The Painted Desert series is quite unique from most weights and blown work currently being done in Art Glass. The difference lies primarily in the "batch glass" used in the work. Most art glass is done by the use of clear a glass furnace with colored glass applied over the clear in the form of powder or frit manufactured by glass companies such as Kugler of Germany.

Almost all colors in glass are achieved by the inclusion of metallic oxides in the glass batch such as cobalt or cadmium or chrome. These oxides spread evenly throughout the batch under melt, producing a single color in the finished piece. The Painted Desert Glass contains such oxides along with other ingredients that affect the final appearance of the glass. The most important of these ingredients is silver. The basic color produced by silver is yellow; however, silver has a quality uniquely different from metal oxides. Silver will not disperse evenly thruoghout the glass batch. It remains in colliod-like form. Il Layers, it swirls and streaks throughout the batch, entraining the colors from other oxides in order to form the beautiful variegated patterns and colors of the Painted Desert series art glass.

But that is not all of the story. The final result depends on several things the glass artist does in the process of working the hot glass such as manipulating the surface of the molten glass after it has been gathered on the blowpipe; heating, cooling and reheating the piece in progress; reducing or oxidizing it in the glory hole; and finally controlling the cooling of the finished piece in the annealing lehr. The exact details of how all of this is achieved in the creation of the Painted Desert Series is proprietary information of Terra Studios, not likely to be duplicated by any other artists.

There is one more unique and wonderful thing about owning a piece of Painted Desert glass. Not in a hundred years could the glass artists of Terra duplicate your piece of glass. It is in the truest sense of the word, one of a kind.

When you order Painted Desert art glass, we guarantee your satisfaction.