Steph Mader
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New Work Goes to the Gallery

4/4/2018

 
I've been concentrating on making some free-standing glass landscape sculptures. Here are the new pieces going to the Rob Schouten Gallery in Langley, on Whidbey Island. I love the way they glow when they have light streaming through them.

There's a whole room full of glass in the gallery - all sparkly and vibrant. It's worth a trip to see.
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Through the Valley, 17x8x4
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Rise Above, 15x7x3
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Summer Fields, 15x7x3
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Solitude, 14x8x3

Next up: Working with Frit & Powders Workshop, March 10-11

2/17/2018

 
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Time to get all geeky!

Yes, we all know glass artists are kind of nerdy about technique. Here's a chance to embrace your inner scientist and make friends with glass volume, particle size and heat. 

How about a little frit sculpture? Doodling in frit is a lot more fun when you harness the heat! Knowing exactly what/how much/how long will make you positively drunk with power.

Then, make cullet pieces (I call it "erosion glass") with random holes that mimic nature's patterns. Add powders for an enameled look. This will be your new best friend for using up glass scrap.

Plus, take the guesswork out of glass lace. There's only a teeny bit of math, I promise. Face your fear and do it anyway. We'll all help each other out.

Come play in the studio!
Steph

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New Commission Landscapes

2/1/2018

 
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I just finished a commission for a very nice person. I always make two versions of the piece, so she'll be able to choose the one she likes best.

These two landscapes recall high mountain meadows, with a bit of mountain range, distant hills, water and dark evergreens.

They are now mounted on "floating" fir bases. I am very pleased with the way they turned out. Fingers crossed - I hope she'll be very happy with the one she chose, below.
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The workshop schedule for spring is complete - watch for the newsletter  -

All the Best
Steph

Another Great Fused Glass Workshop

8/29/2017

 
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We just wrapped up another "Working with Frit and Powders" workshop.

It is just a big old bunch of fun every time. The random goofiness of the forms makes every kiln load a surprise. What a wonderful group of people - many thanks for a great workshop.

The next one is scheduled for October 28-29, 2017. There's still time to join us  in the studio, I'd love to see you.  Details are on the workshop page.

Also - thanks to all who came to the open studio tour last weekend. It was nice to meet new people and see old friends. And it was great to have an excuse to clean up the studio. It doesn't happen that often. Right now it looks about twice as big as it did two weeks ago. I'll enjoy it until it fills up with piles of art stuff again.

Hope to see you -
Steph
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New Work from Steph Mader Studio

7/25/2017

 
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New things are cookin' in the studio. I've been planning to do more sculptural work for a while, so I've been sketching away, considering new forms.

It all started with this fabulous (yes, I just used the word "fabulous", don't judge) stainless steel slumping mold. I had it made by a local metal shop. And since I'm a geeky glass girl I find it quite exciting. I also received cowboy gear instead of dolls when I was a child, but that's a story for another day.
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I've been dwelling on atmospheric effects like fog. I hope it's not some unconscious connection to my... um... maturity. So I started working on a large horizontal foggy piece, planning to drape it over my shiny new mold.

Here's the piece in the kiln, surrounded by dams to keep it from spreading out. It's pretty thick at this point, about seven layers. In this image it's receiving the last layer, a clear cap on top of the finished piece.
Here's the finished piece, still flat but showing the layers of foggy goodness back to the horizon. It's a little hard to see, but there are lots of tiny trees way in the back.
I placed the mold in the kiln and balanced the big old heavy piece of glass on the mold (it looked like a teeter-totter and was a little scary).
The piece behaved nicely in the kiln, slowly draping itself over that nice curve as it softened in the heat.

I built a wood base with feet from a really nice piece of clear grain fir. Yummy. The warm colors in the wood base echo the warm colors in the foreground of the piece.

It needs a name and a signature and it's off to the gallery tomorrow morning. I hope it finds a new home.

I see more fog in my future.                                    Wait! That doesn't sound right.

Kiln Carving is so much fun!

6/26/2017

 
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Just a quick report on the Kiln Carving workshop last weekend - so much fun! My fellow art-makers really made it worthwhile. They were curious, slightly goofy & meticulous. That turned out to be the perfect combination of qualities.

We got a chance to work on positive/negative coaster designs, single-layer and double-layer fiber patterns for tiles. Then we shifted gears a bit and did some powder pieces, both over cut designs and packed into open patterns.

I love that moment when you open the kiln to reveal everyone's work from the day before. It's just like Christmas morning. I just wanted to share photos from the workshop so you can see how great they did!

