Creating with glass to be demonstrated at Artisans at the Dahmen Barn

On Saturday April 17, from 11 am to 4 pm, Artisans at the Dahmen Barn presents its fourth annual demonstration day. Each year at the Barn a medium is chosen, and regional artists are invited to join our resident artists in demonstrating their creative process with that medium. In past years we have explored fiber to fashion, wood, and clay. This year it is GLASS! When most folks think about glass art, time-honored stained glass comes to mind as does blown glass. However, there are many other ways to create with glass. Drop in for this free event and see what these artists are up to!

Because nurturing creativity is what Artisans at the Dahmen Barn is about, the artists have been invited to bring work they have for sale and may promote classes they teach. It is our hope that visitors will be inspired to explore working with glass in the future.

Artisans at the Dahmen Barn is in Uniontown on highway 195 in the big white barn behind the famous iron wheel fence. The art center is open Thursday through Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm. There is no daily admission fee and the facility is fully handicap accessible. Information: www.ArtisanBarn.org or 509-229-3414.

See below for demonstrating artist information:

Mardi Bolick from Pullman is a mosaic artist who incorporates glass in her pieces. Mardi has a great time creating using the mosaic technique and taught a mosaic class at the Dahmen Barn.

Josephine (Jo) Brooks is a lampwork glass bead artist who focuses on quality, style, and fun color combinations. She is particularly fond of whimsical sculpted beads such as dragons, bees, and cats. Her beads are made of Italian Effetre (Moretti), German Lauscha, and American glass and are properly kiln annealed for strength and durability, cleaned, and ready for your designs. She made her first bead in 2002 and has been working with fire and glass ever since. Jo is from Troy, Idaho, and is affiliated with the Greymalkin Gallery there.

Louise Colson, versatile artist from Viola, Idaho, will demonstrate fused and slumped glass through finished artwork and a power point computer demonstration. She will explain the process to viewers. Louise was one of the original testers for the Bullseye Glass Company, Portland, Oregon in the early 1980's when the process of fusing glass was being reinvented. She has been making sculptural glass for thirty years, influenced by nature and the beauty of the Palouse. She has used butternut squashes as a mold shape to make larger than life flower petals. With her glass partner, Gina Murray, she has created molds to make 3 foot tall blades of glass grasses, and cast hundreds of pieces of glass to produce ice-like sculptures one inch thick. Her work has been shown in Galleries from Chicago to Seattle, from Moscow to Montgomery. In 2008, Louise and Gina's glass sculptures were exhibited in The Washington State University Museum of Art, Pullman, Washington.

Jim Cooper makes arrowheads from glass using Native American time-tested skills. Jim is from Palouse and will be holding a class at the Dahmen Barn on arrowhead making.

Mo Hendrickson and Aimee Stormo from Strangefire Studio in Palouse will be demonstrating putting custom images on glass. They use any digital file or photograph to put an image on a pendant, bowl, ornament, or other object. They will also be demonstrating the use of glass clay, demonstrating mixing to shaping. Visitors may try their hand at the fascinating clay. Aimee Stormo and Mo Hendrickson have been working with fused glass since the summer of 2009. They fell in love with the medium through a series of classes held in Spokane. They have been continuously working on expanding their abilities and are always pushing to learn new techniques. They recently started playing around with glass clay and look forward to the possibilities that this medium has to offer!

Tracy Randall creates beautiful glass beads by melting crushed glass around short pieces of small diameter copper tubing with a propane or MAP gas hand torch, then uses the beads in jewelry or incorporates them into her textile art pieces. Tracy has been working as a resident artist at the Dahmen Barn since its Grand Opening in 2006. She has her BFA from the University of Idaho and has taken classes in painting, drawing, print making, photography, ceramics, sculpture, and design - but fiber art has always been her love. She enjoys talking about her work with visitors to the Barn. She is in her studio at the Barn most Thursdays and Sundays.

Jackie Ryan says stained glass is like painting with light. It’s a “painting” that can be enjoyed from both sides. Hanging in your window with the sun shining through it and bringing it to life, you see it in all it’s beauty. All the many beautiful colors and textures of the art-glass recreate nature in sparkling colored light. The beveled clear glass pieces glow and throw rainbows onto your walls. Jackie Ryan will be demonstrating the process of creating stained glass artwork using the “Tiffany” method. That method was developed by L.C. Tiffany at the turn of the century and uses copper foil tape around each piece of glass in the design to create a base for the lead-soldered joints between the glass pieces. The demonstration will show each step in the process from design layout, cutting the glass, burnishing a copper foil tape around each piece, soldering each line, adding black patina to the lines, and polishing the window. Jackie Ryan was born and raised in the Palouse country. Having an artistic, creative streak, she has always enjoyed doing arts and crafts including tole painting, sewing, cake decorating, scrapbooking, and watercolor painting. Upon returning to the Palouse country several years ago, she fulfilled a longstanding desire and took a series of stained glass classes from Mary Kernan in Palouse at New Morning Glass. That was her springboard! She has further developed her knowledge and experience by taking classes at the Las Vegas Glass Expo, studying on-line, and creating stained glass artwork for friends and family. This fun, on-going journey evolved into her own small business, creating stained glass artwork in her home studio for sale in local shops, as well as doing commissioned, custom work for homes and businesses.

Sherry Seeh from Clarkston, doing business as Meltdowns, works in kiln-formed (fused) glass. She finds it fulfilling to express her passion for color and texture in this exciting medium. Her work is completely functional and can be worn as jewelry or used or displayed in the home. Sherry says, “I always loved color and fashion but it was not until I discovered glass fusing that I truly found a medium in which I could express myself creatively. I enjoy every minute of it!”

Marlys Seubert will be explaining the process of glass etching showing the various stages of etching the glass, the types of glass and abrasives that can be used, along with coloring of the etched glass. She will also demonstrate glass carving, the equipment used, the resist used and the knives used to cut the patterns out.

Marlys, from Lewiston, Idaho, has been etching glass for about 45 years. She started with etching crème, but was not satisfied with the results. She bought a book on glass etching, and used her husband’s air compressor and continued from there.