ABOUT ME
Twice Baked Arts is owned and operated by Amy Poos. I started playing with art glass about 15 years ago. You know, the kind of glass that comes in sheets and rods and lots of colors and is guaranteed to melt well together. One day, something just clicked and I made a connection between the glass in my recycling bin and the kiln in my craft room. It just made sense to reuse what I could easily get, and that gave me the freedom to experiment without fear of wasting expensive sheet glass. I loved seeing how many ways I could bend and reshape a bottle into a functional item. And there is a sense of accomplishment from gathering and using bottles many of which would otherwise go into the trash.
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Working with glass from recycled bottles is challenging. For “normal” glass artists, you start with sheets of glass that are certified by the manufacturer to be compatible with one another. To use recycled bottles, you first have to make your own flat pieces of glass by cutting or melting or crushing in some manner. No two colors or even bottles of the same color are likely to be compatible with one another, so they will likely crack apart if you try to fuse them together.
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I've been melting bottles with Twice Baked Arts since 2009. I've learned a lot about glass, and I've cut myself a lot. I've created lots of functional recycled bottle items like dishes and clocks and vases. But over time, I've become more interested in cutting bottles into shapes, in adding fusible paints, powders, metals, and bits, and in finding techniques to add colors and textures that expand the small palette I can get from recycled bottles. Now, my favorite projects often don't look like they came from a bottle at all. I still get a thrill from recycling and knowing I created something unusual from a humble bottle. But more than just melting or reforming bottles, I enjoy using the glass from bottles to create both functional and art objects.
My inspiration and subject matter comes from nature and from food. Right now, I am obsessed with trees.
I work and still walk barefoot in my home studio in Edwardsville, IL
My inspiration and subject matter comes from nature and from food. Right now, I am obsessed with trees.
I work and still walk barefoot in my home studio in Edwardsville, IL
