Immortality:

The Gift of Portraiture by Dinah Hulet

Like the Alexandrian glass of ancient Egypt, the glass treasures of Dinah Hulet will eventually be discovered.

Hulet has mastered techniques developed between the 1st Century BC and the 1st Century AD, around the year one. During this period one of Egypt's major exports was glassware, and Alexandria was famous for its manufacture of elaborate, expensive glass aimed at the upper class market in Rome and elsewhere. The most desirable type of Alexandrian glass was made up of what we now call millifiore or murrine, segments of patterned glass sliced off of a pre-made glass rod or cane. The technique of combining simple elements to make a complex design is called "mosaic glass", Hulet's specialty.

The artist began making glass face canes in 1992, which she used in marbles and beads. But a call from Hulet's mentor inspired and challenged her to push her technical abilities and aesthetic approach to a new level. In 1996, after a year of experimentation, Hulet had created a detailed portrait cane of Paul Stankard, a turning point in her career.

Currently the artist is working on a larger scale. She makes glass "cubes", which measure 1.25" high, 1" wide and 1.5" deep. She doesn't stretch the cubes as with traditional canework, because she wanted to expand the size of her image. Instead, Hulet assembles the cubes at nearly full size to create a portrait in glass which captures all the emotion, life and mystery of the human face. Her piece, "Into My Life There Came a Man Named George", represented a leap forward in her work and, more importantly, inspired a new level of intimacy between viewer and subject.

In June, Hulet presented slides and a lecture on her work at the Glass Art Society conference held in Brooklyn, New York. She has instructed at UrbanGlass, Brooklyn, New York, Penland School of Crafts, Asheville, North Carolina, and at various other conferences on paperweights, beads and marbles. Her work appeared in New Glass Review 20, the Corning Museum of Glass publication, and can be found in the permanent collections of The Bead Museum, William Warmus, The Corning Museum of Glass, Robert Liu and Paul Stankard.

In the following conversation with Glass Art magazine, Hulet discusses her technical and aesthetic approach to mosaic glass, and the evolution of her work into its current portrait form.