Artfully
yours
Helen Badarak
Turning Glass
Into Art
Written & Photographed
By Laura Wrede
G
lass has been used as an art form and as a functional
element for centuries. While some attribute the
discovery of glass to Phoenician sailors 4,000 years ago,
other scholars say that glass was a process of discovery made
over a long period of time by various high-heat artisans who
experimented with mixtures of silica sand or ground quartz
pebbles and alkali.
No one really knows for certain when the first discovery took
place, or who really deserves the credit; however, archeological
digs have unearthed glass beads from the coast of Northern Syria
(Mesopotamia) as far back as 3500 BC.
In order to make natural materials into glass, you need to
heat the elements to an intense heat of 3,200 degrees Fahrenheit.
Obsidian, a naturally occurring glass rock, is found in volcanic
regions where the heat from volcanic action and subsequent fast
cooling turns molten rock into glass. Once glass has been created,
the pieces can then be molded and shaped by reheating to as low
as 1,500 degrees.
This process of reshaping and forming pieces of glass over
molds and allowing them too stick together is called slumping,
anartistic practice that captivated artist Helen Badarak who opened
her Morgan Hill studio, Glass by Helen, just a few years ago.
Helen first began creating art as a profession while in her
mid-forties. She was fascinated by the idea of making fused glass
pieces and integrating it into jewelry. After giving away pieces
as gifts, friends and family were impressed by her talent and
encouraged her to sell her pieces on a more official level. In 2008
Helen launched an art jewelry line.
“After a few years I decided I wanted to incorporate fused
glass into my designs since I’ve always been intrigued with glass.”
She borrowed a kiln from a friend and jumped right in teaching
herself everything she could about creating art with fused glass.
“I was hooked from day one! Watching the glass go through
the movement and changes while being heated in the kiln totally
fascinated me. I kept grasping for information anywhere I could
to learn about the glass fusing process. I took a course at BAGI
and the Art Glass Center (both located in San Jose).” Helen then
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began adding other pieces, including bowls and plates, which
work well with the technique of glass fusion.
The process of glass fusion is a bit different than other types
of glass techniques such as glass blowing. In glass fusion you have
less control over the end product which can lead to unexpected
outcomes. You have to be careful that you combine “like
materials” that cool at the same rates, otherwise cracking will
take place. Incorporating similar materials together can also mean
knowing which colors can go together. Even colors can affect the
rate of cooling. As Helen chooses which glass pieces to fuse, she
also allows her artistic instincts to guide the process.
“When I make a piece of art I’m guided by the glass. I will
peruse through my selection and pull out a piece of glass that
interests me at that moment. From there I will decide what
I’m going to make. A bowl, abstract art, a candle holder, vase,
etcetera. I let the glass guide me through the process. I guess you
could say it talks to me in a way. From there I will cut the glass
into the shapes needed to complete my design.
“I’ll stack the pieces as needed sometimes capping them in
another piece of glass. Then the piece will be placed in the kiln
and fired (fused) to temps up to 1500 degrees. This process
can take up to 24 hours from start to cool down. The piece is
then removed from the kiln and cleaned to prepare it for its
subsequent firings. Some pieces can be fired as many as four
times before they arrive at it’s completed stage.” Each piece
may come out a little different than the next, even when
molds are used.
As Helen built up her clientele and gained success as was
evident when she landed an order from Calera Winery to make
over seven hundred holiday gift pieces for their wine club
members.
“That catapulted me into glass fusing in a big way. I only had
a very small kiln.” To fulfill Calera’s order she needed to increase
production which meant investing in more equipment than the
one small kiln in her home studio. She went from one tiny kiln
to two large production kilns, a studio kiln, and a test kiln.
Among Helen’s other successes include a glass Grammy
JULY / AUGUST 2015
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