Fused Glass

These are pieces of art created from glass.  It is constructed by layering glass into a design and then fusing it together by heating it in a kiln to between 1300 and 1500 degrees.  Most pieces take two days to complete. First the piece is fused, which takes about eighteen hours and then it is slumped into a mold to produce a plate or bowl, which also takes about eighteen hours.  The pieces are created with special art glass and many of the pieces contain dichroic glass.  The iridescent dichroic coatings were originally created for the Aerospace industry to use on satellite mirrors.
Glass fusing goes back to 2000 B.C. and was practiced for several thousand years until about the time of Christ when glass blowing was discovered and fusing died out.  Fusing was rediscovered a little over twenty years ago, when it emerged as an art medium.