I’m excited to announce that Circles of Sedona, an abstract reverse hand painted chandelier, is a 2013 NICHE Awards Finalist! I’ve know this since the fall but am now just getting the time to share.

This abstract, hand painted chandelier was made by me. I create and fire my glass bowls here in my studio. This piece has a diameter of 24″ and I designed the fixture ring to be large so that the painted glass bowl sits deep into the iron. ring. Each of my glass bowls start out as flat architectural grade glass that gets cut and then slumped in my kiln. After annealing and cooling the edges are sanded and the the glass is sand blasted so that there is no glare when looking at the painting—the sand blasting gives a nice diffused effect (though it is my least favorite task in creating the glass bowls).

My fixture design is “new” from 2012 and I designed it from client feedback. I needed a fixture design that would be contemporary and flexible yet simple and it also needed to reflect the ongoing themes in my abstract reverse hand painted chandeliers. The ‘circles’ and swirls symbolize eternity and life. They are profound to me and I am inspired endlessly by them. This particular reverse hand painted chandelier, Circles of Sedona, was sold through Kuivato Glass Gallery last fall.

This award is important because my work rarely fits into categories easily for awards so I don’t often get pats of the back as some of my other artists friends do. I ‘fuse’ glass are with painting and metalwork. My work spans multiple mediums that only seem to grow larger with the years. I feel that this is a very simple design in terms of my hand forged and welded fixture but yet it’s contemporary and fits my work well. It also offers a different look for my collectors who would prefer straight arms versus the scrolls and bends of my other fixture designs. My infinity/swirl/vortex symbol ties in well with the abstract paintings in my reverse hand painted chandeliers. This was a really lovely chandelier!