Artist

Frozen Music aptly describes the tempered glass jewelry of Mercedes Brugh. Created in a hard medium, her work has a surprising fluidity; a meticulously crafted symphony flows through each piece.

"I work in glass because it is a responsive material that can achieve the colors of gemstones. I create jewelry because tiny, exquisite objects beckon the observer to put them on, treasure them, keep them. Working small also allows me to imagine that I might be able to perfect such a tiny thing--control one cubic inch of the universe."

Mercedes grew up in a family of engineers, but dyslexia forced her onto a different path. At age eight, she began taking apart her sister's old jewelry to embellish tin-foil covered cardboard crowns. After exploring many different artistic avenues, a college jewelry course felt right. She graduated with a metalsmithing degree and worked in gold jewelry design for thirty years before discovering glass in 2001.

Her elegant pieces begin as a Computer-Aided Drawing. CAD, which she calls "the compulsive's friend," allows for incredible detail. The drawings take from twenty to eighty hours to perfect. When pleased with the result, she etches the drawing into pieces of dichroic glass. Other pieces of sheet glass are then stacked below and above the etched glass and then fused at 1450 degrees. The method she uses to cool the glass tempers it.

Inspiration often comes from nature - her garden or hiking trips in the Rockies. Myths and folklore might also capture her imagination, as seen in her showpiece "Day of the Dead" necklace. The results are a melding of fine craftsmanship, astonishing color and clarity of vision - each piece waiting to be discovered and cherished by its new owner.