Judy wanted to be an art major out of high school but as with many of us, life got in the way! For many years she did no art untiI she was back in College working towards a degree relating to her work as a Pharmacy Technician. A co-worker mentioned she was taking a ceramics class… the lightbulb moment!!
” I was first introduced to mosaics by my Ceramics teacher. I was taking a special topics class and one of our assignments was to incorporate a mosaic into a ceramic piece. I decided to do a coil sculpture and carve out a section to inlay a mosaic into it. The challenge was that I had to think the piece through all the way to completion. The firing and glazing had to be completed before the mosaic was even started. I had to use thinset to adhere the pieces to the clay. This assignment was my first experience with mosaics and I was hooked! The first piece, pictured below was done with Van Gogh glass and black stained glass. The tray, pictured below was covered with Van Gogh glass also.
Inlaid tray
‘Dancing Sculpture’
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The piece below is also a mixed media piece. It is done with clay pieces I made, stained glass, mirrored glass and broken china. It is on a wood substrate and currently in storage as it is huge and I am not sure what to do with it.
‘Abstract circles’
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I like to use both stained glass and smalti in my mosaics. I love texture in my work, and the way the light reflects off of each piece and a lot of my pieces feature flowers or birds as you can see from the pieces below. I believe the colours of nature inspire me. The sparrow piece below was my first smalti work. I took a course with Mireille Swinnen, an amazing artist who taught me a lot.
‘Symphony of Sunflowers’
‘Morning Pause’
‘Poppy’
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I am not sure if I have a particular style or not; I am trying to improve my understanding of andamento and plan on taking a workshop with that in mind. I truly believe that the more you create, the better artist you become. Not every project will work out, but we cannot improve unless we create. Failure is part of the growth process. As my ceramics teacher used to say ‘Make more art faster’
I also love working glass on glass; my favourite way to use this is in floral designs. Below are some of my favourite pieces.
‘Floral Fantasy’
‘Floral Garden’
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The last two pictures are recent commissions; circular wood substrates sealed with weldbond and modpodge. Both were challenging in their own way; the centre of the Koi mosaic is mirrored glass and the andamento on this piece took a lot of thought. I am pleased with the result but I don’t feel the picture does it justice. I had never done a sunset before and it was a challenge to figure out the gradation in colour. This piece is one of my favourites.
‘Koi Commission’
‘Judy’s sunset commission’
More of Judy’s work can be found at:
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