The unpredictable nature of hot glass fascinates Paige Davis.
Every time she opens the kiln in her North Vancouver studio to see how her latest batch of fused glass has turned out, the results surprise her.
"It can change colour in the kiln, it can kind of warp into different shapes and forms," she explains.
Davis is the owner of Spirit Glass Design, a glass fusing business, and makes jewelry, dishes, wind chimes, candle holders and pretty much "anything that you could make out of glass that you could think of."
The studio also offers classes in glass fusing as well as stained glass and silversmithing.
Davis's specialty is fusing - a "warm technique," she explains. It differs from stained glass, in which sheets of coloured glass are cut and grinded to shape at room temperature, and glass blowing, which requires the use of a hot furnace to manipulate the glass in its molten state.
When making a fused piece, Davis first uses tools to cut room-temperature glass to size, then layers or overlaps different pieces and places the arrangement in a kiln where it heats up and fuses together. She also uses molds when trying to achieve a specific shape. Depending on the project, the kiln reaches a high of between 7,700 and 8,900 C.
"Glass, when you're fusing it, you have to heat it and cool it at certain rates of time," Davis explains. If the temperature changes too slowly or too quickly, the glass might crack or turn cloudy. Typically, Davis loads her kiln before leaving the studio at 5 p.m. and it's ready to open around noon the next day. Most of her pieces require multiple firings with room-temperature shaping work in between.
For an added personal touch, many of the jewelry pieces feature an etched design or an enamel decal fused to the surface.
"The two different processes kind of give two different looks. One's deeper in the glass whereas one's on top and creates more of a 3-D effect."
Davis works mainly with dichroic glass which has an iridescent quality and comes in a multitude of colours. This glossy material is what first attracted Davis to glass fusing five years ago when she saw her father, who taught her the craft and now works with her in the studio, using the medium. "It's just really sparkly and it kind of caught my eye when he was fusing with that," she recalls. "Once I tried it I was hooked." Many people she meets are surprised at how versatile glass can be. "People just don't necessarily realize all the fun things you can make from glass," she says. "So many people have heard of silversmithing and it's been in practice for so many years, but working with glass, either doing fusing or flamework with beads and stuff, is a fairly new process still."
Spirit Glass Design creations are sold in the studio at 855 West 3rd St. and on Etsy (etsy.com/ca/shop/spiritglassdesign). Look for Davis's table at the North Vancouver Community Arts Council's Canada Day Craft Fair at Waterfront Park July 1 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. She will also be set up at the council's North Vancouver Civic Plaza craft fair on July 26. See nvartscouncil.ca for details.
