Gale Franko's Dichroic Glass Jewelry

After 30 years as an Emmy-award-winning television producer, writer and editor, Gale Franko had had enough.  Along the way, to combat stress, Franko began making jewelry from glass beads.  It was not only therapeutic, it was addictive.

Determined to learn how to make glass beads herself, Franko invested in a torch, glass rods, and other necessary equipment.  The first attempts were exciting, but a final element was missing.  In order to prevent easy breakage of the glass, the beads must be held in a kiln at a specific temperature in a process call annealing.  This ensures that all the glass molecules heat and cool at the same rate, preventing the glass from cracking after it has cooled.

In the end, it was the kiln and it's multiple possibilities that won over Franko's heart and lured her into glass fusing.  The magical sparkle of dichroic glass was irresistable.  Thus began her part-time business of Looking Glass Designs, making pendants, earrings and other jewelry.  She began to build up some wholesale accounts, developing relationships with boutiques and galleries that sold her jewelry.

Dichroic Glass pendant by Gale Franko

The high stress of the job finally got to be too much, and a few years ago, Franko took the plunge into being a full-time artist.  Always a big leap, this required a big move into growing those wholesale accounts.  That means doing wholesale trade shows, and coming up with new and clever ways to get in touch with galleries and boutiques.


Selection of dichroic
glass rings

The recession has been a particularly difficult time for artists.  The most resilient ones continue to grow and innovate.  Franko is among those, and came up with a line of home decor objects to expand her potential sales and potential gallery representation.  Fused glass votive holders, spoon rests, cheese trays, picture frames and more are now a regular part of her line.

Glass cheese tray

To differentiate herself from the myriad other artists doing such work, Franko creates the glass designs herself, by melting powdered glass and thin glass rods onto clear glass, and making things out of that.  Check out the gorgeous lime-aqua-purple cheese tray pictured here.  It's a wowzer!  And because she creates the glass, no two will ever be exactly alike.

Franko now shows her work in  34 states around the country, plus the Virgin Islands.  The sparkle of the dichroic glass, combined with the simplicity of her shapes, has an ever-growing group of collectors always on the lookout for her latest colors and shapes.

Come see Franko's jewelry and home decor items, and meet the woman herself!  She'll be our featured artist at the December 20 Art Walk in Edmonds, and on hand to answer questions from 5 - 8 pm that evening.

"Rain Forest House" pendant
of dichroic glass

Glass that looks like fabric

Recently, an artist friend of fused glass artist Heidi VanderWerff challenged her to try to make glass look like fabric.  Well, Heidi is the type whose wheels start turning as soon as someone makes such a suggestion!  She mulled it over, had unusual dreams about it, and tried out many possible scenarios.

First, there's the problem of making something look woven.  In fabric, thousands of tiny threads are woven in and out of each other to create what we know as fabric.  How to do that with glass?  It's not flexible like thread is.  On the other hand, there are skinny, thread-like rods of glass available.  What would it look like to lay a bunch of them next to each other, and then again cross-wise?  Hmmmm....

More testing with solid colors and transparent colors to get the best look, and what do you know, but a flat piece finally emerged from the kiln that looked woven!  Unfortunately, it also looked stiff.  And fabric certainly doesn't look stiff.  How to make it drape, like fabric drapes?  Hmmmm.....

More testing with various shapes and molds, and finally, there emerged from the kiln these two wonderful, shapely, draped results!  One works great as a candle holder, as the light passes through the transparent parts of the glass, it glows in the most wonderful way.  The other is a tray that could be used to hold food, as it is indeed, solid, even if it looks like there are open spaces in between the "threads."  Or place it on an easel in front of a window, and enjoy how the light goes through it!

And now, for the final test.  What do other people say about it?  That question was answered just a few days ago when a lovely 5th grader came in to enjoy the glass.  She said, "Wow, is that glass?  It looks like fabric!" So I got to tell the story of how an artist friend of Heidi's challenged her to make glass look like fabric, and presto!  Here are the results!

Great work, Heidi!  We can't wait to see the results of your next challenge!

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