Karen Ehart - Bio

 

 

Shimmering iridescent abstract streams wind their way across vibrant blues and greens on Karen Ehart’s sculptural art glass pieces.
With an organic, painterly style, she draws her inspiration from nature; sea life, microscopic images,

pebble-filled stream beds.

Karen was born in the Pacific Northwest to a family of artists and craftsmen.

 

In 1984 She picked up a glass cutter and was ruined for any real job. She has been quite a rolling stone, moving around through the years to many places including Alabama, Hawaii and Arizona. She has found much to influence her work in the time spent sailing, snorkeling, hiking and exploring.
Along the way she has been fortunate to work with quite a few highly skilled artisans and has continuously experimented with the sculptural possibilities of her work. She enjoys working with glass as well as a variety of materials including bronze, steel and clay.
In 2007 her journey came full circle and she returned home to her first inspiration—the Pacific Northwest.
 

THE PROCESS:

Karen begins a new piece by making an original sculpture. She then creates a shell-like mold over the sculpture which she will use to shape her glass with. The mold making process is an art form in itself, and requires much trial and error.

She then crafts the design elements she will use. She cuts, fires, torches and smashes pieces of glass with a hammer, using a variety of techniques to create the parts that will make up a composition.

Karen experiments with the glass pieces in various configurations until finding the right look for her design. She prepares the final arrangement for the first of several firings by stacking and inlaying the glass elementstogether on a kiln shelf. Temperatures of up to 1500 degrees melt the layers of glass together into a single flat piece.

Inspired by organic forms and lines found in nature, she paints gold lines on the glass for added detail. The piece then takes shape during the second firing, returning to the kiln over a mold. The glass fires at a lesser temperature this time, softening until it gently sags to the shape of the mold. Some pieces require a third firing to add additional elements.

A regimen of heating and cooling very slowly must be followed for all firings, over a period of several days, a process known as annealing.

Glass cannot be rushed; Karen’s work is the result of many hours of patient experimentation. Each piece is a highly collectible original.

Karen Ehart’s art glass pieces are collected by galleries all over the
world.

Her craftsmanship is ever evolving as she herself continues to
experiment with the endless possibilities for expression that glass
work offers.


Exhibitions:
Sculpture in the Park, Loveland CO
Bellevue Arts Fair, Bellevue,WA
Buyer’s Market of American Craft, WA DC
American Craft Retailers Expo, Las Vegas
American Craft Retailers Expo, Orlando