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Return to page 1 Maryann is a glass artist, and each piece she creates is unique. The fused glass process begins with a sheet of glass. The glass can be clear, colored or textured. |
 And she also uses dichroic glass, a special glass developed by NASA to be used on the space shuttle. Dichroic is 'two colors'. |
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 Maryann then explained the difficulty in creating circles. She explains that glass will always break in a straight line. |
 She takes her pistol grip glass cutter and scores the glass where she wants the break to be. The cutting wheel must be lubricated with cutting oil. Once scored with the wheel, Maryann carefully presses on the circle to loosen it from the form and then scores the outside corners with a straight line to break a circle from the piece of glass. |
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 The grinder has a diamond bit to smooth the edges of the glass. |
 The saw is a diamond ring saw and is used to cut more intricate shapes such as interior curves not possible with a hand cutter (because scored glass will break in a straight line). Water used with the grinder and saw is to keep the glass cool to prevent it from breaking due to heat stress. |
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 A new acquisition is the sand blaster. It is a fully enclosed unit that adds another dimension to her art work. |
 The gloves are inside the unit but Maryann stand outside and manipulates the work as needed. |
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