GLASS PIZZA
As funny as this sounds, Creating a fused glass sculpture is a lot like making a pizza.
The primary foundation of the sculpture is like the crust of the pizza, only in this case it is a piece of glass, generally round and varying in size from 6"-22" in diameter and thicknesses from paper thin to 1/4" thick.
The ingredients of the pizza: cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms in reference to fused glass sculpture are various colors and/or shapes of glass. Each piece of glass having its own color, size, texture and thickness.
The ingredients or components of the sculpture are then layered, piece by piece, onto the foundation and baked in a high temperature oven known as a Kiln. The glass will all melt together at a temperature of 1400-1700 degrees over the course of 20 hours. During this time, the kiln is locked and I have no contact with the glass while it is melting. The melting portion of that time is relatively small, the rest of the time is slowly heating up and then slowly cooling down to room temperature. One of the most important lessons to learn about glass is that it does NOT like to be rushed. It is a long process of cutting, shaping, positioning, heating and cooling, along with the skilled experiences of the artist, that produces the beautiful results indicative of fused glass sculptures.
