Studio Mod Glass - Blog

Custom Order

Sun, 20 May 2012 13:09:47 -0800

CUSTOM ORDER
from DR. CHRIS DOERR
for the
Neurology Campus Clinic reception wall in Athens, GA

When I hosted an open house this spring in my studio in Athens Dr. Chris Doerr and his wife Stephanie arrived and fell in love with my new work. They decided to custom order a piece, based off a smaller work I had on my website and for sale. (which they bought)

"Hey Babe" 2012

Only, they wanted it BIG! (36" x 30") Something totally new for me! (of course I had no idea what to charge) It worked out in the end because he came back to the studio after I delivered this and bought 8 more pieces!

LUCKILY....

I met Kristy Gibson from Atlanta who represented the Arty Surplus Store and a recycled frame was waiting for me. Turns out she worked for a major framing company and she set up a store to sell the overflow frames from their major clients. I ended up driving to Atlanta to have the piece framed for the opening night of the Neurology Campus and I was really in for a treat when I walked into the warehouse in south Atlanta. I got to see a major framing company framing ALL THE ART work for all of the Westin Hotels as well as Holiday Inn and others. True enough, there was a huge back wall of the place with overstock of leftover frames about 15' high by 50' long!

Within a matter of MINUTES I had my artwork professionally framed and I saw all the experts in action. I had a beautiful piece framed and walked out with a GREAT DEAL! I drove directly to the clinic where it was hung for that evenings reception.

Working on the piece.

The face was the biggest I could make with the kiln I have.

Chris wanted a glass heart in the hand.

The healing "energy heart" vibes!

At the factory the mat is cut in minutes by an expert woman.

We then brought it to this woman who had pneumatic tools... blowing out the frame....

In seconds she stapled the tabs on the sides on the frame!

The AMAZING Kristy Gibson! (who also pointed out the Handmade in the USA sticker that accompanies all of their product)

Me at the opening. :0)

The art work in the clinic.

For more info on the framer please check my Links page.

Feel free to check out the piece at the Neurology Campus in Athens GA at
1088 Baxter Street, Athens GA 30606

Making Striped Glass

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 09:07:57 -0800

Striped Oval Cuff Linksshown in cherry, pearl and black

How I make striped glass.
(click on each picture to enlarge image)

How does this happen? It takes a bit more effort than making a flat color.
I wanted to share with you how I create stripes in fused glass.
Enjoy!

I start at the glass cutting table with thin rolled (1/8" thick) flat glass in opaques, transparent and dichroic (metal coated glass) glass.

I use "dichroic" glass as the middle layer to give my colors that reflective quality. I use dichroic glass in most of my work. However, I detest the term "dichroic jewelry." It is glass jewelry.

I determine how wide I want the stripes. I usually have a previous piece of glass I am looking at before I begin.

I use a straight edge and a hand held glass cutter and I score and snap off the stick of glass.

I also have to cut the dichroic strips. It's important to get the stripe widths as uniform as possible.

I start to assemble the colors on a base layer. This is a little square kiln shelf I am building the layers on. It has a separation coating on it so the glass won't stick.

I hand cut all the different stripe layers and assemble them in some sort of order that matches my sample.

I tend to do each color layer at a time. All the elements are down and I cover the entire square with a piece of clear glass to help hold it together as it melts together in the kiln.

This is my baby kiln. I got her at the Salvation Army thrift store in Redondo Beach CA for ten dollars! (they had no idea what it was) The computer that runs the kiln, well, that cost a lot. The computer will run the cycle of the firing for the glass.

You know the tool you can't live without? This is it for me.

Okay, back to the stripes. Amazing. They melted together!

I mark off how I want to cut this puppy up!

Using a diamond trim saw I cut out the shapes I like.

I finish it off by grinding the shape on a flat lapidary diamond wheel. The work goes back into the kiln to polish the edges. Then the glass is ready to be set in silver.
You can see the complete process on my "Process" page.

Thanks for checking in on my website and blog!
I am available to teach glass fusing workshops!
Feel free to leave me a comment!

NEW Website is READY to GO!

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:15:04 -0800

Happy Chinese New Year!
It's Thursday February 3rd and today I am officially launching StudioModGlass.com

It's a site of hand fabricated fused glass jewelry where the buyer gets to choose the colors! I use a fantastic material called "dichroic" glass which is a glass with a metal coating. I fuse this glass in between opaque and transparent colors to give you the highest SPARKLE FACTOR in glass jewelry today.

This is what I've been working hard on this winter. I have been telling folks forever that I need to work on my site. Well, I have. It's done. There's always room for improvement and I will constantly be updating the site with new work and better photos. It's all put together with this fantastic free web building program from Weebly. I photographed most of the work with a $150. Panasonic Lumex DMC-LZ8.(ONLY 5 mgpixel ... now they're 12!) It has a Leica lens so the quality is sufficient for my purposes. The whole site was built on a 5 year old MacBook.
Although, I look forward to getting a better computer and camera sooner than later!

I've linked some of my favorite artists and fellow crafters such as Jay and Janet O'Rourkes beautiful hand crafted wood sculptures, Thomas Mann's well known collection of work and his Gallery I/O in New Orleans, Michele Friedman's amazing felted jewelry, Heidi Paul's reclaimed cashmere clothing, and many more!

As a promotion I am offering a 20% DISCOUNT on all my HEART jewelry until February 9th. So if you want something special ORDER IT TODAY!

Thank you so much for supporting me and my jewelry endeavors. Please sign up to my mailing list and TELL YOUR FRIENDS.

More to come!

xoxo Annette

So guilty. Ready for an update?

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 18:30:09 -0800

This is the time for me to let y'all know I am working on it. Yes. The website. We as craftsmen often are challenged by these seemingly monumental projects. For me, everything is so personal and I am taking the initiative to complete the site before the end of the year. I know, a lot of you have been waiting. So, I guess living in Wisconsin, starting the winter...and living out here in the boondocks is forcing me to PAY ATTENTION! And while I am updating I will be keeping warm with my puppy Barney. (Boston Terrier) with a wood burning stove.
After all.... I can hear my friend Kim's voice in my head... "Annette, if you can Facebook... you can work on your website!" So true my dear.

First Blog Posting - 2010 ACC Baltimore

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:42:29 -0800

Welcome to my new blog! I am starting this with a video of my booth at the American Craft Council show in Baltimore Maryland this year. I just wanted to give you a look into what goes into a big show like this. The jewelry cases, walls, floor, lights and pretty much everything you see is brought in by me. This is usually the first big show of the year and this year it included two days of wholesale and then four days of retail.