Reed Street Studio was founded in 2012 the summer I first applied and was accepted into the Block Island Farmer's Market. I've always loved creating art and finally found my niche in fused glass jewelry and bottlecap art. My love of fused glass was discovered after attending a fusing class during the off season. I took more classes and it wasn't long until I bought my first kiln and was buying glass in bulk to create my pendents. The Process: -Scoring sheets of glass to make smaller pieces suitable for jewelry. - Firing 2 layers of glass together to create durable pieces that while still fragile glass are harder to break. - Adding a waterslide decal to some pieces and leaving some as is. - Firing glass in the kiln is a long process. Some firings are 5 hours, others are 14! My bottlecap accessories didn't start with the grand thought of making a difference, although every cap counts in helping to up-cycle waste. Eight years ago, after amassing a large collection of caps, I had the idea that they were the perfect tiny canvas for my photography and 3D art. The bottlecaps I collect become pendents, magnets, keychains and pins. I get 99% of my bottlecaps from local bars, friends and family; who collect and save them for me. My up-cycling of beer and soda bottlecaps has expanded to include larger caps from tea or coffee beverages and Altoids' tin lids - their larger sizes make for beautiful magnets. The Process: -Sorting the caps to remove the ones that are too bent for process. - Bottlecaps are washed thoroughly with a 3 wash/rinse cycle to get rid of the beer residue. - Hand dried to prevent rust spots. -Resin is the final step, which has to be mixed exactly or the end result will be sticky. Resin is used to cover the images or 3D art to create a permanent pieces. -The resin has to cure for 72 hours to allow them to fully harden.