Ellen (hi Ellen!) told me about the new Dixon Glass Gallery in Birmingham (205-715-0010 111 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd S), and I got to visit late last week. It is *so* nice. Well, first of all there’s all the art glass that they carry – artists like Toby Klein who makes a lot of Judaica pieces, Toni Palmer who does pretty fan pulls (hadn’t thought of glass fan pulls but they are great), Beverly Corbitt and Elenor Conn and Deborah Ballog and many others who make a wide variety of pieces – everything from stand-alone glass art to display on a console table to jewelry to framed wall hangings. Whew! And that’s just a little bit of what’s available.
Karen Dixon, who owns the gallery, came to glasswork after experimenting with mosaics. She’s a PhD and as an Assistant Professor in Neurobiology at UAB, she won the university’s School of Medicine Faculty First Place award for one of her glass sculputures this past year. So you can talk dendrites and Dale Chihuly with her! How do you like that!?
What was really exciting was seeing this:
The studio is where she offers open time (if you already know what you’re doing), a glass design studio where custom accent tiles and things like cabinet pulls can be created, and where she and other instructors hold classes from beginner to advanced in making items like jewelry and plates and ornaments. This is going to be the place to be for making holiday presents.
Karen said that she is welcome to having “parties” like many of us have done at paint-it-yourself pottery shops…friends, goodies, art, fun. Okay, who wants to go with me?!