![]() He’s reached the point in his career where he’d rather share his knowledge of glass art than sell artwork on consignment. Though Phillips has built hundreds of stained glass windows for Princess luxury cruise ships, a church in Santo Domingo, a casino in Tunica, Miss., and the home of Grammy Award-winning singer Toni Braxton, you won’t find his work in area galleries. But then bubbles imploded on it and after four kiln firings, he noticed the shape of two babies in the glass. Phillips recalled “a screw-up” piece that was originally supposed to be a wall hanging. Of course, every piece isn’t going to turn out like you planned. It’s his palate of colors for a canvas that finds is true shape under the pressure of fire. Thanks to metal halide lamps installed in his workshop, he has what he calls “the cleanest, whitest light” to work under, which allows him to see the truest hues possible.īehind his worktable are scores of glass plates arranged not according to color but by the process in which they were made - by machine, handmade or mouth blown. He might work all day long on a project or rise at 4 a.m. Sometimes Phillips might feel like an alchemist, searching for just the right temperature and technique to yield the perfect treasure. When it’s cool enough for human hands, the glass is then wired and fitted with a string. Inside a kiln, it will “cool down” to 1,085 degrees Fahrenheit. Dotting or tapping the back of the newly formed pendant, the glass implodes from within to reveal what looks like tiny, colorful sea anemone, mini explosions of glass trapped inside the bubble of transparent glass.Īfter Phillips is satisfied with the shape of the pendant, it’s slowly cooled in an annealing process for about four hours, allowing the glass to harden back into a solid form. Melting glass rods on a torch at about 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit, the glass softens into liquid eyedrop shapes. In his workshop building behind the gallery, dozens of his glass pendants are laid out on the side of a long wooden work table in preparation for the Decatur Arts Festival on Memorial Day weekend. The Macon County School Board has signed a resolution in opposition to a bill that would…
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