Garden Glass
Garden Glass Studio is located on the banks of Milk Creek, on the verge of the Cascade foothills. This quintessential Oregon landscape with its pine, fir, cedar, and dogwood trees, along with trilliums, wild lilies, and other native plants, animals, and fish, informs many of the designs produced in the studio. Beyond that, the everyday beauty and serenity of this setting inspires the guiding principle of Garden Glass—that the best way to meet the challenges of modern life is to elevate ourselves with beauty and joy in even our most humble tasks. The goal of Garden Glass is to reflect the color and grace of our landscape in original, useful artglass for the home.
Fusing glass is a multi-stepped process. Dessert plates begin as a single layer of glass to which design elements are added. Plates undergo two firings in the kiln—one to tack-fuse the design elements to the base plate, another to shape the plate on a mold.
Larger pieces take progressively more steps to make. All serving pieces begin as two sheets of glass which have been completely fused together. This not only makes them much heavier than the dessert plates, but gives them nice rounded edges. To this base the design pieces are fired. Sometimes this requires several firings, as different glasses melt at different temperatures. The major design pieces are cut from sheets of glass, but often accent elements are created from glass rods using bead-making techniques before being added to the plate design. When the design is finally complete, the piece is slump fired into a mold. Garden Glass fans are also made using this multi-stepped process.
Garden glass plates and bowls are meant to be used often and will last many years if treated properly. Fused glass is safe to use with all foods. Just rinse with warm soapy water and dry with a soft cloth. Avoid steel wool and scratchy cleaners. Although art glass has been heated to almost 1500*, it is not oven-safe. This is not because of the heat of the oven, but from the thermal shock that results when the dish is removed from the oven. Likewise, although the glass could be washed in the dishwasher, eventually the detergents used would dull the finish. For similar reasons, art glass is not guaranteed in the microwave.
Custom orders and orders for matching or coordinating sets are always welcome. Special original design requests may also be negotiated.
The artist at Garden Glass Studio is Nicole Burdette, who taught English for fifteen years and before that worked in apparel design. She holds a BA in textile design from UC Davis, a BS in English from PSU, and an MAT in English from Lewis and Clark University. She has been a potter and a weaver as well as a glass artist.
As we all know, life is brief. Our wish for you is that you may make the most of each day and live it in beauty.
Nicole Burdette: Glass
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Read a news article about Nicole at this LINK!
