CRASH GLASS

Dolby Art Glass

In the early 80’s I owned a stained glass studio and gallery. My brother, Jim, was co-owner of our business which we named Dolby Art Glass.It was a wonderful experience and I enjoyed creating custom windows for churches, restaurants and homes. I also loved the ambiance of our location on the farmers' market in Roanoke, Virginia.

Jim Galloway and Cheryl Galloway Dolby

I had the privilege of selling to many celebrities who visited our valley, such as Debbie Reynolds.

Cheryl Dolby, Donald O'Conner and Debbie Reynolds

After many years of working with glass, I felt the need to experiment with other mediums. Basket making called to me for awhile and then I started creating stoneware clay sculpture, which I continue to do until this day. I still venture off from time to time exploring other art forms though and one of my latest interests is crash glass.

Misguided Angel

Crash glass is actually tempered glass. This is the glass you find in the windows of cars or sliding glass doors. I started experimenting with the glass by combining ideas I found in magazines and books and tweaked all that I read to come up with some pretty unusual items.

Here is the technique that I devised.

Aquarium glue and a sheet of tempered glass.

I started by taking a 24"x24" piece of tempered glass and striking the corner with a hammer. I use 1/8" inch glass for small projects and 1/4" for larger ones, such as tables.

The glass fractures into hundreds of small, irregular pieces.

I decided on my project. I wanted to create a woman with a flowing gown. I used acrylic and painted a womans face onto a rigid piece of wood.

Face I painted on wood and tissue paper glued to form gown

Next, I applied tissue paper with Modge Podge to the area where I wanted her gown to be.

Then I sprinkled the entire area with colored sparkles.

Glitter sprinkled over entire area where I want the gown to be

I glued the clear tempered glass to the glittered area with Aquarium glue and painted the surrounding wooden board the color I wanted, in this case it is an off beige.

Many projects can be created using this technique. Here are a few examples:

Small "crashed glass" angel

In progress picture of planter

Misguided angel in progress

Crash glass projects may not be for everyone but I have enjoyed the process and look forward to where it takes me next. I hope this post gives you some great ideas of your own.