North Frontenac Back Roads Studio Tour

Oct 01, 2014

Participants on the North Frontenac Back Roads Studio Tour, which centred around the Plevna area, were no doubt pleased with the weather that brought many visitors to the first-time tour in the scenic township. The weather could not have been better and the drive was almost as pleasurable as my destination proved to be.

I visited Plevna's Good Stuff bakery where owners Jean Heinemann her husband Sean Sheeham had great, affordable home-made snacks and a delicious lunch for hungry tour goers in need of some tasty home cooked fare. Jean also offered up her walls and extra space to two artists, local graphic artist and photographer Brian Roche, who unfortunately was not present for the tour, and long-time area cottager Miriam Silburt, a glass artist who specializes in fused glass work.

Silburt creates her colorful work at her home studio in Ottawa. Originally a stained glass artist, she switched her focus to fused glass close to a decade ago since it allowed her to create work with more fluid lines. “Fused glass allows me to create images that are unbroken, images that are more fluid and that have no divisions within them, which is something you cannot get with stained glass work”. Silburt is a self-taught artist and has also taken many private classes with other glass artists in the province. Her work includes colorful functional pieces: vases and serving trays that are definite eye catchers for those who drawn to colour and patterns. To create her stacked glass trays she lays down, one on top of the other, different colored squares and rectangles that fuse together in the firing process. The results are reminiscent of 1960s and 1970s patterns and make great functional eye candy for the home.

Her more graphic pieces can be found in her jewelry. Many of her pendants involve using cut outs to create one of a kind wildlife and animal themed motifs that include trees, leaves, and various animals, birds and insects. Each is masterfully composed, very intricate with no two the same. Some of her more involved pieces include her “glass canvasses” - scenes she creates by applying a number of different techniques that come together to form wildlife scenes, many of which are inspired by the views from her lake front cottage and include vistas of birch groves and lakes. Silburt frames each completed scene in a shadow box and installs special LED lights that can be manipulated to change the over all colour and mood of the scene.

The Good Stuff bakery was just one stop on this new North Frontenac studio tour, which no doubt will attract many adventurous art and craft-loving explorers to the area.