About Curiously Made
As Judith’s husband, I have over the years observed firsthand her love for the arts. In 1996, Judith was introduced to the art of stained glass and was immediately drawn to its lure. As a French Canadian, marrying into Irish culture, she instantly developed a love for celtic art, turf art and ogham writing on stone in the Gaelic language to join with her Quebec artistic upbringing.
As she progressed in the art, she was always curious about mixing different mediums and trying new techniques. Her curiosity led her to design stained glass and pottery in a variety of mediums and unique use of upcyled props such as: snow shoes, stones, sea glass, driftwood and pit fires.
In 1998, she started her own stain glass business, Mirage Stained Glass, which evolved to the present day Curiously Made.
Having just recently retired from a gratifying 32 year teaching career, Judith is excited to grow her love of the arts and share this love with others.
Exploring the Variety of Artwork in Our Collection
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Pit fire pottery
Pit firing is the oldest pottery firing method, reaching temperatures of 1100⁰C. Organic materials, metals, oxides, and salt are used to create unique colors and patterns. Pottery is placed in a pit with combustibles, fired, and cleaned to reveal the results. Each piece is waxed and buffed for a smooth, glossy finish, resulting in fascinating and unique creations.
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Stained glass
Stained glass is the art of coloured glass used for making decorative windows and other objects through which light passes by the addition of various metallic oxides while it is in a molten state. Traditional stained glass is created with led came (led channel), solder and compound to hold the glass together.
The technique I use the most is the copper foil method, which is completely different. The copper foil has an adhesive on one side to hold the glass pieces together. The copper foil is what gets soldered to hold the glass together, using flux and solder.
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Fused glass
The art of glass fusion is making a design with glass on glass through the process of using a kiln to melt two or more pieces of glass together to fuse them. This process creates different textures depending on the temperatures used and desired effect. Creations vary from jelewery, plates, coasters and many more.
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Celtic art
Celtic art is associated with the peoples known as Celts.The celtic art I produce is created with turf also known as peat. I harvest the peat from my husband’s uncle's bog land in Ireland, shape it into people, hearts, shamrocks and more, dry it for weeks and create beautiful shadow boxes representing your families. Many Irish homes are still using peat as fuel to warm their homes today.
I also write Gaelic messages in the Ogham alphabet on interesting rocks I gather. Ogham is an ancient Irish alphabet that appears on monumental inscriptions dating from the 4th to the 6th century AD. It was used mainly to write primitive and old Irish messages.