Thursday, September 17, 2015

An Amalgamation Imagination





I would like to share with you a wonderful Etsy shop...


and the gifted artisan who designs and crafts these marvelous fused glass creations.

"I’m an artist who can’t draw, but fused glass is a medium that lets me bypass that deficiency.  My grandmother prepared me for this creative outlet: she taught me to sew.  She emphasized "method" (measure twice, cut once), "planning" (know where you’re going before you start), and "patience" (haste makes waste).  Thanks to her, I’ve relied on my stitching skills for 40 years.  Now I’m trusting those principles as I play with glass." 

I am honored to introduce to you...

Gail

Gail is the artist and creator behind the works at Angel Song Arts.  Her selection of colors, shapes, and sizes of glass, fused together produce unique, decorative, and beautiful works of art.  Gail has so graciously allowed me to share with you a little bit about herself and her craft.

 "I’m not visual. I can’t picture things in my head the way most people can. Just before my sixth birthday, I ran into the street without looking both ways and got run over by a pickup truck. Mercifully, I don’t remember being hit or cracking my head on the pavement. I do remember the burnt-orange socks I was wearing, because my mother would say she looked out the kitchen window and her heart stopped when she saw my socks peeking out from underneath the truck. I remember the awful headache I had and the blanket I was lying on when I woke up at the side of the road. I remember clenching my eyes shut against the painful afternoon sunlight, and my mother’s voice beside me in the ambulance." 


Featured below are just a few examples of Gail's creations from her Christmas and Holiday collection.  We hope you enjoy.





A piece that's sure to add that handcrafted touch to your holiday decor, is this 


An exuberant, hand-drawn gold tree that sparkles within luscious ruby red glass.  A chip of dichroic glass represents a star. 




Show off your delicious holiday cookies and treats with this festive and decorative


crafted from opaque white glass with a cheerful scalloped edge of ruby red glass accented with white dots.


"I’ve never considered myself disabled as a result of the accident, but I have difficulty judging sizes or distances, and I lost the ability to draw. I spent decades avoiding visual arts, focusing my creative passion on musical and verbal expressions: classical singing and writing. Somehow over the years that passion got buried in the work, expectations, and drudgeries of daily life. In the onslaught of adult responsibilities, duties, deadlines, obligations, projects, worries, and heartbreaks, I forgot how to play." 



A Dainty Angel glimmers with a gown of purple dichroic glass and diaphanous wings of clear dichroic glass.

"We should not forget to entertain strangers, lest we entertain Angels unaware"
                                                                                                     Hebrews 13:2







Brighten up your Christmas tree or holiday decor with this beautiful


Multicolored dichroic glass shines in a sky of violet.  Gail offers a variety of 3" ornament styled pieces to choose from.





"Sure, I could say working with fused glass is rewiring my brain to balance visual-aural perspective. But the truth is: last Spring I started mentoring a beautiful, loving fourth-grade girl, and her sweet, playful spirit is challenging me to lighten up. Last Fall I took a class in fused glass so I could learn to support her interest in it. I didn’t expect to fall in love with it!"





The North Star and Holy Family adorn this 


ready to ship and arrive in time for the holidays and add to your home decor.
This is a set of three Festive Holiday Plates all made from green aventurine, ruby red, and red/green fractured glass, cut and arranged into a dramatic puzzle design. 

The plates shown above are also available for individual purchase.


"I don’t care that I can’t draw. Crafting with fused glass is teaching me how to play again. It demands no specific outcome, performance metric, or result. It’s an inventive, colorful sandbox to play in, my imagination limited only by the laws of physics (and my wallet). The joy of it is rejuvenating my entire life. And now I’m sharing that joy with the people around me."





ARTIST PHILOSOPHY

The interplay of light and glass reminds me that God is the Light who gives life into the world. He is my joy, my strength, and my song. The resonance of light through glass shapes my designs. As I harmonize colors, shapes, and textures, my compositions seek to blend individual voices into captivating visual melodies. While each piece springs from my heart and eye and hands, when its unique tune emerges, it’s singing with its own voice: an angel’s song praising the beauty of God.

–Gail Meredith


A special thanks to Gail for allowing the feature and I'd like to thank you for stopping by and  we hope you've enjoyed.  Please stop by her AngelSongArts shop to see more of her creative and unique fused glass works.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! Thank you, Gail, for sharing your art, your story, and your song.

Susie Ryan

onesnevertooold said...

Susie, thanks so much for stopping by and for your kind comment!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Susie and Dave for your comments and help! It's fun to share my creations this way.
Gail Meredith
www.angelsongarts.com