Hi! It's nice to meet you.

I'd like to use this blog to show you some of the work I'm doing, let you know about my upcoming shows, and, generally, to talk about my great love of glass art.

First, though, I should probably tell you a little about myself. I'm not terribly comfortable blowing my own horn, but fortunately, a recent piece in the Vienna Connection makes that unnecessary. It tells you most of what you need to know about me.

Art in Glass
Fused glass is Mary Ellen Larkins’ passion.
By Donna Manz, The Connection
Tuesday, April 29, 2008


Mary Ellen Larkins’ artwork shines. Literally.

In her Church Street studio, glass artist Larkins creates shimmering, intensely-hued fused glass jewelry and sculpted plates and display pieces.

"I’ve done all kinds of art, batiking, oil painting beading, but I fell in love with fused glass in 1999, and now, I just can’t get enough of it."Larkins is known in the glass art community as a "warm glass" artist. She buys sheets of glass, cuts and shapes it, and fires it at temperatures up to 1,400 degrees. To prepare her pieces, she first scores the sheet glass and then uses a pliers to cut it. "I get cut all the time," she says. "You live with it."

COLORS have different price ranges and different attributes of hardness. "Black is softest; white, hardest," said Larkins. "Firing times are critical when combining very hard and very soft glass. If glass is fired properly, it’s pretty durable."

Larkins dedicates a day to cutting the glass piece, another day firing it flat, and finally she molds the sculpted piece in the kiln once again. For jewelry, beading and wire-wrapping is the last stage.

Larkins’ studio houses one large kiln to fire her display pieces and three smaller kilns for jewelry. The equipment is expensive; larger kilns run $1,800 - $2,000 or more. A 4X4 square of space-age NASA-created dichroic glass, hard, glimmering, and made of many layers of metal oxides, sells for $28 or more. There’s breakage and molded pieces that do not come out as intended.

"I’ve taken big courses at Corning glass studios in New York, classes under world-renown glass artists, where you live and eat glass. It’s intense that way."

Over the past five years, Larkins has created thousands of pieces of jewelry … pendants, earrings, bracelets, brooches, and she takes custom orders. When she turned to display pieces and functional plates not long ago, she entered an artistic phase that reflects her moods and her feelings.

Pendants begin at $20; earrings at $13; wine bottles recycled into cheese platters are $27; and plates begin at $17. There’s no lead in her glass, Larkins says, so the plates can be used for food.

HER WORK has been displayed or sold at juried art shows in the Washington/Virginia area, and at Damon Galleries, Vienna Vintner, and Meadowlark Gardens, all in Vienna. Every year, Larkins participates in the Reston Town Festival and the Fairfax Fall Festival.

Larkins was a graphic artist professionally before turning her attention to the fine arts. Desktop publishing gradually gave way to fueling her passion for glass art, yet she makes time to continue volunteer work.

A community activist, Larkins was Vienna Volunteer of the Year in 2003 and is co-founder of Northern Virginia Reptile Rescue. In her backyard, sheltered from the elements, are rescued box turtles.

"I never know know what I’m going to do when I come down to the studio," said Larkins. "I get inspired. Sometimes, I play creatively. Sometimes, I’m working really hard. But I love it." Larkins turns over cut hands and fingers. "My hands don’t. But I love it."

E-mail melarkins@verizon.net for more information on Larkins’ shows and merchandise.

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