The Commission
This window was commissioned for an exterior
living room window in a Phoenix residence. It took
14 months (not including designing) of trial and
error and 270 kiln firings. Some pieces were fired
once, others multiple times either to layer the paint
or to redo overfiring, crazing, exploding or other
firing mishaps. The owl, for instance, was layered
with ten firings. Every piece except the sky, of
hoarded Fischer opal (handblown German antique),
was stained, etched, or fused.
Techniques
Techniques incorporated in the panel include glass made by fusing Bullseye frits over clear compatible
sheet, masking, sandblasting, then filling in with fused clear frit (Saguaro, Palo Verde, dragonfly,
Tree lizard). Also used were traditional silver stain (fox and owl eyes, Palo Verde blossoms), Reusche stains
and Fuse Master transparent enamels. Some stained pieces were free hand painted from photographs
(fox, ground squirrel, woodpecker) while others were stippled after projecting opaque photographs
over a layer of dried stain (snake head, rocks, mountains, log). The Canyon Tree frog was one of the
most complex elements. The eye is made of dichroic over black glass, doubled up over a black blank.
To simulate the reticulated iridescence of the frog eyes, the dichro was heated in a torch and stretched
(which thinned it out, hence the double thick black). Stretching broke up the metallic surface of the dichro.
The pupil was sandblasted to remove the dichro, then firepolished when fused to the clear body of the frog.
Warts were made by beading up various sized clear frit in the kiln. The beads were glued to the body and
fired until the warts started to melt in. Then the whole piece was washed with Reusche paint, stippled and fired.
All fully fused pieces were over sized to accommodate any beading up. They all had to be trimmed,
along with most other pieces. Almost every piece was cut after firing using a diamond glass saw, which
I normally shun. But the time involved in each piece required a sure-fire method of cutting. I didn’t loose
a single piece with the saw cuts (thank you, Taurus ring saw!). The panel is assembled using black backed
copper foil reinforced with copper restrip throughout. It measures 34” x 45”.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Joseph Cavalieri who gave me abundant encouragement from one who struggled
through the same learning process. I also want to thank my husband, Michael, for putting up with my
endless bouts of frustration, and who is my severest critic and could send me back to the cutting table
with a singular look. I also must thank my customers who exhibited extreme patience over the course
of the production of what turned into my “monsterpiece” because it consumed my life for over a year.
It was a love/hate affair.
