Jill Matthew Profile

"I love all types of glass art, but it is glass fusing that has captured my heart and imagination. I love how glass is such a constructive medium to work with; how i am able to transform sheet glass into wonderfully tactile and aesthetic artworks. I am inspired by the qualities of glass, the way it can be either transparent or opalescent in nature or both and how heating these types of glass in a kiln generates depth and interest in a finished piece. While it is still early days in my artistic career, I have seen the transistion in my pieces and myself and am always developing on ideas and shifting the focus as I progress. My glass adventures show me the sky is the limit, although I suspect there may never be enough kilns!!!

After a serious illness in 2009 left me with a long recovery, I needed  something to focus on and began exploring my creative side. Leaving behind a career in nursing and management, I fell headlong into making warm glass art.
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Kiln formed glass, is the heating of of glass layers, powders or shapes of glass in a kiln to many hundreds of degrees. The processes to produce one piece may involve several firings - many hours long each. I program the kiln to different schedules depending on the finish I want, the most common of which are: a full fuse, where the layers are heated to a smooth solid finish; a tack fuse where it is heated enough to stick to another layer, but only soften the edges slightly; or a slump which heats enough for the glass to sag into a shape or a mould. I use all these techniques to make my pieces. It is quite a science to understand the different stages glass needs to go through when heating in the kiln to avoid 'thermal shock' where the glass can crack either in the kiln or even after it's fired.