Glass Community

Working with glass as an art form offers challenges that are rarely faced in other artistic endeavours. Glass art depends on many different factors including composition of the glass, the colours, and even the lighting source that is available. Of course, some of the world's greatest artistic masterpieces, whether they are made on canvas, rock, or glass, can boast the requirements of light as an important factor in its creation, glass art still ranks at the top of the list.

Whether you are working with crystal, stained glass, fused, cast or any other style of glass art, the elements of design are as important, and some would argue more important, than all other phases of creation. Some people excel at creating amazing art glass without any thought to design; however, many others only create their best work if they sit down beforehand and plan – even in very basic sketches or outlines.

The key elements of glass art design begin and end with the final product in mind. This means that an idea must be in place (what will it look like? Will it made of fused, stained, cast glass etc?) along with the colours (what best matches the object? What colours will attract customers to buy it?) and/or layout (will it be flat, 3d, functional, sculptural?). A stained-glass window, for example, isn't pieced together with a notion of what it will look like. It is mapped out carefully to give 3d style shadows and effects through the selection of glass colours.

This process can be best exemplified with the creation of movies. In the beginning of the process is an idea, but a director doesn't hire actors, point a camera, and shoot random scenes hoping the story with come together. A movie begins with an idea, but a script needs to be written. Before the script is written, an outline, or treatment is created, guiding the script itself. Once the script is polished, then a storyboard is designed that helps the director and the actors understand camera angles and how the scenes will look. The filming and production come last. For glass art design, the process can be approach similarly.

Some tips for starting with design include:

1. Design your ideal product in your mind first. Have an idea of what it will look like, work through the colour combinations and variations in your head.
2. Put it down on paper. You absolutely do not have to have professional drawing or painting skills to take advantage of documenting your design on paper.
3. At this point, you should experiment with colour combinations because what may be envisioned in your mind as brilliant might not take to reality as well. Try different combinations, alterations, and fine-tune your idea into the perfect example of what you'd like your glass art project to become.

Once you have your design laid out before you, you'll find that the process of creating with your hands actually becomes easier because you have clear direction on all the elements that compose your piece.