December 12, 2012
Lights, Camera, Action!
No, this post isn’t about filming This Old House—it’s about an amazing find that came to us through our fabulous interior designers, Dee and Andrew of Terrat Elms Interior Design. Dee told us that her friend Carrie Gustafson, a glass artist who designs beautiful bowls and light fixtures, was interested in designing a light to go over our dining room table.
My father and I went with Dee and Andrew to meet Carrie in her Cambridge studio and learn more about her work. Carrie usually works with colorful glass that she buys in foot-long bars. Two or three layers of glass in different colors are blown into the shape of the light. Through a painstaking process, Carrie cuts out and applies a sandblast-resistant material in a decorative pattern on the glass. The pieces of this material are tiny—it requires a great deal of planning and time to achieve the pattern that she has developed. Next, she uses a tool to etch away the top layer of glass in the areas that are not covered by resistant material. When the top layer is etched away, the layers beneath are revealed, leaving a beautiful, colorful design. When the fixture is lit, it reveals even more subtleties and color.
I highly recommend checking out Carrie’s awesome website which has an excellent, pictorial explanation of her process. We look forward to working with her, Dee, and Andrew to design a one-of-a-kind light fixture for our dining room.