Trisha Bergen ~ Out Of Glass
~ Unique, hand made fused glass jewelry ~
Many pathways have let me to glass. Raised in the East in the Hudson Valley, I soon moved west, first living in different ski resorts and for a long time in Taos NM and now in Arizona. Though pretty settled now, I’ve always enjoyed traveling and skiing. This certainly got in the way of college, but I did finish my degree after a couple of extra years and experiencing lots of exciting adventures. I majored in Art, but moved from one form to another. A few years ago, while living in Santa Barbara CA, I discovered fused glass and finally felt that I had found my artistic home.
I enjoy both the challenging technical aspects and the rewarding artistic ones in glass fusing. A fused glass artist uses their skill, training, instincts, experience and creativity to conceive, design and to hand-cut and shape pieces of glass repeatedly to form a unique creation. The piece then goes into the fire and the magic happens. Colors change, the glass moves with the fierce heat of the kiln and the creation comes to life. No two works are ever exactly alike, largely due to the force of the firing. The fire and individual creative energy produces not simply a necklace or earrings, but a piece of unique art.
My themes often reflect the magical shades and shapes found in nature and the ocean. Whimsy is a strong force and many of my fused glass pieces reflect this side of me. I’m continuously surprised and delighted by the things I can nudge glass into doing, as in my jewelry pieces that have 3 dimensions such as flowers, butterflies and fish. More recently however, I have become enamored of curves and swoops! I am making many variations of these in earrings and necklaces.
~ Unique, hand made fused glass jewelry ~
Many pathways have let me to glass. Raised in the East in the Hudson Valley, I soon moved west, first living in different ski resorts and for a long time in Taos NM and now in Arizona. Though pretty settled now, I’ve always enjoyed traveling and skiing. This certainly got in the way of college, but I did finish my degree after a couple of extra years and experiencing lots of exciting adventures. I majored in Art, but moved from one form to another. A few years ago, while living in Santa Barbara CA, I discovered fused glass and finally felt that I had found my artistic home.
I enjoy both the challenging technical aspects and the rewarding artistic ones in glass fusing. A fused glass artist uses their skill, training, instincts, experience and creativity to conceive, design and to hand-cut and shape pieces of glass repeatedly to form a unique creation. The piece then goes into the fire and the magic happens. Colors change, the glass moves with the fierce heat of the kiln and the creation comes to life. No two works are ever exactly alike, largely due to the force of the firing. The fire and individual creative energy produces not simply a necklace or earrings, but a piece of unique art.
My themes often reflect the magical shades and shapes found in nature and the ocean. Whimsy is a strong force and many of my fused glass pieces reflect this side of me. I’m continuously surprised and delighted by the things I can nudge glass into doing, as in my jewelry pieces that have 3 dimensions such as flowers, butterflies and fish. More recently however, I have become enamored of curves and swoops! I am making many variations of these in earrings and necklaces.
DICHROIC GLASS
Colors reflect and enhance moods and dichroic glass colors are strong, exuberant and, depending on the light, ever-changing. Amazing dichroic glass is now being produced and it’s exciting to have such variety available. The main characteristic of the glass we call dichroic is unique in that it has a transmitted color and a completely different reflected color, as certain wavelengths of light either pass through or are reflected. Thus an array of color is displayed, depending on the angle of view. In the case of clear glass with dichroic coating, the colors change depending on what color fabric it is worn against.
Glass holds ancient life force from the sea. Silica has been known for its hardness since antiquity. Silica is most commonly found in nature as sand. Silica is used primarily in the production of glass. Dichroic glass is glass containing multiple ultra thin micro layers of different metals, metal oxides and silica which give the glass dichroic optical properties (a dichroic material is one which causes visible light to be split up into distinct beams of different wavelengths i.e. colors) Dichroic glass dates back to at least the 4th century AD. In modern dichroic glass, multiple ultra-thin micro layers of different metals (gold, silver), metal oxides (of titanium, chromium, aluminum, zirconium, magnesium) and silica are vaporized by an electron beam in a vacuum chamber. The vapor then condenses on the surface of the glass in the form of a crystal structure. The finished glass can have as many as 30 to 50 layers of these materials yet the thickness of the total coating is approximately 30 to 35 millionths of an inch.
Colors reflect and enhance moods and dichroic glass colors are strong, exuberant and, depending on the light, ever-changing. Amazing dichroic glass is now being produced and it’s exciting to have such variety available. The main characteristic of the glass we call dichroic is unique in that it has a transmitted color and a completely different reflected color, as certain wavelengths of light either pass through or are reflected. Thus an array of color is displayed, depending on the angle of view. In the case of clear glass with dichroic coating, the colors change depending on what color fabric it is worn against.
Glass holds ancient life force from the sea. Silica has been known for its hardness since antiquity. Silica is most commonly found in nature as sand. Silica is used primarily in the production of glass. Dichroic glass is glass containing multiple ultra thin micro layers of different metals, metal oxides and silica which give the glass dichroic optical properties (a dichroic material is one which causes visible light to be split up into distinct beams of different wavelengths i.e. colors) Dichroic glass dates back to at least the 4th century AD. In modern dichroic glass, multiple ultra-thin micro layers of different metals (gold, silver), metal oxides (of titanium, chromium, aluminum, zirconium, magnesium) and silica are vaporized by an electron beam in a vacuum chamber. The vapor then condenses on the surface of the glass in the form of a crystal structure. The finished glass can have as many as 30 to 50 layers of these materials yet the thickness of the total coating is approximately 30 to 35 millionths of an inch.