American artists Eric Markow & Thom Norris developed the process of weaving glass at the turn of the 21st century. After a decade of stained glass, Markow & Norris debuted one of their first woven sculptures in 2003 in Portland, Oregon and their first public show was in 2004 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Since their debut, nearly 60 publications and news outlets have covered their story and pictured their unusually complex sculptures, including Southern Living, Robb Report, Interior Design, Luxury Living, The Advocate, The Washington Post & Smithsonian Associates Magazine. They have been featured on television on CBS Sunday Morning and Fox Morning News among others.

Both artists have science degrees outside the arts which help bring other disciplines to their enigmatic creations. They have exhibited in many cities including New York, Miami, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Austin and Chicago (SOFA). 

Their Spring Dawn & Summer Zenith Kimonos are on permanent public exhibition at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in Indiana & the Lowe Art Museum in Miami respectively.

Markow & Norris live in Bowie, Maryland with their 5 rescue cats.

We will be celebrating the holiday season with our partner, Sunflower Bakery, at their second annual Holiday Open House.

We will have a craft activity for kids and we will be selling member-donated glass creations to raise money for both the bakery and the Guild.

Join us as a volunteer or just stop by to purchase tasty treats from the bakery. To sign up as a volunteer, click here.

Lauri Hafvenstein and Suzanne Parisi each received a scholarship from NCAGG to attend a class. They will share their experience and subsequent work.

At this in-person event, we’ll gather to elect new Board Officers, discuss the Guild’s accomplishments and enjoy seeing each other in person. Location: Shayna Heller’s residence

We want to see what our members are making.

Log on and show us a piece of your work.

Don’t miss this exclusive, FREE online webinar designed just for artists: "Art Business Organization"

This is a golden opportunity to gain insights that can elevate your art business. But we need YOUR support to make it happen—registrations are low, and we don’t want to miss out!

Secure your spot now:

Let’s make this event a success together. The workshop overview button is below. See you there!

Artwork Archive is a service provider of art career and inventory management. Their bio is below.

NCAGG is partnering with Artwork Archive on a professional development presentation to our members which includes practical strategies for artwork documentation, business organization, and location, calendar and contact management. Our AA contact is: annamieka@artworkarchive.com

Annamieka Hopps, Speaker Bio:
Professional Development Workshops for Artist Associations with Artwork Archive
About Annamieka
Annamieka Hopps is the Product Education Specialist at Artwork Archive, where she demonstrates how effective art business organization enhances creative practice for artists worldwide. As a working artist, muralist, and experienced arts educator, she understands firsthand that organization is essential for building sustainable creative careers. This perspective informs her educational webinars for nonprofit arts associations, showing how Artwork Archive's platform transforms administrative challenges into efficient systems.
A natural mentor with an engaging presentation style, she has built a reputation for accessible guidance through her numerous online programs since 2017 and as host of The Art Friend Show's 100+ episodes. Her presentations empower artists with practical knowledge that supports their long-term success while honoring their creative priorities.

Tom Moore believes there are great possibilities for profundity in absurdity.

He combines furnace and torch-work to create finely detailed, fanciful characters such as the PotatoFishCar. These peculiar visions of nature, mediated by glass, are intended to provoke questions about human relationships with plants, animals, and machines. The boundaries between these realms are dissolved in the hope of bamboozling conventions of representation and perception and may remind us of our deep interconnections within the biological community. 

Tom is based in Adelaide, South Australia. His time is divided between working within the hot glass community at JamFactory, working from his own home studio and as an Adjunct research fellow at UniSA.

Therapeutic Glass Mosaic Workshops for Oncology Patients and Their Families

NCAGG is thrilled to announce a new partnership with MedStar Montgomery Medical Center's Oncology Department. This exciting collaboration aims to bring the healing power of glass mosaic art to adult oncology patients through therapeutic workshops designed to inspire creativity, foster emotional well-being, and brighten lives.

We aim to launch a pilot glass art session in July, specifically designed for oncology patients. The initial session will be held on Thursday, July 10th, with the possibility of monthly classes thereafter.  Our NCAGG volunteer artists will lead these sessions, providing all necessary materials to ensure a seamless and enriching experience. The initial project will focus on mosaic suncatchers, perfect for adding a touch of color and light to hospital windows. As the program grows, we plan to introduce additional glass art techniques practiced by our talented members.

