Lyons Main Street Program Featured Artist

Items on display at Main Street Office

Nancy McDougall Dichroic glass

Nancy McDougall

Our Lyons Main Street Program’s Featured Artist is Dichronic Glass Artist, Nancy McDougall. Nancy creates unique and unusual jewelry with her fired glass wearable art pieces that include earrings, pendants, and brooches and pins not to mention her beautiful diachronic glass tile wall hangings. Dichroic glass is glass containing multiple micro-layers of metal oxides which give the glass dichoric optical properties. The main characteristic of dichroic glass is that it has a transmitted color and a completely different reflected color, as certain wavelengths of light either pass through or are reflected. This causes an array of color to be displayed. The colors shift depending on the angle of view. Dichronic glass became Nancy’s media of choice after watching a friend and becoming quite taken with the process and the finished pieces.

“I sandwich pieces of glass together in the kiln – there’s a color to the glass” as well as “a reflective color…some pieces are opaque and others are clear. I envision how pieces will come together” and as one doesn’t have control over the results they “are always a surprise…opening the kiln is always a treat! Every piece is different!”

Nancy has two grown sons, is a Recording Clerk for the Wayne County Clerk’s office, and has been working with diachronic glass since early 2006. She enjoys making the jewelry however would like to pursue larger pieces in the future. Her wall hangings/sun catchers/tiles are miniature glass paintings – some evoke images of sailboats on the water or local landscapes with abstract visions of rolling hillsides. Stop by the LMSP display windows and view these gorgeous iridescent glass pieces and don’t forget…Mother’s Day is just a few weeks away!

Dichroic glass