Foci | Minnesota Center for Glass Arts

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Lucent: An Exhibition in Glass Jewelry

September 25- December 12, 2021

Lucent: An Exhibition in Glass Jewelry celebrates the innovations that contemporary glass making processes have contributed to traditional wearable adornments. This stunning collection presents a wide range of glass processes including flameworking, kilncasting, pâte de verre, cold assembly, and engraving, and demonstrates the tremendous skills these artists possess across the metalsmithing and glassworking disciplines. Heading into the gift giving season, all are available for purchase in person or online. Items that are sold will remain on display through December 15th, then will be shipped or available for pickup to their buyers.


Participating Artists

Najah Alboushi najahalboushiart.com

Najah Alboushi is an American-Syrian artist that grew up in the midwest. She studied journalism and studio arts at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point and later went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts degree from California College of the Arts. Currently, Najah is living and working in Oakland, California as a stained glass glazier, lampworking instructor, and independent artist. 

Najah’s work emerges through multiple coexisting practices including sculpture, installation, and jewelry. Glass is a material she uses regularly. Within bigger works, glass is transformative and contradictory in many of its qualities; which speak directly to architecture and nature and their ties to broader social and political issues. Forms and images from these larger works such as barbed wire and bricks make an appearance within her jewelry.

Lisbeth Biger @lisbethbiger

Lisbeth Biger is a senior lecturer at Bezalel Academy of art and Design in Jerusalem, and head of glass studies. Lisbeth is interested in finding new ways to use all kinds of discarded glass. Instead of putting more glass out in the world, Lisbeth uses discarded reading glasses, and gives them new life. The objects are totally wearable, and surprisingly strong, as they have a plastic or metal frame. Each piece is adorned with a different hand engraved insect.

Elaine Hyde www.elainehyde.com

Elaine Hyde began her career in 1969 at The Brooks Institute of Fine Arts in California. After graduating with a BFA in 1972 she worked and trained at the Pilchuck Glass Center under the direction of Dale Chihuly. At the time, the now-famous school was in the second year of operation. In 1974 she opened her beachside studio in Santa Barbara. She was one of the very few women working in the male-dominated field of blown glass at the time. Elaines creates the blown glass as well as fabricates all the metal elements in her jewelry.

Elise Ordorica www.eliseordoricadesigns.com @sunshineloveliness

Elise Ordorica is always creating, striving to reflect the beauty in life. She is drawn to using glass as a material, because it represents light and color. For her it is a way of molding, sculpting and even painting with light. Elise strives to conserve the beauty of simple complexity, she is driven to create work that depicts her love and admiration for our natural world. When Elise is not in the studio she craves to be outside immersed in nature. To touch, to smell, to be engulfed by these simple pleasures is the ultimate experience.

Elise Ordorica graduated from Alfred University in 2000, where she studied Art and Design. In her Junior year she studied at the Edinburgh College of Art in Edinburgh, Scotland. During her time there, she was introduced to the world of Contemporary Jewelry. After graduating she worked at the Pilchuck Glass School, and managed Chappell Gallery, a top contemporary Glass Sculpture Gallery in Boston, Ma. Introduced to the world of high end contemporary glass sculpture, specifically Japanese, Australian, and Czech Glass, she found what was possible with this amazing material, seemed endless. It was during this time that she began to take metalsmithing classes, and to create one of a kind wearable glass pieces. From 2004-2006, Elise studied small scale metals at the Revere Academy in San Francisco, Ca. Her glass jewelry has been shown in several galleries throughout the United States and included in Exhibitions such as SOFA NY, and Chicago, as well as Glass Weekend at Wheaton Village, NJ. In 2015 she began teaching glass fusing classes at the Bay Area Glass Institute. Recently, she has been collaborating with Bill Gould, owner of Artik Art and Architecture in San Jose, CA to create Installations and large scale glass pieces.

PetalVision Glass www.petalvisionglass.com @petalvision.glass

PetalVision Glass transforms flora and fauna into beautiful designs that you can wear and gift proudly. Chokers, necklaces, rings, ornaments, earrings, and paperweights, with custom options available, are all handmade and make people think differently about the world around them. With sustainability in mind, nothing goes to waste. Shed feathers come from the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, flowers from Botanical gardens, and donated flowers and found shed snake skins from local farms. Choose PetalVision Glass to preserve, honor, and celebrate nature and your memories for a lifetime!

