Home Life Style

The Vienna Connection ran another article about me in the "Home Life Style" section of its October 8-14 issue. (An earlier article appeared in April.) The print version of the latest piece has nice big colorful pictures. Check it out if you get the chance. If you can't find the print version, here's the gist of the story:

A Glimmer in Her Art
Vienna glass artist crafts in fused glass.

By Donna Manz, The Connection
Monday, October 06, 2008

In her Church Street home studio, glass artist Mary Ellen Larkins creates shimmering, vividly-hued fused glass jewelry, 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 what 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. She has taken glass courses at the Corning glass studios in New York under world-renowned glass artists, and studied glass art in Italy this past May.

Over the past five years, Larkins has created thousands of pieces of jewelry … pendants, earrings, bracelets and brooches. When she turned to display pieces and functional plates not long ago, she translated her moods and her feelings into the art. Throughout her Vienna home are bowls, plates and freeform pieces, many with memories attached.

"Firing times are critical when combining very hard and very soft glass," says Larkins. "If glass is fired properly, it’s pretty durable."

Production of a single piece takes several days to complete. She allots one day to cutting the glass into its design, and another day firing it flat. In the final step of the display-piece process, Larkins fires the molded 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, as is the dichroic glass she fashions into opalescent, shimmering art. A 4X4 square of the NASA-created dichroic glass, a hard, glimmering, many-layered substance of metal oxides, sells for $28 or more.

Larkins’ finished 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 and sold at juried art shows around the region, and at Damon Galleries, Vienna Vintner, and Meadowlark Gardens, all in Vienna.

Larkins was a graphic artist professionally before turning her attention to the fine arts. As consuming as her passion for glass art is, she makes time from her busy days 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 what I’m going to do when I come down to the studio," says Larkins. "I get inspired. Sometimes, I play creatively. Sometimes, I’m working really hard. But I love it."

Email Larkins at at melarkins@verizon.netfor information on shows and artwork.