Museum of Glass Red Hot Juried Art Auction

The other day, my good friend and potter extraordinaire Katie Jahner tipped me to a show at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA--the Museum of Glass Red Hot Juried Art Auction. It looked really interesting (and it was free to enter) so I put together an application and sent it off. I entered the piece you see above, Reflections of a Parallel Universe. This was a really fun piece to make, and I'm glad that it will soon be at a show where many people can see it and be able to buy it.
I started out with this piece by sculpting a head out of clay. I then made a mold of the head and cast it in wax. I used the wax, in turn, to make a special plaster mold that would stand up to the intense heat of glassblowing. I then took a hot gob of glass and blew it into the mold, thereby recreating the head I had sculpted in a hollow bubble of glass (Shortly after I blew this head in the mold, the mold broke, so it is the only one of its kind!)
My roommate at the time had recently taken a class where they mirrored the inside of a flask with silver nitrate. I contacted his professor and his TA's were kind enough to show me the reaction and let me perform it on this glass head. I now had a clear glass head mirrored on the inside with silver. I mounted the head inside a hexagonal box that I made and it was done!

Well, I'm excited to box this bad boy up and send him off to Washington, but sad to see him go at the same time. I'll let you know how the show goes in September.

Blown glass

In addition to beads, I also blow glass. When Krista came over to take pictures of our recent bead work, we talked her into taking pictures of my blown glass items. Here they are:

More (cooler) beads

I thought these beads (and the pictures of them) were so cool they deserved their own post. They were created with ivory glass and silver. The glass has a very strong reaction with the silver and creates an intricate webwork of lines and colors. The largest bead in the set is average marble size (maybe 1/2 inch or 5/8 inch in diameter). Krista, our photographer, pulled out all the stops (and the macro rings) to get these shots, and they turned out awesome! Enjoy.

And now, the beads...

As promised, I am posting more from our photo shoot with Krista Wahlquist. There are some really good shots in this group (because Krista is a really great photographer). We will be at the Provo Farmer's Market every Saturday through October, so you should come check these out in the flesh! The Market is located at 100 South and 500 West, Provo, UT. It runs from 9-2 every Saturday, so come check it out!

This is a piece we made for a show in the Covey Center for the Arts, Dreaming of Spring. It has over 20 handmade glass beads with sterling silver beads and findings.

This is a closeup of a floral pendant. I make these in all colors and sizes, but this one was the best example. The pendant is only about the size of a penny or a nickel, so you can see the huge amount of detail for such a small space.

This is a set of blue charms. The fourth bead from the left is a floral bead. With the charms, we string a lampworked bead with some accents on a headpin. These charms are extremely versatile and work great as pendants, as matching sets, on chain, on cord, on necklaces, bracelets or earrings.

Here is an example of two sets of charms: one purple and blue, one pink and green.

Some charms on a loose, dangly bracelet.


This is a great example of some of the new necklaces we are making. We cluster 4-7 charms together on a chain to create a unique sort of pendant. Because the beads are constantly rolling over each other and changing positions, the necklace never looks the same way twice.


This is a necklace we made with opalescent green glass mixed with adventurine.

This is an example of some of the different, fun types of beads we make (L to R): landscape, apple, hollow heart, pig, bird, turtle, pumpkin, tree, turtle, candy.

A close up of some of our birds. These are very popular.

This is a multi-strand necklace with ten purple on purple glass beads. Thanks to Becky for being the model.

This is a fun necklace that combines glass, wood, chain, ribbon, and pearls.

This is a really cool necklace that I made for Becky for Christmas two years ago. There are three pieces: a bracelet, a shorter necklace and a longer necklace. Each component can be worn separately, or they can be linked together to create a really long necklace. Nearly infinite combinations!

Here is a closeup of the bracelet that goes with the above necklace.

Here is a fun necklace with green and purple glass beads, pearls, chain, and ribbon.