Custom “Hands of Time” – Meeting the Artists Behind Stone Ridge Glass – Part I

Bernie and Lucie from Stone Ridge Glass

CustomMade artists Lucie Boucher and Bernie Huebner embody, as they say, “a fusing of restless minds” through creative collaboration and, of course, fused glass! Lucie and Bernie believe that the only relevant bio to describe the man and the woman behind Stone Ridge Glass is their joint bio.  A formal résumé would list five advanced degrees and an employment history including everything from hairdressing and firefighting to teaching at all levels from kindergarten through graduate school.  By the time they came to glass, they were long past the age to go to art school.  But as experienced teachers, it followed naturally that they would make their way self-taught.

Lucie was the leader, entering through traditional stained glass but quickly becoming frustrated with the refusal of cold glass to bend to her 3D mind.  She remains the technical expert as well, both with glass and kiln.  Bernie spent years teaching both the visual arts and the creative process, and brings a facility with tools and materials—elsewhere called jury-rigging—that serves them well.  Of course there’s still considerable role confusion.  Who’s the designer?  Who’s the glass slave?  (And at any given moment, how do you tell?—by counting who’s wearing more bandaids.)

Stone Ridge Glass - Glass Sculpture - Scalene - on CustomMade.com

Stuck up on their studio wall is a cliché which says “always make new mistakes.”  Given the already considerable loss rate with complicated glass work, there is never-ending opportunity to deepen one’s knowledge of the craft.  But sometimes failures—cracks, distortions, contaminants—serendipitously provide the chance to recast a design and salvage the piece.  And sometimes the limits of glass lead one into uncharted territory, as with their innovative Glasscapes, the principle of which arose out of experiments with transmitting light through glass edge-on.

Stone Ridge Glass - Hands of Time - on CustomMade.com

It is not all merlot and roses.  Expecting two artists—each full of vision and relative certainty—to work together smoothly…well, it doesn’t snow in central Maine, either.  But more than the work itself, or the joy of a successful piece emerging from the kiln, is the subtle thrill of creating something together, a fusing, if you will, of restless minds.

Stone Ridge Glass - Glass Sculpture - Terpsichore II - on CustomMade.com

Wow, what a dynamic duo! Check out the Stone Ridge Glass profile for a full array of their customizable glass artworks. If you’re curious to learn more about magic behind these pieces, Bernie and Lucie will be bringing us on an inside tour of their studio and the ancient lost-wax process used to create their one-of-a-kind “Hands of Time”! Keep your eyes out for “Custom Hands of Time: Part II”…