me. They ordered the windows in sets, as they gathered donations, and over the course of 2 years ordered 12 windows. The biggest challenge was creating so many windows over such a long period that looked as if they belonged together.

There is something undeniably pleasurable for me in making windows and then seeing them installed with the light streaming through, be it for private homes or public places. From design to installation, I think the toughest part is always delivering the windows. I'm always terrified that they will somehow be broken on the trip (they never are.) I'm afraid the clients won't like them (they always do). And I always wonder if I'll see them again, and if their new owners will enjoy having them as much as I enjoyed making them.

The Golden Glow of Dichro

Us fusers love using glass with dichroic coating (commonly known as dichro). Dichro is created by bombarding plates of glass with metal ions until an ultra-thin layer of metal is created on the glass surface. (Don't try this at home, folks). When the glass is moved, the angle of light changes, and the color shifts. We're not talking about dark blue to light blue, but orange to purple, blue to gold, etc. Dramatic color shifts.

Specialists who create dichro ramble on about reflected light and absorbed light. That's more technical than I can understand. I do know that when I fuse the glass, the metal melts and cools at a different rate than the glass, so the metal spreads out a bit and stands up, giving my piece the amazing illusion of 3D depth. It also heightens the color shifts.

Dichro can also be used "as-is"in stained glass, as in the panel on the right, Leaves in Her Hair. In this case there is no melting so no depth, but the color shifts are still very dramatic (as you can see) and there is an interesting metallic sheen on the glass pieces.

Tips for glass artists:

• always cut dichroic from the back. Even so, when you grind, expect some chipping of the dichro layer, so be gentle with the grinder!
• If you want to use dichro in lampworking, cut your scraps into thin strips and handle the with tweezers. Heat them slowly in the coolest part of the flame and do your best not to put the flame directly on the dichro coating, only on the back!
• an excellent source of scrap dichro: http://www.dichro-wonderglass.com/ . When you buy scraps you let them know if you need thick or thin (buy thick for stained glass, thin for fusing and lampworking), black or clear back, or specific COE's. These guys give great service!

First Blog, First Love

I'm admitting it. I'm addicted to glass. (I'm also addicted to popcorn, if that matters.) This is my first blog ever and I'll try to keep it up with stories about my creations, other people's creations, tips and tricks for glass artists, and photos of my work.

My real name is Cecilia, and most people call me Cec. I live in Israel and I am a glass artist. I have a small, packed, studio and dreams of expanding my space. When I first started working with glass, I was living in a very tiny house - less 40 meters (about 350 sq feet), with my 4 children - and there wasn't room for a studio, so I turned one of the bedrooms into a studio and put my mattress under my work table. Every night, before getting into bed, I had to shake off all the glass splinters and pick off any spatters of solder that had landed on my blankets.

What does it mean to be addicted to glass? Well, some women love shoes - I have a friend with perhaps 100 pairs in her closet. I might even have 2 friends like that. I, on the other hand, have 1 pair of decent tennis shoes, 1 pair of hiking boots with torn and knotted laces, and a worn pair of black dress shoes that I purchased almost 15 years ago. They serve me well. But if you leave my closet and wander on down to my studio, you'll find that I have at least 5 different kinds of glass, in every color imaginable. I have materials for creating stained glass, for lampworking and for fusing. I have rods, sheets, and old bottles. I have some really cool tools and lots of findings and things like crystals, fossils and some ceramic fairies that I once thought I might figure out how to incorporate into a lamp. I am insatiable, and sometimes impractical, when it comes to stocking my studio. I go without food when my bank account is low, but I never go without glass. I also cheerfully go into debt to buy glass but then, with the price of art glass (particularly here in Israel), how could it be otherwise?

If you're not yet convinced, I also dream about glass at night, fantasize about sucking on or even eating my lampwork beads, and hallucinate about melting glass in times of high physical and emotional stimulation (you work that out for yourself since this is potentially a family blog). I don't care about cuts, burns, getting stabbed while working - I once leaned over to examine something and effectively stabbed myself in the face with a drying mandrel - or the stains on my clothes. When I think of glass, none of that matters.....

As far as addictions go, I think this one is pretty harmless. In fact, I think I've made some pretty nice pieces and have even passed on my intense love of glass to many of my students.

You can see my "real" website at http://www.cdesigns-isr.com/ There is a gallery there, with some of my older pieces. There are also links to some of my internet stores and you can find my newer pieces there. And eventually - like, maybe, tomorrow, I'll figure out how to add photos to my blog!

Are you a glass artist? Please comment and query and let me know that I'm not alone in the universe!