Page 11 - Paradise City Guide Spring 2018

Show Stoppers

Karen Gola comes from a world of glassmaking.
She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the
historic center of glassmaking in America.
Of Czech heritage, a country where world-
renowned glass art has been created since the
Middle Ages, she has been fascinated by glass
since she was a child. She now lives in Maine,
and the ocean and its inhabitants clearly inspire
her work. Gola specializes in fused glass, creating translucent bowls,
platters and plates. Her otherworldly Sea Garden collection renders
ocean “flowers” in delicate hues of lavender, teal, sea green, pink
and yellow. Graceful ruffled bowls and sand-dollar-shaped platters
incorporate handcrafted bubbles fused into a flat piece of glass
during the first firing. They are placed on a mold to create the shape
during the second firing. These firings can take up to 24 hours. She
incorporates ground colored glass to give them distinct coloration,
and then sandblasts each piece to create a soft, sea glass finish. We
welcome Karen Gola back to Paradise City Northampton this spring.
“Sand Dollar Grouping”, fused, slumped, sandblasted glass. 10”, 7” & 4”
dishes and platters.

A life-changing trip to Israel inspired
Pennsylvania metal artist Joy Stember to
express her strong connection to the country
and culture by making Judaica the focus of
much of her work. By creating contemporary
heirlooms for a new generation of collectors,
she advances her career goal - to encourage
the importance of living with quality American
craft in the modern home. Stember uses a wide variety of metals
including pewter, brass, bronze, silver, and copper to create her
designs. Each piece is formed by scoring and folding sheets of
metal to make three-dimensional works of art, a bit like origami.
She embosses the metal by roll-printing intricate textures, words and
designs. Stember earned her BFA in Metals/Jewelry/CAD-CAM from
the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, augmenting her skills with
workshops at Haystack Mountain, Penland, and Arrowmont. Her work has been included in two Lark Books publications, 500 Metal Vessels
and 500 Judaica. She was a finalist in the Rio Grande Saul Bell Design Awards and a NICHE Award Winner in the Judaica Division. This May
she will exhibit her work for the first time at Paradise City Northampton.
“David Bowl”, roll-printed, fabricated from pewter and brass. 10.5” x 10.5” x 3.5”. “Kiddush Cup”, pewter and brass. 2.75” x 2.75” x 5.25”.

Karen Hibbs spends most of her days surrounded by fossils hundreds of millions of years old - spiral swirled creatures
left over from the Cretaceous Period and other prehistoric flora and fauna. She works with ammonites, trilobites and
fossilized scarab beetles as well as ancient fish and ferns, stalactites and shale. Contrary to what you might think,
Hibbs is not a geologist. She’s an artist who has found new ways to display these dramatic shapes and lifeforms
in her unusual glass panels. Her studio is
filled with glass. Some pieces are beveled
and etched, while others begin as brilliant
globules of color that she buffs and tumbles
until they reach a perfect finish. Every panel she creates is inspired
by her collection of fossils and minerals, and is often enhanced by
sculptural elements of glass and metal that are carved and cast in
her workshop. Occasionally “found” objects are also employed,
and all elements combine to produce compositions with texture,
dimension and great visual interest. Hibbs has exhibited in Paradise
City Arts Festivals since1996, and brings new pieces (made of very
old fossils!) to the Northampton show in May.
“Laced Ammonite”, ammonite from Madagascar set into sculpted metals
with small fossil fish, glass bevels and handmade German antique glass.
27” x 15”.
call 800.511.9725 for more information | 11