trading post

Here's where I roll out my rug and show you my wares.

Enjoy!

Below are links to a selection of available work.

Many have a youtube 'short' below them, where you can see the piece being turned around, changing
how the light shines on and through it. (my youtube channel is painted house in the big woods :)

If you want to know more about the artwork, many of the videos have more on the story around them in their 'about' section.

about the illuminationsbyshen trading post:

All work is lovingly created, carefully packaged and shipped by me ~
with Royal Mail registered in the UK and DHL express overseas.

Commissions are welcomed, and paying by instalments is possible.


about my process

Much of my work explores translucency.
I work with fired glass, both fused and cast,
unfired, painted glass and porcelain.

Painted glass pieces are created with glass paint and inked with a old-style dip-pen.

Fused glass works are made by arranging a variety of glass sheets, frits (crushed glass of various sizes)
and powders on a kiln shelf. The piece is gradually brought up to a full-fuse temperature of 1,500° fahrenheit.
After staying there in a 'soak' for some time, it's then slowly brought back down to room temperature (annealed).

Cast glass involves creating a piece in clay or wax, then casting it into a plaster-silica mix.
Once the plaster cast has been cleaned and dried, it then goes in the kiln to be filled with glass.
(I almost exclusively use hand rolled Bullseye glass from Portland, Oregon.)

As with fused glass, the piece is brought to temperature, left to soak and then annealed…But the
whole process is much slower. Some cast pieces are in the kiln for two or three weeks or more!

Once the piece is divested from the mould, it then needs to be cocld-worked
before it's finally complete.

Unless I'm making an open-cast mould, that's often squared off
so I can frame it,my preference is for core-cast glass.

This technique adds another layer of complexity, as I create a
3D shape in plaster, designed to fit inside the cavity of the mould,

When the glass becomes molten, it flows around this core, meaning that
the final piece is partially hollow rather than being a solid block of glass.

This means the finished piece can be filled with light.


I love the transformative, alchemical process
of placing separate pieces together and seeing them
gradually melt into a fluid-edged union.
All my work is made with handmade ‘Bullseye’ glass...
apart from my rosy crosses, which are made with
Murano glass and millefiori from Venice.
24 carat gold leaf is often melded within the pieces
along with other inclusions ~ plants I’ve collected which burn away in the
firing process, leaving an ethereal white ash in their original shape.
Finished pieces can then become transparencies for
fine art, photo-graphic (=light drawing) prints.