Gay Stehr - Glass Artist

Gay has had a lifelong love of colour and design. Formerly a Dance Teacher and Floral Designer, she started working in glass as a hobby. Her love of texture and colour led her to experiment with glass, creating flowers. First simply cutting different flower shapes and fusing them into plates. Then the individual flowers became posies and then vases of flowers and then gardens. The more detailed each piece became the more Gay experimented with ‘depth’, layering each new ‘flower’ to create a 3 dimensional effect.

Following this obsession, Gay went to Italy in 2008 to study under Miriam di Fiore who is internationally recognised as a leader in scenery style glass sculptures. Working in this style of glass sculpture is called ‘working in depth’. Most of Gay’s sceneries are eight layers deep, meaning that each dimension is created and fused for 14 hours before the next layer can be worked on. Each of Gay’s sceneries take approximately 10 days to create and are all taken from photos Gay has personally taken from her travels.

As well as her glass sceneries, Gay creates individual glass sculptures and architectural panels of 1, 2 and 3 pieces around a theme.

Interior Design

In designing and renovating several homes, Gay started receiving commissions to work on homes and has also worked on the interiors of hotel restorations. Her ability to communicate, understand and mesh her clients desires with their needs has opened up another path for her to explore her talents. Several of her designs have been featured in newspaper home make-over specials. In 2009 her designs were instrumental in her client winning the Painters and Decorators Award for the luxury home category for NSW.

Jewellery

Gay designs individual pieces for special occasions.

Painting

On several occasions Gay has been unable to find that ‘special’ something to display on the walls of the rooms she has designed. So she decided to give painting ‘a go’. This has become another side to her interior decorating skills. When a wall demands something special Gay happily creates a one-off piece for her client.