Susan Murdock started fusing after retiring from a career in higher education. It started when she saw a glass table top and decided to give it a try. She began by taking a beginning class, Fundamentals of Fusing. From then on, she was hooked, deciding to purchase her first kiln.
She has continued to take classes to develop and nurture the art form. During her undergraduate studies, she was able to explore the ceramic arts while studying with the renowned potter, Bob Pipenburg. Although she did not continue with ceramics, she had the chance to work with one of the best. In her desire to grasp the artistic side of fusing she has taken classes with Patty Gray, considered to be one of the premier Fused Glass Artist in the nation, and widely respected for her ability to teach and inspire others.
Sue is fascinated with many of the design elements of working with glass; she is drawn to working with strip construction and pattern bars. Many of her finished pieces having over 300 pieces of glass fused together, then cold worked using a wet belt sander before being returned to the kiln to take on a new shape through the slumping process. This method of design can take many hours and is usually done over several days to achieve the desired layout, with the pieces all needing to be individual cut and piece together. It is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, but doing it with the only picture being in your mind, and not seeing how it looks until the piece is removed from the kiln some 24 plus hours later.
Sue is constantly expanding her knowledge base by working with other fused glass artists in the Lansing area and Oakland County Michigan. Sue is a member of the Huron Valley Arts Council and is one of the exhibiting artists in HVAC Gallery. Her work can also be found at Arianna Gallery in Royal Oak, MI and Stafford Gallery in Petoskey, MI
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