Raymond Rains

I have long been fascinated with glass and after attending a weekend workshop in 1999 I made a commitment to explore and develop my own style of making glass art. Working alone without studio assistants forces me to constantly think about new ways to accomplish my objectives. Glass is a beguiling and unforgiving medium presenting countless challenges and I am continually surprised at the direction it leads me. Learning how the combinations of color, light, and form develop is a captivating journey.

Each mouth blown glass art piece starts with a disk of colored glass on the blowpipe that is then immersed in clear, molten glass and formed into the desired shape using wooden blocks or paddles while blowing into the blowpipe. Colored glass stringers or thin sheets of dichroic glass with metallic oxides such as titanium, silicon, or magnesium are applied to the surface of the glass using a high temperature torch before adding additional layers of clear glass.

The finished piece is then annealed for several hours at 900-950 degrees to stabilize the molecular structure before being slowly cooled to room temperature.

The dichroic oxides transmit certain wavelengths of light while reflecting others, resulting in pure wavelengths of light that appear to originate from within the piece and patterns that continue to change with the angle of vision.

The creation of my fused glass work begins with clear plate glass that is cut and then reformed at temperatures of 1300 to 1500 degrees into various shapes including tiles, bowls, platters, or sculptural forms. Some pieces are fused with colored or dichroic glass or enamel pigments, then carved with a diamond saw or blasted with aluminum oxide. Many of my sculptural works incorporate welded steel or copper.

While the process of creating art is rewarding in itself, I am additionally gratified by the fact that people buy my work, and humbled when I see my work in other people’s homes or collections.