Artist works with recycled windows

PALMER — Pebbles may be Central Gravel Products owner Nickie Jordan’s “bread and butter,” but glass is her medium choice for another profitable — and dusty — pastime.

“There’s a lot of dust in my life,” Jordan said, surrounded by her handmade glass creations and tools.

Jordan has “always been an artist,” she said, and took up glasswork about 26 years ago. Starting with stained glass, she soon discovered sandblasting, and found she could create art that is just as appealing at a lower cost.

“It’s like making a quilt,” she said, of stained glass. “Why put together all these pieces when I can do one big beautiful piece of glass and make a beautiful art piece without spending a lot on materials?”

Valley Pathways School recently installed one of Jordan’s sandblasted works above the entryway as part of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies “Percent for Art” program, which the Alaska Legislature signed into law in 1975.

According to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, the Percent for Art in Public Places statute requires one percent of capital construction costs of public buildings be reserved for the acquisition and permanent installation of artwork.

The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities works with the program to achieve objectives such as providing public access to works of art; offering a variety of visual experiences; contributing to the development and recognition of a professional artist community; introducing new visual ideas; and more, as detailed in a Department of Education document available on their website.

Naturally, such a program appealed to Jordan.

“Most of what I do is big,” she said.

And it’s never too big. Jordan has two kilns, one fairly large, for many small pieces at one time, and a sandblaster that can handle a piece of glass a couple feet high — if it’s bigger than that, she just takes it outside and builds a sandblasting room around it.

“I went big,” she said simply.

Jordan is now working on another “one percent” project for the same school with fellow artist Misty Holler, who drew the design. Jordan also designed the metal moose and fish scenes on the exit ramps for the Parks Highway, and the eagle on the Frontiersman office window.

“If you’re gonna do art in Alaska, you’ve gotta do moose and fish — that’s what sells,” she said.

But it’s not all about the profit, nor Alaskan wildlife. From stained glass windows and enameled bowls to mosaics and sandblasted creations, Jordan’s portfolio includes both the abstract and the concrete, with one important commonality: recycled glass.

Jordan said much of her glass comes from windows of demolished buildings, which usually get throw away, rather than recycled. Since Alaska doesn’t recycle glass, she figured she might as well.

“There’s lots of stuff to do with window glass, people just don’t know,” she said.

The trick, however, is knowing which kind of glass can do what. Heat Mirror glass, for example — the kind used for many home windows in Alaska — can only be used as flat tiles and must be coated in enamel on one side, since it is designed to reflect heat (the enamel essentially disables that). Safety laminate, used in car windshields, can’t go in the kiln because it has a thin sheet of plastic between the panes. Tempered glass, used in car door windows, can’t be cut before it’s heated to 1,100 degrees, when the tempered treatment burns off.

The hobby/business she had going before Alaska Glass Artworks was even less messy, but soon turned out to be less enjoyable, too.

Jordan used to run a sewing business making things like hard-hat liners and surveyor vests, until it got too commercial.

But perhaps Jordan’s departure from sewing had more to do with her personality than anything else.

“I’m more of a geometric person,” she said.

That makes sense, given her soft spot for mosaics, now her favorite kind of glasswork.

“It’s the cheapest, easiest thing you can do that adds beauty to your house,” she said.

To learn more about glasswork from Nickie Jordan, send email to glassart@mtaonline.net or add Alaska Glass Artworks as a friend on Facebook and send her a message.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.