Artist Of The Month: Fused Glass Art, Bold Metalworks On Display

Acton uses her artistic talents to fashion unusual and beautiful items of fused glass. Her first piece is a metal weaving that she enhanced with the fused glass into a large abstract wall hanging. For her second choice, she created an earring and necklace assortment. Each piece is a one-of-a-kind jewelry design. This delicate work is accomplished through cutting fusible glass into the desired size then kiln-firing until the glass has fused together.



“It would be very difficult to duplicate this type of work,” Acton remarked.



“It can be both the easiest and most complex of art forms,” Acton explained about fused glass art. “It involves taking a piece of glass and some smaller cut pieces then designing a pleasing, visual form. Finally it is transformed by placing the glass arrangement in a kiln, applying intense heat, then allowing it to soften, taking a new shape, transition, finally to morph into a new object entirely.”



Acton has always loved artwork. She feels that to be able to take an item and create something beautiful with it is awe inspiring.



“I have always been a crafter, but after retiring I have found time to develop more artistic work. I find the closer I get to creating art from my own creative abilities, the more satisfied I am with the resulting work,” she said.



Acton of Terre Haute has a master’s degree from Indiana State University and taught home economics at the high school level before retiring. She has her work on display at Arts Illiana.



Robert Watton is a master metalsmith. Although he is perhaps best known locally for his exquisite hand-tooled copper roses, his first highlighted art is of another flower, “Clematis.” One day after a friend asked him if all he ever did was to make copper roses, he started looking around and spotted a clematis growing right on his deck. He said, “I think I can do this.” Watton creates his flower sculptures one piece at a time. He says it takes about four hours to assemble a rose.



Watton’s second artwork is a copper relief titled “Soul Seer.” He said he kept working on this piece a long time but could not think of a title for it until he added the eyes. “Those glass eyes just seemed to look into your soul,” he said.



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