Volunteer to prepare class materials in advance, assist in conducting the pilot class session, or volunteer for future classes. 

volunteersignup.org/CMFDQ

For more information, contact shaynaheller@gmail.com

Let’s create, connect, and heal—one mosaic piece at a time.

Field Trip to Baltimore

Join us for a fun in-person visit to McFadden Art Glass in Baltimore.

Tim and his staff with show us around the studio/gallery and demonstrate some glassblowing techniques.

After our visit to McFadden Art Glass, we’ll have lunch at Broadway Diner.

We will organize carpooling to Baltimore.

Mandalas in Glass – a Healing Journey

Karen Wilson, a kiln formed glass artist and teacher, who started her glass journey at the Art Glass Center at Glen Echo in 2009, shortly after she finished treatment for breast cancer. A week after finishing that treatment her husband died suddenly and unexpectedly. As part of her own healing journey she turned to meditation, qigong and glass art. She retired after a long career as an attorney in 2017, creating a large home studio that allows her to create and explore glass art as well as her love of meditation and qigong. She loves teaching, learning and creating glass art by connecting and integrating different techniques and approaches.

Karen’s presentation will describe how these experiences led her to develop a mosaic like approach to creating mandalas in glass. She got the idea in India at the Taj Mahal, seeing the eight pointed squares on the floors everywhere there, as well as the many brightly colored mandalas in all of the temples. These mandalas incorporate triangle pattern bars and murrini to create designs using sacred geometry and color. She will share the kiln fired glass techniques used to make the components and the final mandala, and also the purpose and history of the mandala, and how it can be used along with meditation and qigong to guide healing and personal growth.

Treg Silkwood - blowing and sculpting glass

Artists Treg and Candace Silkwood partnered in 2002 to form Silkwood Glass and have collaborated ever since. Treg has spent over twenty -five years of his life mastering the skill and art of blowing and sculpting glass. Candace has spent nearly forty years exploring numerous art forms from painting to sculpture and has over fifteen years experience working glass. She is an innovative designer and a master technician in color and form. Together, the couple produces more, explores further, and takes greater risks than each could alone.

Glass blowing is an ancient art. Its roots are in the same sand and heat that birthed human civilization. Craft workers and artists have perfected and refined glass-working techniques many times over the millennia. Whole schools of art have grown and developed and then been lost. Treg and Candace Silkwood are part of the latest resurgence of this foundational medium of human expression. They have studied traditional Venetian techniques as well as glassblowing in the heartland of America and around the world. They have taught and studied with glassblowers in Ireland, Austria and across the United States. Today, at the couple’s studio in San Jose, Treg and Candace bring new rigor and imagination to old and tested tools and techniques. The result is something extraordinary and fresh, yet timeless, and always meticulous and acutely detailed.

National Capital Art Glass Guild is partnering with the Bender JCC of Greater Washington to bring you the glass art exhibition Rhapsody in Blue. The show runs from April 6th to April 27th at the Goldman Art Gallery, located inside the Bender Jewish Community Center, 6125 Montrose Rd., Rockville, MD.  

Join us for the Opening Reception on Sunday, April 6, 12 - 3 PM. Be sure to stop by the NCAGG table just outside the Gallery, where we will be fundraising for the Sunflower Bakery by selling sunflower-themed glass items.

https://www.benderjccgw.org/arts-ideas/goldman-art-gallery/   ncagg.org

Think of Magless as a Glass Lover’s Cookie Exchange. A group of 20 artists exchange hand-made glass tiles in whatever technique they’d like – send a set of identical tiles sized anywhere from 1"x1" to 2"x2" – square, rectangular, or any shape they like. Think of a refrigerator magnet without the actual magnet attached. You mail them to the event chair, who then packs the sets and mails you a set of 20ish different techniques (with each person’s “recipe” - to continue the cookie analogy – the firing schedule, the color of glass, etc.). We gather in March each year and share our techniques. It’s like attending 20 different classes. This meeting is often the best attended each year.