Artist Statement
I began fusing glass
in 2001 after decades of working in
clay and ceramics. The following
year, I changed my medium to fused
glass. This medium is also known
as kiln fired glass or warm glass.
Functional fused
glass is now my concentration – glass
pendants, tiles, plates and
architectural pieces.
These works draw from a desire for
beauty in day-to-day life, nourished
by the compelling quality of Asian
styles and themes.
In 2007, I began using photo transfers
in my glass plates. In the
window of my craftsman bungalow, a
stencil of a Japanese Crest is
surrounded by luscious iridized amber
and red-gold glass framed with black.
Rendered in glass that transform with
changing light, it welcomes and
embraces a visitor.
As a swimmer, I am fascinated with how
the light reflects through water.
This was my inspiration to the shell
platters. The accent shells are
created by the “pate de verre” or
paste of glass technique.
Glass is an ancient craft, now having
a renaissance. My personal viewpoint
is deeply in tune with this old, yet
contemporary, movement.
The following is an article about my
work. It was originally published on the Oakland Artisan Market
Place website in April of 2007.
Phyllis Williams
Fused Glass with Exquisite Class
Written by Judith Kajiwara
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One of the best kept secrets in
Oakland can be found at the Oakland
Artisan Marketplace. If you
blink, you may miss Phyllis Williams
sitting modestly behind a table
covered with gorgeous, hand-crafted
glass plates. They almost seem
out of place in an open-air market.
It's more likely they'd be found in
the home décor department at Neiman
Marcus. But when shoppers at
Jack London Square pause to look at
Phyllis' collection, they're
instantly in awe of the care and
labor of love that goes into each
beautiful piece. No two pieces
are alike, and each seems to have
its own story, which Phyllis loves
to share. Some are long
rectangles, dark and sexy with deep
purples and blacks; some light and
airy with faint, delicate images of
floating dragonflies; some
institutional or 1950’s Chevy green
detailed with black drippings
reminiscent of a fine dessert
dribbled with melted chocolate.
Some are opalescent, others
iridescent. Some whimsical,
some romantic. Each piece is
amazingly sturdy, lead-free, and
practical enough to be used as
impressive serving plates for real
food. When not in use, they
can be proudly displayed as art. |
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There's no doubt she's always been an
artist. With wide, child-like
eyes, Phyllis fondly recalls her first
exhibit--a watercolor she did in the 6th
grade. It was displayed at
Marshall Fields, a high-end department
store in the Park Forest Plaza located
in Park Forest, Illinois, a suburb of
Chicago. Phyllis can't recall the
subject of the painting. All she
remembers is riding down the escalator
and feeling overwhelmed with joy upon
seeing her painting for the first time.
Making art came naturally, and Phyllis
was surprised her painting had received
such acclaim. To be displayed at
the entrance of the toy department was
quite an honor!
As a student at Rich East High School,
she couldn't resist taking the class
that only the coolest of the cool kids
took--ceramics. She loved it so
much, she enrolled in an evening adult
class. With so many beautiful
pieces sitting at home, she convinced
some of her friends to set up a table to
sell their ceramics at a school
fundraiser. Early on Phyllis
experienced the high of blending art
with business.
Phyllis has been a regular at the
Oakland Artisan Marketplace for almost a
year. As with all artists at
the Marketplace, it's been a
learn-from-experience endeavor.
How do you bring in a steady flow of
cash without compromising your artistic
need to sustain creativity that's fresh
and exciting. For Phyllis, the
marketing aspect of being an artist is
not at all threatening, but she admits
it's "hard to figure out." And
"without deep pockets for marketing, you
must maximize what you're doing."
A bit of wisdom from her 25 years of
experience in advertising--a career she
fell into after earning a degree in
Business Administration and Economics at
Arizona State University.
In 1978, Phyllis re-located to San
Francisco's Upper Haight. While
hanging out at the Sacred Grounds
Coffeehouse on Page Street--where the
Grateful Dead played in its early
years--Phyllis knew she had to jump back
into the artistic fire. Ceramics
classes at Fort Mason lured her back.
In between the demands of her
advertising job--a career that was more
business-oriented than artistic--she
found respite in her "other life" as an
artist.
