The Delphi Blog

Delphi Glass is pleased to welcome guest instructor Michael Dupille. Michael will be teaching two classes this May and June at the Delphi Creativity Center in Lansing, MI. Get to know this innovative glass artist and be inspired by his techniques. See a collection of his works on our Pinterest board. Michael is considered a pioneer in the field of kiln formed glass and has created many of the working processes and techniques which are considered standard in the warm glass industry today.

A Seattle resident, he has worked in art his entire career as both creator and educator. Experienced in a variety of media including animation, illustration, print and textile design, he continues to challenge himself through invention and innovation. Michael was part of the glass blowing program at Central Washington University in the early 70s. Since the late 1980's he has worked extensively with glass, having developed and refined a technique for 'painting with glass' that uses crushed glass (frit) in combination with kiln fired methods. He refers to this process as fritography. Michael pioneered many kiln forming processes, especially in the area of mold making and kiln casting. He has done design work for Bullseye Glass, was a guest artist and instructor at Camp Colton, and his creative input is well featured in Boyce Lundstrom's books on art glass techniques. His work is highly collectible and his numerous public and private commissions include projects for the Washington and Oregon State Arts Commissions, The Everett Cultural Commission, The Seattle Times, The Pierce County Arts Commission, Amazon.com and the Seattle Mariners.

For those of you interested in attending one or both of Michael's amazing classes, check out the details below. Hurry, as seats are limited and filling fast! As an added bonus for attending, during class pick your choice of two FREEsmall jars of frit in either 90 COE or 96 COE



This workshop covers a variety of different frit techniques and processes and is less focused on imagery. However, many of the things taught here may be utilized in creating them, including multiple firing.

We will cover the basic practices of Fritography,combining them with unusual shapes and use a variety of dam methods.

There are several other ways of working with frit we will explore as well including Frit Sticks, Vitrios and a new process called Scratch and Frit.

We think you will find these to be useful and fun too . . . and that is a tough combo to beat! An exciting lecture and scintillating slide show will also be included! We will be working with System 96.



The English translation from French roughly means the knife edge of glass. This unique process is based on traditional palette knife painting using oils or acrylics. Learn this new technique from glass artist Michael Dupille who developed this unique glass fusing process. By using powdered glass with a suspension medium, in this case CMC, similar effects can be created with this technique. These can be altered, added to and embellished using all of what we have in our world of kiln formed glass techniques and processes. The possibilities are unlimited. Multiple firings using this method gives dimension and richness, depth and vitality to the finished work. This is a really quick, fun and expressive process to create imagery with glass in ways that were previously in the realm of traditional painting mediums for canvas.

Don't miss your chance to learn from and work with one of the pioneers in the techniques of kiln formed glass!

For those who can't attend Michael's classes at Delphi, be sure to pick up your copy of Michael's DVDs and learn some of his special techniques, When the Frit Hits the Fan DVD and Beginning Fritography DVD.

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