Inspired-glass & Chris's cards

Hi! – we’re Adrian & Chris (Inspired-glass and Chris’s Cards) and we work from our home studios, near Ballydehob in West Cork. Adrian is involved with all things glassy, while Chris creates her gorgeous hand-made greetings cards.

Handmade Greetings Cards
Each of Chris’s Cards is unique – unlike some ‘handmade card’ crafters, she doesn’t mass-produce her cards – but she uses a variety of media to create cards suitable for Weddings, New baby, Birthdays, general Greetings, “With Sympathy”, and Christmas Cards.

Glasswork
Meanwhile, Adrian divides his time between kiln-fused glass and traditional stained-glass – both new work and repair/restoration.

His new work ranges from tiny fused-glass dichroic jewellery pieces and suncatchers, through lampshades, and up to complete commissioned door and window-panels. Each item is handmade, and unique – no mass-produced pieces here!

Fused-glass and dichroic glass
The fused-glass items (jewellery and suncatchers) are made by hand-cutting coloured and special ‘dichroic’ glass to shape and size, before layering it up an firing it in my kiln.
During the fusing (heating) process, which takes about 8 hours from start to finish, and goes up to temperatures around 800c, the glass melts, stretches, shrinks, and, in the case of the dichroic glass and some other glasses, changes colour!
This mix of art and science creates one-of-a-kind pieces of art!

The dichroic glass (used mostly in jewellery because it is very expensive) is glass coated with microscopically-thin layers of quartz and oxides. Although it has no colour or pigment, it twists and bends light falling on it or passing though it to create colours which change as the piece moves in the light. The photos in this webshop can’t begin to show the beauty of this glass.

Repair & refurbishment
Repair/refurbishment is equally varied – from suncatchers and lampshades right up to Church-window-sized repair-work, from clients all over Ireland.

Feel free to browse our selection of unique glass jewellery and suncatchers, and gorgeous handmade greeting cards!
Any questions – please email us  or visit our website – www.inspired-glass.com