Martha Bateman is a retired art teacher who discovered her love for fused glass by chance.

She walked into a gift shop and started talking to the owner. The owner mentioned that she wished that she had someone to make fused glass fish. Martha thought, “I can do that” and through books, videos, and trial and error, Martha taught herself how to make fused glass fish. Fish lead to other types of suncatchers. Then came functional items and art pieces and more experimentation and more techniques.

People ask “What is fused glass”? The simplest explanation is cutting pieces of glass (taking glass apart) and putting it back together in a different way and then putting it in a kiln to melt it all together. It can be slightly melted (a tack fuse) or have some dimension (a contour fuse) or it can be completely fused together (a full fuse). Opening up a kiln is always exciting because you never know if what you meant to happen actually happened. There are always “happy accidents”. As exciting as it is to fuse glass together, the very best part is breaking the glass!!!