Artists of Rosen Divorce - Selena Glass & Metal
Selena Glass & Metal
Selena Glass & Metal is a joint effort between Deana Blanchard and Chuck Young, who have been married since 1984. Deana has been a professional glass artist since 1978 and Chuck since 1984. After many happy years making stained glass work in Boulder, Colorado, Deana and Chuck moved to the mountains of North Carolina in 1994. Here, enjoying a much larger studio, Deana has begun doing lampworking, using Pyrex rods and a oxygen/propane torch to make small glass objects. Chuck has begun doing metal work to create frames for large free-standing glass pieces that he and Deana have designed. The couple is also working collaboratively to design and fabricate glass and metal cabinets, chairs, tables, and other furniture.
Through collaborative design, we want to achieve pieces which convey the happiness we feel about the world and its processes. We hope that our body of work reflects the lightness, playfulness, and exuberance of life through the interplay of line, color, and light. Our wish is to fabricate pieces which will tickle the eye now and for years to come.
Through the years, Selena has become known as one of the leading stained glass studios in the United States. Chuck and Deana have won numerous awards, including the Mayor's Purchase Award at the Piccolo Spoleto Crafts Fair in Charleston, where their award-winning piece will be added to the Permanent Collection of the City of Charleston. Recently their peers of the Carolina Designer Craftsmen Guild chose their work for the “Craftsmen’s Choice Award” for the member who consistently presents quality craftsmanship.
Please take a look at the titles of our pieces--we have fun thinking them up. Maybe they'll give you a laugh and some insight into our ever-so-slightly twisted minds.
About the work:
Our windows are constructed using the copper foil and solder method. The glass is cut out and a copper foil tape is wrapped and crimped around each piece of glass. Flux is sprayed on the panel and a 60/40 solder is used to form a thin channel on both the front and back of the window. Brass came is used for the frame and a copper patina is applied to the seams. The glass we use is of the highest quality and comes from the United States, Germany, France, Great Britain, and Argentina.
Screens are constructed of concrete-reinforcing rod which is bent by hand around forms and then welded together. We also use tube, pipe and sheet steel to complete the frame which is welded to the re-bar components. Then the whole screen is power wire-brushed, and coated with an polyurethane finish. Then the glass panels are constructed as above or sandblasted as below.
Sandblasted pieces are constructed of plate glass. A resist is applied to the glass and cut out with an X-acto blade, sandblasted with silicon carbide and then gold, composite and variegated leaf and powders, and paint are applied to the sandblasted areas.
Contact Information:
selena@main.nc.
828-682-6293
Fiddle Dee Dee
Phee, Phi, Pho, Phum
