Rachel Baker

Guest artist since 2012

Fused Glass

Through my glass artwork I bring the vibrant colors and imagery from nature that so inspire me, into the lives and homes of people around the globe. I create glass pieces with imagery from ocean life, plants and flowers and Polynesian symbols.

In crafting my work, I am always looking for how I can use the material to tell the story that I have in my mind. For example, when I create a piece that is ocean themed, I work to give the feeling of three-dimensionality that I experience when I am swimming and diving in Hawaiian seas.

More than anything, I am inspired by color and by the way light works with color in glass to create a sense of movement. I am attracted to imagery and see glass as a way to “paint”, yet have the depth and dimensionality that glass gives.

Many of my larger pieces include images of sea turtles and other sea life or plant life. Hawai’i is a great place for inspiration from both the beauty and vibrant color of the undersea world and the tropical plants and flowers on land. I create the imagery with cut glass shapes, using both transparent glass and opal glass to make use of both reflected and transmitted light. I also use frit and powders to create shading and texture.

My favorite technique is the use of a screen to melt glass through. As a result, most of my larger pieces use screen melts to create the background for the imagery I use. In the kiln, the glass drips through the screen into the form I’ll be using for the final piece. The dripping process allows the glass to mix and swirl as it falls to the kiln shelf. This creates layers of color that move and swirl in three dimensions within the glass. While this part of the piece is fairly abstract, the next step is to create the imagery, which is more controlled.

I use dichroic glass for all of my jewelry and much of my giftware. To produce the imagery, I hand-etch using a dremel tool and/or acid-etch with a mask that I make from my designs. As with my larger pieces, my favorite pieces to make are those that tell a story. I use Polynesian symbols to bring forth a story or theme that can serve as a reminder to the wearer of some important life theme.

I am constantly trying new things and learning new techniques to incorporate into my work. I have been working with glass since 1995 and I started my business, Rachel Baker Glass (formerly Rachel's Little Glass Shack), when I moved to Hawai’i in 2008. I am mostly a self-taught glass artist, and continue learning through classes and webinars. I studied art in college at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and focused on fine art, doing watercolor and figure drawing. I also studied math in college and went on to get my PhD in Applied Math at Caltech and spent much of my career as a spacecraft engineer and college professor. During that time, I kept my art alive as a hobby until I decided to make art my focus in 2008. At that time, I also shifted my emphasis from stained glass panels to fused glass.