JODY CLARKE

1.  Mobiles, suncatchers and hanging ornamentation made from natural materials and/or upcycled metal, plastic or vintage items enhanced with glass or stone beads, buttons and other decoration.  
2. Paper collage depicting realistic native flora, fauna and scenery. Original photographs are used as inspiration. Paper is torn or cut from recycled magazine pages, calendars and greeting cards. 

Tim Burke

Thirty-three years ago, I stepped into a glass studio for the first time. I stood in awe of the possibilities inherent in working with molten glass. The brilliance of interplay between glass and light, the enormity of the color palette, the fluid qualities that make liquid glass unlike any other medium for rendering three dimensional forms. Amid the fire, the heat, the intensity, and an artistic camaraderie I hadn’t known, my passion for glass was born.

Working with this material regularly makes a student of its master, over and again. The experience can be quite humbling. With each incremental development, mastery of each new skill, every new awareness of its behavior, pathways open to more complex, more intriguing work and evermore discovery. This continual renewal and reward keep me in the glass studio working toward each new level of skill, capability and understanding that only comes from decades of experience. In my work, I strive to capture my genuine fascination with glass as an artistic medium hoping to share more and more interesting works so that others can experience and enjoy the wonder, the beauty and endless possibilities this peculiar material alone has to offer.

Daley Glass Works is the culmination of my partnership with Crenshaw Lighting in Floyd Va. Since 2000, a project would come along and in the spirit of our artisan community, Woody Crenshaw would extend an invitation to my shop Vitroyoyo Glass Studio, to quote the glass portion of the proposal. Over time this gesture became a more regular opportunity to work together. In 2017, the Daley family became the new owners of Crenshaw Lighting. The rest is history.

My studio was relocated from an old barn I repurposed near Goose Creek and is currently housed within Crenshaw Lighting. Together, we continue to provide for the architectural lighting industry, creating unique and unusual glass elements for restorations as well as custom designs for renovations and new construction. Our clients include interior designers, architects, and specifiers over a variety of large-scale open space projects such as museums, opera houses, theaters, houses of worship, state capitol buildings, federal buildings, universities, private residences and so on.

Between these projects, I continue to explore my own work with the support of my benefactors and business partners Patrick and Kasey Daley.

Erin Simons

Traditional Appalachian Brooms & Watercolors

Frank Hyldahl

Growing Grafted Wood Rings is Sustainable Forestry as Eco-Technology and Right Livelihood Working closely with trees is my heartfelt passion. It is my experience that our greatest gifts have come with our ability to observe nature’s patterns and tendencies. Back in 2003, I began tying twigs and including objects in trees. I was seeking to develop a kinder and more creative working relationship with trees, a relationship where I didn’t have to destroy trees, like using lumber to make my livelihood. By 2008, my focus on growing and sustainably harvesting grafted wooden rings was getting thumbs-up feedback for comfort and continuing durability. Family trials evolved into a Field-Trial Program, where Tree Rings were outright gifted or minimally priced and we were assured contact to glean feedback as the grafted rings experienced life’s challenges on more fingers. By 2010, gently massaging tree twigs into grafted wooden rings evolved into our business, Green Wood Wizard. The first wooden rings we sold were wedding bands. Affirming our organic process, that sale brought a friendship that assisted us in creating both our Facebook page and online Etsy shop. Growing Tree Rings is an evolving, exciting and humbling experience. I am grateful to be working with nature at nature’s pace and allowing this deepening resonance. To find the trees are working with us, even the shoots of surviving American Chestnut on the edges of our property, is exhilarating. It is my personal vision that the making of Tree Rings be regional and sustainable and the marketing be cooperative. In recognition of the challenge of not having elders and with hopes of kindling tree-shaping tendencies in humans, I look forward to increasing tree-shaping and carving collaborations with other respectful humans.

DOROTHY BRANDTS

My objective is to give the cut lines a purpose and have them add flow and movement to the design. The love of the outdoors and of nature's critters, beautiful blooms, and foliage have been my inspiration. It was only fitting that I combined my love of nature with my love of the color and light of stained glass in my glass works. My art career started as a painter, thus I like to think of my work in glass as if I am painting in glass. So I named my studio "The Art Of Glass". I work my panels on a large light table where I can monitor how compatible each new selection of glass is with the rest of the glass in that panel and how they all react to the play of light passing through them. When buying glass, I hand pull each sheet to make my selections. I'm like a kid in a candy store when I am at the glass warehouse. When I look at a sheet of glass it tells me what it wants to be. Along the way I have studied with well known glass artists. Subjects ranged from stained glass design, composition, construction, and reinforcement for architectural use and how to use fusing and sandblasting techniques for modern glass. I have made stained glass panels from as small as 6 inches square to as large as 5.5 feet by 7.5 feet. Some only consist of few pieces; others have many hundreds of pieces. This allows me to provide the pleasure of owning and enjoying a piece of stained glass at a price compatible for each and everyone. With each project I strive to improve my skills and produce a piece of art to be enjoyed for years to come as much as I have enjoyed creating it. Magic Happens when you add rays of light dancing through the vast variety of glass and colors available. I have fallen in love with stained glass.