"I started working with glass in 2006. I enjoymaking many different forms from glass, including bowls, vases, and other vessels as well as imaginative and some more realistic sculptures.

A thousand year old technique, known as caneworking, is one of my favorite styles to work in. It involves creating, and then arranging thin rods of colored glass. Sometimes in patterns, and many timesweaving in and out of each other while flowing through the piece of glass. There are millions of different ways to use cane. Going hand in hand with cane is murrine, which is pulled similar to cane but typicaly left thicker in diameter and then cut into cross sections.

I make all my clear glass from scratch. I also try to use intense amounts and variations in color. Many colors I make from raw materials. The main ingredient is sand, followed by soda ash and lime. By creating my own colors I'm able to come up with some colors that may not be available to the rest of the glass world.

When I'm shaping glass, it is intense. Everything has to happen at just the right time, like a well choreographed dance. There is no stopping to go freshen my coffee. Once I start a piece at 2000 degrees, it has to stayabove 1000 degrees the entire time I work it or it will crack. It can be a fine line to walk. Too much heat or too little at the wrong time can mean failure.

With my glass I hope to simply bring pleasure and enhance one's surroundings, though many pieces are functional as well."

By the Bay Gallery is proud to present the work of Scott Garrelts in our collection of the finest in American Crafts.