Category Archives: Glass

Stained Glass and Paint Bring Out the Best in Each Other at River Wind Art Glass

"Ghost Wolf" in painted stained glass by Karen Cannon and Anne Meier-Davis

Karen Cannon and Anne Meier-Davis combined their skills in painting and stained glass to create “Ghost Wolf,” one of their earliest collaborations. (Photo provided by River Wind Art Glass.)

Two years ago, Anne Meier-Davis was creating stained glass art in her studio at the north end of College Avenue in Fort Collins. Stained glass had been her medium for about 20 years, but not always in Colorado.

Anne had recently arrived from North Carolina, where she had collaborated with other artists on a variety of stained glass projects for residences, businesses, and churches. She missed having someone who could bring detail and depth to her stained glass work by painting on glass.

Meanwhile, in a studio nearby, Karen Cannon was creating fine art paintings of animals — sometimes whimsical, sometimes serious, always remarkably true to physical form. The two women had barely met before Anne asked Karen if she would consider painting on glass. Continue reading

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Adagio Art Glass Means Business

Fused glass hardware and tile samples by Adagio Art Glass

Adagio Art Glass provides sample boards of fused glass hardware and tile to dealers across the United States. Mary Barron, the artist behind Adagio, offers each design in numerous colors. (Photo by Rick Barron)

Adagio Art Glass is a name known to tile dealers across the country. Around 100 of them carry display boards of its fused glass knobs, pulls, and accent tiles. But Adagio Art Glass doesn’t manufacture the hardware on an assembly line. Each piece is created in the hands of artist Mary Barron at her Fort Collins studio.

One of the practical advantages of handmade hardware and tiles is that customers can order any size they want. Mary even makes handles large enough for refrigerators when customers request them. If a handle must pull a lot of weight, she backs the glass with metal so that the metal bears the stress.

Mary’s work with fused glass extends far beyond hardware and tile. But helping customers bring the beauty of glass into their kitchens and baths has been one of her great pleasures since she started Adagio Art Glass in 2003. Continue reading

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Glassblower Dottie Boscamp Gives a Modern Twist to an Ancient Art

Contemporary work by Dottie Boscamp has  ancient roots.

Over the centuries little has changed of the tools used to create blown glass objects like these by Dottie Boscamp.

Before I started learning about artisans and their work, the only breakthroughs I could have named that brought more goods to more people would have dated from the Industrial Revolution . . . the wheel and agriculture being my only exceptions.

Reading about potters’ wheels last month, I learned that mechanisms to increase their rotating speed had created a mini-Industrial Revolution a few millenia ago, making it possible for many people to own pottery. This month I learned that what the mechanized potter’s wheel did for pottery, the development of glassblowing did for glass – to some extent, anyway.

Glassblowing replaced fused glasswork as the most widely practiced glass craft of artisans in ancient Rome. Coveted objects could be made faster by blowing than by fusing, and that meant that more people could own them. Nonetheless, glassblowing was a painstaking craft, and only the wealthy could afford the results. (Thank you, Wikipedia.)

It still is a painstaking craft – and a very hot one at that. I was grateful for the cool morning air the day I went to LaPorte, a small town northwest of Fort Collins, to watch glassblower Dottie Boscamp at work. Continue reading

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The Bead Stringer: A Glass Act

Gayle Stringer's handmade glass-bead jewelry

Handmade glass beads made these necklaces stand out at The Bead Stringer booth at Loveland’s Art in the Park.

As I wandered through art festivals this summer in Boulder, Loveland, and Fort Collins, I noticed numerous booths where artisans were selling their handmade jewelry. Most of the designs I saw were made primarily of metal . . . some were artfully arranged strands of gemstones . . . others were combinations of metal and gemstones.

Then I fell on the booth of The Bead Stringer at Loveland’s Art in the Park. Gayle Stringer’s stunning glass beads, the only ones I had seen in my wanderings, drew me in for a long, close look.

My eyes soon fixed on the necklace pictured above at lower left. Close up it looked as if she had embedded small white flowers in glass.  “How did you do it?” I asked her. Gayle did better than tell me – she showed me. Continue reading

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KDD Fused Glass Studio: Where Science Works Magic

Sample Projects at KDD Fused Glass

The KDD Fused Glass studio delights the eye with samples of items visitors could make.

When Kathi Dougherty opens the garage door of her Fort Collins home, guests are in for a treat.

Brightly colored glass sits on shelves and hangs from pegboards all around the walls.  The designs, the shapes, the mix of colors give new meaning to the expression eye candy. This is the KDD Fused Glass studio, where Kathi works and shares her passion with others.

Getting In on the Magic of Glass

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