Weds 25th June 2025
Returning to the group this week was Heather Carpenter of Mara Amore, who last presented about her fused glass artwork business on 30th April. This time she again brought some of her art to pass around, as well as explaining about the kit needed to produce them.
Heather initially talked about her growing range of collections based on Connemara in Ireland, and her skill in producing new fused glass pieces. There have been some commissions that have been very gratifying to produce too. But the more complex pieces required extra kit in the form of ceramic moulds, stainless steel rings, and a stainless steel wire mesh!
The wire mesh was used to drip melt glass so that if forms lovely swirly patterns. This was then used as an insert with some coloured transparent glass and slumped into a stunning platter. All in all it took three runs through the glass kiln! The steel rings were used when creating a multi-layered disc of mainly white, blue & green glass fragments. The piece is set up to resemble a wave as seen from below.
Heather then talked about a new technique that requires a piece of kit you probably would never associate with glass fusing, namely a 2008 HP Laser Printer! The printer, using ink that contains more iron oxide than modern printers use, prints onto specialist paper that can then be used as a decal on glass pieces. Heather can see many potential uses for this, but one is to create corporate gifts (e.g. fridge magnets) that contain the company’s logo.
Finally, Heather talked about an exciting development with Mara Amore, as she will be guesting at Made by Bayliss & Co on Tenterden High Street from July 5th, with an opening party for local businesses the previous evening from 5.30pm to 7pm.
Mara Amore’s website is at https://mara-amore.ie/ and Instagram profile is at https://www.instagram.com/maraamoreglass
