It all starts with light. Light defines our world – most of what we know about our surroundings is visual. One aspect of light is color, the human eye can see about 7 million different colors.
Glass is a special material. It can be transparent, translucent, or opaque. It can be made in any color. When light encounters glass, some is always reflected – even with transparent glass. And light is refracted, or bent, when it passes through glass.
The combination of these light transforming properties, along with color, creates an infinite spectrum of delightful viewing.
Glass fusion is joining different pieces of glass together by melting them. This is done in a kiln at high temperatures – glass melts around 1400 degrees Fahrenheit. Glass is brittle, and will break with uneven heating, or if heated or cooled too quickly. Most of my pieces will spend about 30 hours in the kiln.
My background is in computer science and technology. We generally don’t think of computer science or IT people as creative. However there is a significant creative aspect to many of these jobs. Anyone who builds or modifies software uses a creative process. And good IT people solve problems in creative ways. Now that I’m partly retired, I enjoy applying my creative energy to something more tangible.