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Seekers®
Glass Gallery presents the
work of Magan Stevens, who creates large sculptural vessels decorated with
dichroic glass leaf designs.
“In
my Dichroic Leaf Vases,” Magan explains, “traditional glassblowing is
combined with the technologically advanced system for preparing imagery from
panes of shimmering dichroic glass. Seamlessly, I pick up the cut-out leaf
shapes onto the exterior of a blown black vessel, which I later encase in
transparent crystal.”
The word dichroic is Greek -- di means two and chroic
means color. Dichroic glass was developed in the 1960s for use in high
technology applications. It manipulates light in two ways, transmitting one
color while reflecting another. It appears to change colors when the viewer
moves in relation to the piece, providing a kinetic effect.
The reason the glass changes color when viewed
from different angles has to do with the laws of refraction. The brightness of
the colors is attributed to the fact that the coating does not absorb light like
a piece of stained glass, but instead almost all light is either transmitted or
reflected.
Dichroic coatings have evolved from the thin
film technology of our aerospace programs. Their diverse applications range from
the use of diagnosing diseases (by tracing florescent antibodies) to being a
principle component in energy producing solar cells and serving as a
quantitative measuring device in research photography. The technology is called
“Thin Film Physics.”
Magan blows each piece freely, without the use
of molds, using traditional glassblowing methods that are thousands of years
old. She creates each piece at the end of a five-foot long metal blowpipe,
constantly spinning and reheating the viscous mass as it has been done for
millennia.
She melts the glass in a specially made furnace
and works it at temperatures in excess of 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. When she
completes the blowing and shaping process, Magan removes the piece from the pipe
and places it into an annealing oven, where it will cool slowly.
In general, the larger and thicker the piece,
the longer the time required for it to anneal. Some very thick or very large
pieces can take several days to anneal. Annealing slowly relieves the internal
stresses caused by the extreme heat at which the molten glass is worked. Without
annealing, the finished piece would shatter in the room temperature air.
Magan earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree
from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, where she has
later served as a visiting artist.
In 1993 her work was selected for publication
in The Corning Museum of Glass' prestigious New
Glass Review, Vol. 14. Only 100 pieces of glass art are selected for the
museum's publication and permanent collection annually, from among thousands of
international entries.
Her scholarships include one to study at the
Corning Museum of Glass in New York and two to study at the world renowned
Pilchuck Glass School, founded by the legendary Dale Chihuly in Washington
State. At Pilchuck she studied with the Italian glass master Lino Tagliapietra.
Magan also received a Fellowship in 2000 from
the Creative Glass Center of America. In 2001 she was honored with an Award as
the “Outstanding Emerging Glass Artist” from The Hilbert Sosin Fund of the
Florida Art Alliance. In 2003, she became a co-founder of R.K.S. Studios.
Among
the collections that include her work are those of Hydrojet Services, Inc.,
Reading, PA, and The Museum of American Glass, Millville, NJ. Her work has been
show at major galleries and museums throughout the United States, including The
National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia.
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