Avery Anderson and Brock Craig have taught at Vitrum on a couple of different occasions and I was fortunate enough to take their Advanced Fusing 5 day class in 2002. I learned so much from them both and had a great time. Avery specializes in Native American motifs and in wildlife. She uses silkscreening and micas to create detailed, beautiful and colorful images.

This is the plate I made using Avery's techniques. Green and black opalescent. Silkscreened central motif; airbrushed mica design on rim; gold pen embellishments. 3 firings total and a shaping with the wet belt sander.

Among many other areas, Brock Craig works with foils and sandblasted, irridized glass. In the class we made sushi plates with this combination and learned how to cold work the edges. In addition Brock had us add an interesting ripply edge detail.

The "Brock" sushi plate I made. Black and clear irridized, both sandblasted with design. Gold and silver foil between layers, plus clear "beads" around edge. Gold pen embellishment. 2 firings and a stint at the wet belt sander.

Roger Thomas does amazing work. In the first class I took from him, he shared his encyclopedic knowledge of glass through a series of samples we created using various frits, foils, micas, and so on. Too many to put here, but a couple of representative samples are shown below. After the class my mind was awhirl with the possibilities. In the second class, we made several projects that played with different techniques and design possibilities.

Kathleen Sheard creates exquisite wildlife portraits in glass using glass powders and frit. She also works "backwards" (that is, putting the front of the piece face down on the kiln shelf and building up the layers behind) and that is how we constructed our own animal portraits in her class. It is a very intensive technique -- in time, concentration, and detail. But well worth the results.

Murray

Clear glass face plate with various white, grey, black, and blue grey powders used to create shading. Some stringers for whiskers and ear hairs, although these are hard to see in the scanned image here. Amber frit for eye and very pale pink for nose. White frit backing image. 6x6 inches, over 1/2" thick. 1 firing.

Bob Leatherbarrow creates lovely plates, bowls, and other items with interesting colors and textures. He has taught several classes at Vitrum. I've taken his mold making, photography, and "kiln carving" workshops, all of which were very informative. Some of the pictures I've taken using Bob's guidelines have turned out pretty well, despite the fact that I don't have the proper lights and all (yet). The one at right is an example.

Here is an example from the class on "kiln carving", which is a technique that can be used to create a lot of detailed texture.

As for my gemstone jewelry, I've learned a lot from Murph and Barb and Caldron Crafts. They are two very knowledgeable and helpful ladies. I've taken a number of jewelry classes at Caldron and the following is an example of a wire wrapped pendant made in one of their classes.

Rose quartz stone wrapped in several sterling silver wires.

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All artwork, text and photographs Copyright 2003-2005, Terri Hobbs, except where noted. No contents may be used or reproduced without written permission. Unfortunately, I've felt compelled to put a "watermark" on most of the images. I know three people who have had images of their work stolen from the web. If you'd like to see the photos without the watermark, please contact me.