Lisa Schnellinger, a former journalist turned artist, specializes in kilnformed glass. The Atlanta glass designer finds it is the right material for her — and her sculptures and hanging panels.
Artist: Born and raised in northeast Ohio, Schnellinger earned a bachelor’s in journalism from Kent State University.
After college, she worked as a newspaper reporter and editor in Ohio and Seattle, where she completed her MA in international studies at the University of Washington.
She also was awarded a Knight International Press Fellowship training journalists in the Pacific Islands, then became an overseas journalism trainer and media developer living in Beijing, Dubai, Kabul, and working in many other countries.
Throughout her journalism career of 38 years and travels to more than 40 countries, Schnellinger followed the art trail and did her own photography.
She also studied painting and drawing whenever she could. But it wasn’t until Schnellinger took a class in kilnformed glass that she found a medium to satisfy the ideas and urges of her brain and hands.
In 2017-18, she made the switch to full-time glass artist. In 2019, she inherited her glass studio and equipment from her mentor, the late glass artist Charlie Holden.
A lifelong learner, Schnellinger did a residency in ceramics in 2019 at CRETA in Rome, Italy. She also studied sculpture and art history at Georgia State University as a post-baccalaureate student (2022-2024).
Currently, the glass artist is a master’s candidate at Kennesaw State University in its art & design program.
Company/studio: Lisa Schnellinger and her Fused Light Studio are based in Decatur, GA, in a commercial space, next to Southern Sweets Bakery. She has been in business for five years at this location, but making kilnformed glass for nine years.
Art & materials: Primary medium is kilnformed glass. Smaller sculptures and hanging panels ($200 to $800) and larger works, up to $8,000. She often incorporates ceramics and photography in her sculptures.
What is kilnformed glass: The practice of forming glass in a kiln is relatively new, historically speaking. It has only been a dedicated medium since the 1960s.
“Most people think glassblowing is the only way artists work with hot glass,” said Schnellinger. “But kilnforming isn’t fast and dangerous the way glassblowing is.”
You can take all the time you need to make a design, added Schnellinger. Then, by controlling the temperature and rate of heat in a kiln, you can fuse pieces together, paint with glass powders, make unusual shapes, or cast glass into any shape you desire.
What’s popular:
- Clear panels she creates in her sandbed kiln that have a truly unique textured and sculpted look.
- Workshops and lessons to teach other artists how to use the sandbed to cast glass.
Other favorites: Art from salvaged glass that she shapes, fuses and casts with bottles, old tabletops, and other discarded glass that would otherwise end up in a landfill.
Favorite or must-have tools: Her big custom-made kilns. They allow her to cast sculptures up to 58-inches tall or shape pieces of glass up to 36 inches x 68 inches.
Inspirations: The Bauhaus “truth to materials” principle.
“All of my experience with glass has been in understanding its nature and working with it in collaboration using the carefully controlled heat of a kiln,” said Schnellinger. “That doesn’t mean it has to be shiny or even transparent, necessarily, but I never try to make it behave or appear like any other material.”
Special or unusual commissions:
- Cast in glass, a terrain map of the area around the upper Chattahoochee River, working from a 3D print. That kind of representational precision is a marvel enabled by technology.
- Similarly, took on the technical challenge of casting the 62 letters that make up the Microsoft slogan for the lobby of its Experience Center in Atlanta. This was highly precise work using lead crystal. The letters had to be within 1 mm of the specific size in order to be installed correctly.
Recent project: Glass casting for a series, “Triage,” figures completely covered in rags.
“They represent the way in which we hastily bandage our emotional wounds, and in the process bury ourselves,” said Schnellinger.
What’s new:
- Working on larger sculptures for outdoor display, using salvaged glass.
- Expanding her team-building workshops.
Where to buy:
- Fusedlightstudio.com and in her studio gallery by appointment.
- Atlanta-based Cynthia Farnell Projects in the Equinox show. Through Nov. 10. On Instagram: @cynthiafarnellprojects
Connect:
- IG: @fused_light_studio
- Facebook: Fused Light Studio
