A Peek inside a Glass Fusion Studio

Do you ever go on artist studio tours? If you have never been, you should look to see if there’s one in your area. They are quite enjoyable and extremely informative. Nothing beats meeting an artist, seeing their work and talking about their craft. I have not been on a town-wide studio tour since I lived in Maine and I really miss them!

However, I do get to occasionally peer into others’ studios and/or workshops when I travel with Eric. I love being in other artists’ spaces and seeing glimpses of their creative process. Some studios look like mine… stuff everywhere! Also similar to my Aunt Marjie’s studio, that you will see below.

Nonetheless, some studios don’t look like mine at all in that they are spotless and organized — like basketmaker, graphic artist and designer, Tony Stubblefield. Eric teaches a class there over the summer and I literally sit in his studio upstairs, at the back of his house, admiring the huge project table he has and rows of an impeccable storage system. I’m green with envy. But hey, you are who you are and if you create well in semi-chaos, like I do, then you shouldn’t change. Embrace it!

And that’s the same message I send to my Aunt Marjie, down in Florida who kept apologizing for her messy studio! It actually was tidier than mine! I contemplated showing a picture of what my studio and office looks like to make her feel better, but I didn’t want to embarrass myself or Mr. Basketmaker — he has an image to uphold with his precise and perfectly-crafted baskets.

My Aunt Marjie, who just celebrated her birthday on Friday (Happy belated birthday!) is a very talented stained glass artist. I grew up next door to her in New Hampshire and she taught stained glass classes in her home and was commissioned to do huge projects and important restorations. So her work is all over the place. But over the last few years, she has changed direction of sorts. She has been learning and creating beautiful kiln-fused glass art, or glass fusion.

So while Eric was teaching a workshop in Florida, I got a tour of her studio while she showed me some of the pieces she has been working on.

The strawberry plate came from a mold she made from a green plastic plate she had. My photo, unfortunately, doesn’t do it justice! The final plate is really beautiful. I had my camera on the wrong setting when I took that shot 🙁

Then onto my favorite thing to do… be really nosy in her workspace!! Peruse all her collections of tools, the little work-in-progress pieces, the sketches and ideas pinned to her wall as well as the medium of her craft — all the brightly-colored glass.

My favorite piece is the abstract orange tray she’s still working on (above, right). She made a mold from a cast-iron cornbread pan but in the middle of this project, she lent the pan to a friend! So she cannot finish the piece until she gets it back to produce an additional mold that is needed. Honestly though, I had no idea it was unfinished! I thought it was a beautiful abstract piece of art.

Actually, I take that previous comment above, back. This tiny, quirky snowman has to be my favorite piece of hers! She made it for me and Mr. Basketmaker as a Christmas gift. It sort of, in a peculiar way, reminds me of Eric —sans the carrot nose of course. I love it!

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