Florida Keys glass artist, Alison Schaeffler-Murphy, has been working in the medium of glass for over eighteen years. She first became interested in glass while earning her art educators degree at Florida State University. This "love-affair" with glass began with the realization that glass offered the artist a clarity and brilliance of color that could not be found in any other art medium.
Alison originally worked with glass creating "one-of-a-kind" stained and leaded autonomous and architectural scale windows for private homes. Twelve years ago Alison became intrigued by the "hot-glass" movement influencing the creations of other contemporary glass artists. She studied fused glass during some glass workshops held in Central Florida, acquired a kiln, and began incorporating fused glass into her leaded glass panels. Today Alison still creates these innovative stained glass windows but has become equally enamored with the expressive possibilities of creating contemporary fused glass jewelry and other decorative art designs.
Fused glass creations are exciting, spontaneous, and somewhat unpredictable. After designing, cutting, and assembling the glass the artist must be very precise with the temperature, timing, and rate at which the glass is fired. This is where unpredictability comes in. Glass fusers say .. "never deny what the kiln gods give you" because the heat inside the kiln causes the glass, in it's molten state, to move. Very often, when you open the kiln your designs and colorations have been slightly altered. It is not until after the work comes out of the kiln that the truly magical qualities of the glass are illuminated.
Working with dichroic glass makes the process of fusing that much more fascinating because dichroic glass reflects the light of one color and transmits light of another hue. Thus, the glass appears differently depending upon the angle at which it is viewed. Although these jewelry creations are rendered in color scheme series each individual piece of jewelry is unique because each jewelry creation is part of a limited editions series or it is a unique one-of-a-kind expression.
Alison's artwork is available at finer art galleries throughout Florida. Visit the following art galleries to discover the true beauty of Alison's kiln formed and stained glass creations:
Artist In Residence Gallery Coconut Grove, FL
Artists In Paradise Gallery Big Pine Key, FL
Bougainvillea House Gallery Marathon, FL
Glass Canvas St. Petersburg, FL
Gallery One Naples, FL
Glass Reunions Key West, FL
Museum of Arts & Sciences Daytona Beach, FL |
