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Custom
Glass |
The custom glass page is meant to inform you of the latest news,
workshops and artists that I have worked and studied with.
The picture to the right is me in my studo.
Hometown News
Posted: 2007 Mar 16 - 01:31
By Rita Hart
Staff writer
JENSEN BEACH - When you walk into Lisa Woodard's Backstreet Gallery in Jensen Beach, it is obvious she is an artisan with a gift.
What is not so obvious is that Mrs. Woodard lives with almost constant pain in the very hands and arms that create her unique glass pieces.
Mrs. Woodard was only 21 when she and the man who would become her husband were in a car accident. Mrs. Woodward's arm was resting on the open window when the car flipped over, crushing her hand in the process. When she woke up three days later, the thumb of her right hand was gone, and the knuckle on her index finger was crushed, permanently rendering that finger useless.
Now 52, Mrs. Woodard has undergone multiple surgeries ever since, including unsuccessful attempts to reattach the thumb and to use part of her pelvic bone to create a new thumb.
Because her upper extremities are overused in order to compensate for these injuries, she has developed additional problems with her wrists and shoulders, including severe pain that prevents her from sleeping in any position except on her back.
Rather than feeling sorry for herself, 17 years ago Mrs. Woodard decided to take a class in Port St. Lucie on how to make stained glass.
"It's either black or white," said Mrs. Woodard of learning the new craft. "You either love it or you hate it."
Mrs. Woodard loved it. "But after 10 years, I lost the learning curve," she said. "There was nothing left to learn. So I bought a kiln, took a class in Lake Worth on working with fused glass, and the learning curve just hasn't stopped."
Fused glass is also known as warm glass to those who work with it. The glass is melted at about 1500 degrees in a kiln, and then slowly cooled. Different colors of glass can be stacked together, or the glass can be colored using enamels, which are crushed glass in the form of a powder.
"I never paint the glass," said Mrs. Woodard. "It's all crushed glass powder."
Mrs. Woodard's artistry and imagination have turned fused glass into decorative dishes, wall hangings, jewelry and even sinks.
"My sinks are not tempered," said Mrs. Woodard. "If you scratch them, they won't fall into 100 pieces like tempered glass."
Although Mrs. Woodard's shop is in Jensen Beach, the studio where she creates her pieces is in the backyard of her home in Port St. Lucie.
Each of the glass products made by Mrs. Woodard is unique.
When describing one of the pieces in her shop, Mrs. Woodard explains that it is called "jillion unity."
"Those plates are made of one millimeter strings of glass, and I use four layers," said Mrs. Woodard. "There are a jillion ways you can unite them."
When looking at the unique pieces she has created, it's difficult to understand the struggle it must have been for her to learn her craft from people whose hands work differently than hers do.
Dr. Robert Forster is Mrs. Woodard's orthopaedic surgeon.
"It's remarkable how much she can do with so many hurdles to overcome," said Dr. Forster. "She has the hurdle of not having a thumb, and an finger that doesn't work. And yet she still continues to forge ahead, and she is doing intricate, demanding, manual dexterity tasks."
As a result of these challenges, when someone first suggested to Mrs. Woodard that she attempt to make jewelry from glass, she initially resisted.
"I don't know why I fought it so hard. It's the dexterity thing. But once I find my own way, I'm okay. I can't watch how someone else does it and do it the way they do."
To emphasize this point, Mrs. Woodard explained that when her three children were little, her attempts to teach them how to tie their shoelaces was frustrating.
"I had to use my middle finger to try and do it," said Mrs. Woodard.
But because her children had ten fingers and she did not, "Eventually, I had to have someone else teach them," she said.
Mrs. Woodard said that lately she is in constant pain. Because her wrists were used so hard to compensate for the loss of fingers, she eventually had to have the bones in her wrists fused.
"I'm sort of arm challenged," said Mrs. Woodard, "but I'm also strong-willed."
Mrs. Woodard said she doesn't ever see herself retiring from her craft.
"I don't think of it as work," she said. "If it was work, or mass production, I couldn't do it."
Explaining that the fused glass doesn't always turn out the way that she originally had in mind, Mrs. Woodard said, "Sometimes there are happy mistakes. It's what the glass wants to do."
The Backstreet Gallery is located at 3215 N.E. Maple Ave., Jensen Beach. For more information, including gallery hours, call (772) 225-4499 or (772) 260-9922. Some of Mrs. Woodard's creations may be viewed at www.glasschoices.com
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