Teresa Barnes

"Three Phases of Teresa"
10” x 10”


Materials & Process: I used all Bullseye glass, iridescent light green aventurine green and iridescent purple striker to make the woven section of the portrait. The hand is made of peach cream with grey stringers and salmon frit to add details of the palm. White opal tips the fingers, for nails. The border is made from stoneware clay with an eggplant glaze.
The palm was made first, fused, and then slumped in a bowl to get the fingers to curl. Then the woven section was tack fused to a sheet of clear glass. The clay border was slab rolled and molded as a platter, fired and glazed, then fired again. Now came the fun part,
firing the glass and clay at the same time. Fiber blanket and thinfire were used to keep the fingers curved up.

Side detail

Content / Intent Statement: I started my artist’s career as a basket weaver. Thus the green and purple woven section. These happen to be my favorite colors. After basket weaving, I turned to pottery, which comes in handy when a specialized mold is needed for my glass projects. I am constantly looking for a way to combine clay and glass in projects. I now work with glass most of the time. I use a lot of iridescent glass which I think is a hold over from my pottery days, when I mostly did Raku firings, which on a good day, had a bright shiny metallic finish. The palm represents my most valuable and constant tool, my hands. They have endured the most abuse, being in water with the basket weaving, abraded with grog in the clay, and enduring varying degrees of cuts with the glass. They have yet to fail me.