Next up:
Layered landscape intensive
July 12-16 - I can't wait!

I hope you're getting some art time in this summer. And I hope I get to see you August 26-27 for my open studio!

Steph
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Kiln-Carving - Low and High Relief Techniques Workshop June 24-25

5/11/2017

 
Spring workshops are going great. I am having such a fine time hanging out, making art. I can't imagine anything better than being with other creative folks, exchanging ideas.

Next up: kiln carving! A few years ago I decided I'd write a book about kiln carving and bas relief techniques. I explored every facet of carving I could think of and made samples to fine-tune the techniques. I was nearly done, but life had other ideas and the book had to wait.

The upside is that I have a lot to share.

Even simple designs cut from fiber paper make striking glass work. Pack the cutouts with glass powders, apply paste relief, mica or metal foils and you'll produce something really special.

It's easy to work big with kiln carving, too, if you're thinking about architectural glass.

No glass experience is necessary, so if you're working in a different medium this is a good chance to try something new. I provide lots of designs to use, or you can design your own.

Come join us if you can, I'd love to see what you come up with. The workshop is June 24-25, more info on the workshop page. Contact me, I love to chat about glass!
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Sgraffito Glass Workshop Coming up May 20-21

5/3/2017

 
Wow, it's been a long time since I taught  sgraffito. After making hundreds of pieces for shows, I took a turn into other work. I'll be tuning up my skills this week in preparation!

There's still one space left in the May 20-21 workshop. It's always fascinating to see what participants come up with and I don't think there's ever been a bad workshop piece come out of the kiln. It's surprisingly easy to make something good with this process.

I always come armed with lots of designs for you to try, or you can bring your own, or just draw on the spot. The glass blanks are all fired and ready to go - all you have to do is scratch away.  We can fit a bunch of art in my big old kiln...
see you there?
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More Workshops Coming -

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Kiln Carving  - coming up June 24-25

I think this is the most underrated technique in fused glass. You can make such impressive glass work, even if you don't have any experience. Make glass that mimics cast glass, pate de verre or sand carving. It's great to combine it with other techniques.

Give it a try!


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Layered Glass Landscape Intensive - Coming July 12-16

If you've been wanting to learn how these landscapes are made, here's your chance!
This jam-packed workshop is challenging and will send you home with a ton of new skills.


See the workshop page for all the details.
Hope to see you this summer!



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Working with Frit & Powders - coming up August 12-13

Here's another chance to catch this workshop. The last two were so much fun and there were some really interesting projects coming out of the kiln!

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Wrapping up the Layered Landscape Workshop

4/21/2017

 
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 I just wrapped up the April Layered Landscape workshop, so I thought I'd share some images. Every single person did great work.

Here are the finished pieces - the larger ones were used to teach techniques for capturing realism in glass and the smaller ones were an exercise in atmospheric effects.

We started with the same inspiration photo, applied some painterly rules & tips, and each person made the composition her own.

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Here is a shot of the pieces in progress. It looks like this was layer three of the larger pieces, loaded in the kiln and ready for firing.  The smaller atmospheric pieces have the layer two fog and middle-ground trees built.

The dams prevent spreading as the glass gets thicker.

We spent a lot of time learning to pull stringers in the torch - the smaller pieces have three layers of trees in different colors to capture perspective in the fog.

Here are the smaller pieces loaded in the kiln for their last firing.

There's nothing better than hanging out in the creative think-tank of a glass workshop!

Many thanks to my wonderful participants.

"Working with Frits & Powders" Glass Workshop April 28-30

4/17/2017

 
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I'm getting ready to teach a "Working With Frits & Powders" workshop on April 28-30.

The last workshop was so much fun, I thought I'd post a few images.

It's amazing how many things you can do with a little scrap glass, frit and powder. Once you understand the principles behind  the glass volume/heat equation, you are queen of the studio.
There is so much to know about glass. To operate with any control at all, you have to embrace your inner glass geek and learn a little about the technical side.

This workshop explores one really interesting aspect of fused glass work - the control of glass movement - in particular, the equation between particle size, weight, volume and heat.

We explore several techniques with a variety of glass sizes from cullet to powders.
Large cullet produces large, irregular holes that look eroded and echo the patterns of water puddles or lakes from the air. As you use smaller and smaller particles, the patterns change.

There are some fantastic techniques to use with finer particles - you start to get more and more control, until you can sculpt the frit into curvy patterns and sea shapes.

If you're interested, check out the workshop page on my site. I'd love to have you here with me in the studio!


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    Steph Mader is a full-time glass artist living on Whidbey Island in Washington State.

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