Fine Art Gallery

of Miriam Di Fiore

The technique I utilize in my works is called "Light Painting" and was first developped by Narciso Quagliata 5 years ago. He created works such as "The door of the night" (which was exhibited at the "Palazzo Ducale") by using frits (glass ground in several granulometries) and glass wires for abstract themes and interpretations of the human figure and nature.
After his teachings I decided to investigate, using the same methods, the possibility to create "Landscapes" by means of the same instruments as if they were real watercolours.
Actually they are "micro-mosaics" made by subsequent melting processes. The procedure I follow is this: first I choose the setting (that is always a real pIace to which I am emotionally very closed; I take some photographs of the site in different seasonal periods, under a variety of Iights and viewpoints and in several frames of mind).
Then I combine the images on an American glass sheet (always on a Bullseye tested compatible type, because it gives me all the chromatic possibilities) by synthtesizing them; soon I start to build the Iandscape by means of smalì pieces of glass sheet, frits and glass wires.
As soon as I finish with the first layer, I leave the piece into the furnace at a temperature of ca. 800 °C and then I start from the beginning, by putting it into the furnace again and again until the workpiece reaches the right chromatic intensity.
Imagine that a "green" colour spot of the size of one or two millimeters does not show its real colour until it reaches a sufficient thickness. Subsequently I heat the piece in the furnace for several times in order to give optical depth to it.
This means that I add coìourless glass of different thicknesses by starting from the side that must Iook as the furthest; gradually I keep adding increasingly bigger glass sheets according to the"distance" I want to present In my most recent works I usually conclude the whole procedure with an at Ieast 6 millimeters thick gìass sheet melted on the entire surface.
As an average each of my workpieces has been heated in the furnace at least 7 times, and the process becomes each time more delicate due to the increased thickness, that may cause breakages, and due to the difficulty in reheating it (the cooling off must be strictly controìled to avoid permanent tensions in the glass itself).

1990 Ceramics and Blowed Glass, Sargadelos, Spain.
1991 Linda Ethier-Pate de Verre, Creative Glass, Zurich.
1992 Glass symposium Barnebach, Austria.
1994 Rudy Gritsch-Creative Glass, Zurich.
1994 Pilchk Glass School, Seattle, U.S.A.
Lino Tagliapietra, Rudy Gritsch, melting and blowing.
1995, 1996 Assistant teacher at the Seminar of Narcisus Quagliata, Firenze.
1996 Assistant teacher at the Seminar of Narcisus Quagliata, at the "Museo della Real Escuele del Vidrio de la Granja", "Museum of the Real School of Glass", Segovia, Spain.
1998 Seminar with Giles Bettison, Creative Glass, Zurich.
1999 Workshop wich Luigi Camozzo, Murano-Venice.

Since 1992 she leads a busy teaching activity, by organising intensive stages and permanent courses on gless melting techniques, both in Italy and abroad; we notif the following ones:

1997 Stage on the basic glass melting techniques to: S.R. Glass Design, Bangkok, Thailand.
1997 Stage on the alternative techniques for furnace glass decoration.
Stage on advanced glass melting techniques to: National Glass Istitute, La Granja de San Ildefonso, Segovia, Spain.
1988 Two Stages on "Light Painting", Buenos Aires, Argentina. Escuela de Arte de Palermo Palermo Art School.
1988 Stage on melting and thermoforming techniques. Escuela Municipal del Vidrio, Centre "Leon Rigoleau", Berazategui, Argentina.
1988 Appointed as part of the Jury at the 5th National Show of the Artistic Stained Glass, Mar della Plata, Argentina.
1998 Three Conferences in Argentina, National Show of the Artistic Stained Glass, Mar della Plata, Argentina; National Ceramics School, Mar della Plata; Palermo Art School, Buenos Aires.
1998 Intensive Seminar on the thermoforming techniques to: National Glass Institute, La Granja de San Ildefonso, Scegovia, Spain.
1998 Conference "Technical and artistic Advancements of the conteniporary stained glass: Glass melting and other techniques", University of Cantabria, Monographic courses.
Her works are part of the "Contemporary Glass Collection" at the "Museo Nazional del Vidrio", "National Glass Museum", Segovia, Spain and of the "Coleccion Estable de la Revista del Vidrio", "Permanent Collection of the Glass", Barcellona, Spain.

In 1996 she was appointed as Examination Commissioner for the Diploma of Master Glass-Blower in the Italian Province of Bolzano.
She is one of the teachers at "Vetrotecnica", 1st Experimental European Centre in Italy, specialized in glass-working techniques, situated in Via del Vigneto, 39100 Bolzano.

1999 Miriam Di Fiore was selected for NewGlass 20th Edition, at the Corning Museum of Glass, New York.
2000 Miriam Di Fiore was selected for NewGlass 21th Edition, 2000, at the Corning Museum of Glass, New York.