Jewelry & Fused Glass Art Exhibit by Marselle Harrison-Miles Opens in Display Gallery

Growing up Marselle had always been surrounded by creative people. Her Grandfather and mother both had flourishing singing careers with a "9-5" by day and nights filled with rehearsals and performances at church or at local events. Aside from a passion for musicshe was enamored with dance, drawing and the family glass menagerie. She continuedher love of visual arts through high school by claiming to want to be artist and taking as many art classes as she possibly could. Marselle began Piedmont College with a major in the Arts supported by a basketball scholarship. She completed her studies at Georgia State University with her degree in Drawing and Painting and minoring in African/African Diaspora Arts. Right out of school, Marselle started working at the Atlanta International Museum of Art Design and Culture, now known as MODA, in Atlanta as an intern Docent/Education Coordinator. This is where Marselle's love of glass and beads was reawakened by the Ndebele of South Africa exhibit on display in the museum and the colorful Dale Chihuly vessels on display in the gift shop. It was then she started collecting beads, studying various bead weaving patterns and making beaded jewelry. 

Before long Marselle started working for The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta as an Art Director who often gleaned artistic inspiration from her student programs and other Artists. Later she became the Program Director for Youth Art Connection. Marselle loved the freedom of creation, art lesson development and art instruction that exposed her to local and visiting artists monthly. She then started working as an Arts Specialist for Cobb County and slowly but surely started to learn glass fusing and slumping techniques from Teresa Barnes, a teacher at all three county centers. Though glass instruction focused on small to large platters, dishes and vessels, Marselle concentrated on developing jewelry designs. Her fused glass jewelry consists of opal and transparent glasses with irid and dischroic glass on the surface. Most jewelry designs have fine silver fused into the glass so that after firing, jump rings and other attachment mechanisms can be incorporated into the final creation as either a, ring, bracelet, necklace or pair of earrings. Glass Artists Evette Everette, Kate Rothra Flemming and Patti Cahill are all amazing jewelry artisans Marselle considers mentors.

Marselle is not limited to jewelry design but has also studied alternative photography processes such as polaroid and emulsion transfer techniques. A good friend and talented photographer Michael Reese taught her the basics and inspired her to experiment and find the story. While polaroid is no longer an active company, she is always looking to push the limits of film developing and transfer techniques to unusual surfaces. For the current show "Remembering", she uses special fusible paper for fusible glass that allows her to combine her love of glass fusing and special moments captured on film for moments forever captured in glass. 

Marselle resides in Metro Atlanta and works out of her home studio to create both custom and inspired fused glass art to wear and display.