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The Art Glass Association is celebrating in April. It is national Art Glass
Month. The association was founded in 1986 and is the largest international
non-profit organization that is dedicated to create awareness, knowledge and
involvement for the growth and prosperity of the art glass industry. Poor
Richard’s Art invites you to meet with the resident art glass exhibitors and
learn about this fascinating medium.

Any use of glass as a medium to form 2D or 3D sculpture is considered art
glass. While glass art has been around for centuries, it did not come to the
United States until the early to mid 1900′s. The second phase of art glass
in the US caught on in the early 1960′s when the movement developed in
design schools. Today, art glass can be found all over the country. Rogers
is home to all aspects of art glass at Poor Richard’s Art, in the historic
Old Applegate Pharmacy building.

While originally applied to church and cathedral windows, exclusively,
stained glass is now available to everyone. The stained glass is created by
adding metallic salts in the manufacturing process. This glass is then cut
into workable designs and assembled using several processes. At PRA, Hank
Barnes uses foil, lead came or both followed by soldering and polishing to
create his stained glass works of art. In fact, each piece is handled 11
times before a work is complete. Hank has been creating stained glass works
of art since 1982. He will be on hand at PRA the afternoons of April 1st,
8th, and 15th to share his work. His work may also be seen at
www.heirloomstainedglass.com.

Another aspect of art glass is glass fusing. While the exact time glass
fusing began is unknown, there is evidence that the technique was around in
rudimentary form over 4000 years ago. When fusing glass, layers of glass go
through three stages in a kiln. The first stage, called slumping, occurs
around 600C. The second stage, called tack fuse, occurs around 700C. The
final stage occurs around 800C. Depending on the art work, all of these
stages may be used, and may be used more than once on a single piece. Ali
Stinespring, working out of her Centerton studio, creates a variety of fused
glass pieces. Ali embellishes her glass stars, crosses, and angels to enable
the user to hang them. She also creates night lights, magnets and her
latest, rings and pendants. She is self taught in fused glass, learning her
most valuable lessons through trial and error.

While Mary Stewart also fuses glass, her products take on a completely
different look. Mary uses a new type of glass called dichroic glass.
Originally developed by NASA for satellite optics, dichroic glass has made
it big on the art scene. Dichro, as it’s called by artists, is formed with
ultra thin layers of metal oxides that are vaporized in a vacuum chamber.
The resulting crystal structure, allows the glass to transmit and reflect
completely different colors as light passes over it. Mary started her hand
at fused glass at a class in Florida just one year ago, and has also learned
by trial and error in her Bella Vista studio. She uses her fused dichroic
glass pieces to create pendants and earrings surrounded by fine silver. As a
master artist in Precious Metal Clay, Mary forms silver embellishments
around the pieces of fused glass she has created. Mary will be at PRA April
6th and 20th to show her fused glass jewelry. Mary’s work may also be seen
at www.stewartsoriginalsilver.com.

Free blowing glass forming has been around since the middle of the first
century BC and is another form of art glass that can be found at PRA.
Blowing glass involves inflating molten glass through a blow tube. Gary
Carter became hooked on glass blowing after seeing a demonstration in 1994.
He began to hone his skills at Terra Studios soon after that experience.
Gary now creates many different pieces of blown glass in a variety of
colors. Gary has won numerous awards and was commissioned by the Arkansas
Arts Council to create the Governor’s Art Awards in 2008.

Lampworking, or glass bead making, is one of the oldest human arts and
another aspect of art glass that is represented at PRA. In the lampworking
process, glass is melted onto a mandrel, worked and designed and annealed in
a kiln. Once cooled and cleaned the bead is used to create one of a kind
works of art. Elaine Riley began glass bead making in 2004, after her first
class. She uses her lampwork beads as the focal point of pendants. They also
can be seen in her cell phone charms and bookmarks. In addition to PRA,
Elaine’s work may be seen at www.elaineriley.com. Elaine will be at PRA
April 18th to discuss her work.

Poor Richard’s Art is a cooperative art gallery dedicated to nurture and
present innovative art of uncommon quality in all types of media by regional
artists, while preserving the Old Applegate Drug Store building. Hours are
9:30 to 5:00 Monday through Saturday. www.poorrichardsart.com

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