Sarah Cohen, founder and owner of PetalVision Glass, is an artist who mainly works in glass to transform natural materials. Transplanted to Pittsburgh in 2015 after college and after working for many other artists, Sarah started her own studio practice full-time. Working with glass mosaics inspired by nature, Sarah also continues to focus on nature through her jewelry business, PetalVision Glass, started in 2016. Looking at materials with a critical eye, consumerism is the catalyst that drives most of her work. Ferns gilded in gold instantly transform how you think about everyday life. Sarah unabashedly believes in the power of art and imagery to bring about profound transformation.

SaraBeth Post sarabethpost.net @ultralit.sb

SaraBeth Post began to learn the craft of glass at the Harrisburg Area Community College in PA. She earned her BFA at the University of Louisville in 2015. Glass is the main material in which SaraBeth works, but she flows between creating functional wares, sculpture and jewelry. Currently, SaraBeth is at Penland School of Craft in the Core Fellowship program.

The process of things that are handmade create an uplifting aura are at the root of her glass jewelry The ability to play with light and accentuate the power of color are endless in glass. Showcasing this environment in the wearable is downright glamourous. These objects of adornment have a new sparkle of beauty with every angle they are seen. Sarabeth’s hopes are that the wearer enjoys this jewelry by dancing in the dawn or mingling under the stars.

Patricia Punykova @punykova

Patricia Punykova (exhibition Juror and invited artist) was born in Chicago, raised in Minneapolis, and grew up in 1980's Seattle. She studied patternmaking and apparel design at SCCC in Seattle and worked for designers and garment manufacturers on the west coast for 15 years. Back in Minneapolis, she dabbled in stained glass, and went on to study kiln-formed and cast glass at Pilchuck Glass School, Foci MCGA, Corning Studios, and at Bullseye Resource Center, Portland. A full-time studio artist since 2010, Patricia combines fine metals, leather, and glass to create jewelry-art pieces for all genders.

The collection Jumbo Love is a result of time spent during the second half of the covid lockdown, a time when some makers worked feverishly to keep hands and minds insanely busy. It started with earrings. Tedious, multiple small pieces cut, some pounded then fired and re-fired in the kiln. They are marked by pattern, shape, color and visual texture that embrace the background noise of a frenetic maker. The fine silver inclusions thread throughout the pieces from simple attachments, to the pendulum dangles with a lovely swagger as they move with you. It was the pesky little heart earrings that led to the theme of this collection. 

Annie Shepherd annieshepherd.com @shepann

Annie Shepherd is a glass artist that creates around the concept of mapping. She utilizes this as a way to document place, belonging, and memory. Shepherd primarily works with glass, often using it as a sculptural base for detailed relief work that showcases line and pattern. It also is an excellent medium to present color and pattern, both of which are an interest to Shepherd. Annie received a BFA from Alfred University and continues her studies at various craft schools across the United States. She has been an Artist in Residence in the U.S. as well as abroad. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY as an Artist, Fabricator, and Educator.

Minori Takagi minoritakagi.com @minoritakag

Minori Takagi, born in Shizuoka, Japan, is a glass artist who began studying Tombodama in 1997 (glass beads created through ancient lampworking techniques. Since moving to Vancouver, Canada in 2006, Takagi has been incorporating new elements into her ancient style. The style has evolved as she began to blend traditional designs with her unique impression of “west coast modern”. By fusing her traditional Japanese lampwork techniques with modern Canadian inspiration, Takagi developed a new style of “wearable art”.

Abbey Uffelman abegaeluffelman.com @abbey.u

Abegael Uffelman, a glass and mixed media conceptual artist, relates the physical qualities of her work to societal disparities. She analyzes concepts of social interaction, politics, identity, personal trauma, and memory through creating physical objects and installations that others can relate to. Life is full of interaction and nuance, both good and bad. Through glass and mixed media objects and installations, Uffelman blurs, distorts, and obscures information; curating how people view these topics.