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Phyllis has always loved working in
the realm of the 3-dimensional.
"Taking mud, a part of earth, and
turning it into something of beauty
and value is really cool." As
a ceramic artist, she loved the
feeling of creating masks and vases
that were soulful reflections of
Mother Earth. However, the
process of raku and pit-firing had
become much too laborious and
time-consuming, and Phyllis was
ready for something new.
Her Oakland home is filled with the
remains of her past life as a
ceramic artist, and I asked her why
the switch from a medium that's so
heavy and earthy, to one that's so
colorful and transparent.
"I've always been fascinated by
glass. I was in grade school
the first time I saw a glass blower
in Jamestown. I was amazed at
the manipulation of something that's
solid matter."
She decided to take the plunge by
enrolling in a fused glass class at
Studio One in Oakland. She
remembers going to her first
class--on the evening of September
11, 2001--taught by renowned glass
artist Jim Wixon. Jim's
glassy wisdom and enthusiasm were
contagious and Phyllis was hooked.
Since then Jim continues to be
Phyllis' mentor, master teacher, and
source of boundless inspiration. |
Yes, start-up costs were steep.
However, in April 2005, Phyllis
purchased her baby--a Skutt Clamshell
glass kiln. It sits in her
basement next to her Skutt ceramics
kiln, the two kilns looking like grandma
and grandbaby. Phyllis refers to
her ceramics kiln as a "nice, old
workhorse," for this old faithful has
been working since 1979. The new
kiln is amazing. It can be
programmed to up to six settings.
This remarkably simplifies the process
as some of Phyllis' pieces are fired 3
times for 15 hours each firing.
All firings have different temperature
and time settings. With this new
technology, old school is over. No
need to carefully check and re-check
temperatures at all hours of the day and
night when the kitchen timer rings.
Phyllis can now sleep stress-free.
Mixing art and science is fascinating
for Phyllis. There's an element of
"danger" and excitement when working
with fused glass--a process that
liquefies the glass and creates one
piece of glass from many pieces.
Glass comes in different colors and
textures both in 20 x 36-inch sheets and
in powdered form. It is cut,
fashioned into a design, then fired in a
kiln at temperatures ranging from 1260
to 1460° F. During the cooling
stage of each firing, annealing
occurs--an important process which
relieves the glass of any stress.
This is what makes the finished pieces
hard and durable.
Phyllis has also added pendants to her
collection. These beautiful pieces
require only two firings and are not
"space hogs." Though the larger
pieces are more fun to create, the
pendants offer the shopper another way
to enjoy the beauty of glass art.
In retrospect, Phyllis recognizes that
not only does she like the challenge and
beauty of glass, she admits "I'm better
at glass than ceramics." Though
friends urge her to return to ceramics,
she holds fast to her commitment and
enjoyment of fusing glass. She
smiles and refers to the switch from
ceramics to glass as a "switch in the
brain."
It's taken a while for Phyllis to
identify herself first and foremost as
an "artist." To this, Phyllis
responds, "For years, being an artist
had been my dream and my passion.
Now it's a reality and I really enjoy
it." Though she does not hold an
art degree, Phyllis has never let this
hold her back. Over the years,
she's realized that "artists have a
natural passion and eye for art, and
don't need a formal art education."
What does the future hold for this
dream-come-true artist? She'd like
to increase her business to include
custom tile work--accenting bathroom and
kitchen walls with tiles she's designed
and created herself. She'd also
like to learn more about making jewelry
by combining glass with precious metal
clay--clay that, when fired, transforms
into a silver bezel. Plus, getting
that almighty art degree is in the
stars--even though, Phyllis admits, "it
may not make me a better artist."
Her journey as a
glass artist will always be a gentle
reflection of her personal life.
As her artistry stretches and grows, so
does her life. She'll always keep
learning and experimenting with new
ideas, colors, designs, and palettes.
Being gifted with the artistic bug has
ingrained a sense of faith in Phyllis'
creative energy. She seems to flow
with its current as freely and
gracefully as her life itself.
It's no wonder that yoga and swimming
are her choices for physical fitness;
and, to reflect her inner beauty, glass
her choice of art.
Judith Kajiwara
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