The shift

I took my first stained glass class in March of 2001, and over the years created quite a few pieces of art. My creations varied from windows, stepping stones, mosaics, fused glass and pendants. Throughout the years that I was playing with glass I had fun with it. At one point I thought I could create a business, but it just wasn't meant to be in the overall scheme in my life. Over the last few months the EPA has had a major impact on the manufacturers of art glass in the U.S.A., and I agree that the environment is important to keep safe. With that in mind, I believe the government could help these businesses by providing some sort of tax break or grants to make the manufacturing of glass as safe for the environment as possible and keep these companies in business.

All of my stained glass windows, stepping stones and mosaics were created with Spectrum Glass. This company is closing it's doors after forty years in business. They were the only manufacturer that produced machine made glass, which made their glass just a bit more affordable than hand blown glass, with stunning color variations. Spectrums average retail price was about $6-$10 a square foot. They also produced  a line of System 96 COE for fusing glass, again a bit less expensive for the fuser. They stated that it wasn't just the EPA that affected the closing but the business never fully recovered from the recession. You can read the letter that the announcing the closure of Spectrum here.

Bullseye glass, my favorite glass that I use for fusing (90 COE), along with several other glass manufactures were all under a nationwide review by the EPA.  They were all ordered to install a filtration system to keep toxins from seeping into the environment, which they did comply. Now this past week the Governor of Oregon ordered a Cease and Desist order for Bullseye to stop manufacturing glass because of lead levels in the environment.  As of today May 23, 2016, Bullseye will have to start laying off people in their company, and have made this latest announcement, read here.

With everything that is going on in the glass industry, there will be a trickle down affect with all the small Mom and Pop glass retails shops, either their prices will be skyrocketing or they will be going out of business. I am hoarding my current glass supply and will not be creating anything with it for a while. I have a feeling that they way things are going I won't be able to afford to play with glass in the future.

My stash of powders