This work explores my interest in ideas of self and sensuality; the internal dialogue and the external representation.
Glass is a wonderful and complex material that encompasses many of the same issues that interest me. Like the body, it is a material that is at once extraordinarily fragile and extraordinarily strong; like the mind it can be both transparent and opaque; and, like humanity itself, no matter our knowledge or under-standing glass remains a mysterious thing.
Glass techniques
I started lampworking in 1991 and in 1993 went back to get my BFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design. I am best known (if you can say that about yourself!) for my lampwork glass flower beads which you can find in my Etsy shop (SerenaSmithLampwork). I have also done casting, fusing, pate de verre, blown work, and I have found ways to incorporate lampwork in all those endeavors.
Quite a while ago now, I started making the line drawings (lampwork lines fused onto sheet glass). A couple years ago I started painting on paper again, watercolors, and thought I would try to recreate that imagery in glass, which you can also see here.
I’m looking forward to developing an Etsy shop to display my glass drawings at this year’s Glass Gallery at the Gathering of the Guilds Virtual show!
