Destin glass artist: ‘My work is just a creative idea in a crazy world'

She was in Athens, Greece, and fell in love with huge, chunky glass beads — so much that she kept going back to the ATM and getting drachmas to pay for the 50 pounds that she then carried 180 degrees around the globe to her Hawaii home.

Mary Schmiedicke fell in love with glass work and has traveled the world for inspiration and instruction.
Her medium of choice is kiln-formed glass art and mosaics.

“This passion began with those glass beads,” she says. “I took them back to Hawaii and made jewelry with them but I wanted more — I wanted to make them!”

Seeking mentors for instruction, she began near her Hawaii home with Calvin Orr who is a “lamp worker” in the glass world. She bought her first kiln from him, and, in her words, “really started figuring this whole thing out watching him work.”

With an art degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison, she was a flight attendant for 19 years who married an airline pilot. She left the job when she became pregnant with twins. Since the birth of her now 2-year-old son, Kai, and daughter, Rain, she has stolen time for her love of art.

Having relocated to Destin five years ago, Mary loves the area.

“This is totally my scene here, it’s infectious and inspiring for artists,” she points out.

One of her art forms includes fused-glass LED night lights. She touts them as being “art by daylight and light by night.” Each lasts around 100,000 hours. She says they are “functional art.”

“When I first started in this, my artist friends would say ‘You need a cash cow’ — something that will sell year-round and be your staple,” she says. “So my night lights are just that.”

Mary’s artwork is time intensive.

Working with the glass (she only uses Bull’s Eye from Portland, Ore.) she begins with the design — composition and layout, and then moves to cutting the fragile pieces.  She then assembles the piece and fires it for around five hours in a 1500 degree kiln. The annealing stage is at a lesser temperature, around 960 degrees, but is an essential element of a permanent piece of glass art.

“I’m totally devoted to my family, but I also have to create,” she adds. “This work is too hot for the summer around the kilns, so I use the cooler months to stockpile my work.”

Commissioned works include a glass panel of a dark-haired little girl building a sand castle complete with sea shells that hangs in her parent’s den in Destin. She has created expansive kitchen and wet bar backsplashes that bring great life to rooms in Sandestin, Santa Rosa Beach, St. Tropez, and Crystal Beach. She also recently made a mosaic dolphin scene to complete an oak table that now resides in Barbados.

“My kids are so much fun, and they are my biggest fans!” she said. “They point to pieces and say ‘Ooohhhh pretty Mommy’ and my heart melts; they were long-awaited in my life!”

She also admits to only letting their little hands hold pieces that she could live without if they accidentally dropped it.

Mary’s masterpieces are available for purchase at Studio Gallery in Grayton Beach, Raspberry Rhino in Baytowne Wharf of Sandestin, Zoo Gallery in Destin Commons, Uniquely Chic in Destin and Buddy Harris Shoes in Panama City.
Anita Nelson, manager of Raspberry Rhino in Sandestin, sings the praises of Mary’s work.

“We have beautiful and unique women’s shoes here, and her works pick up colors and textures in the displayed footwear. She recently went WAY out there and took a pair of pumps and covered every inch of them into a mosaic masterpiece — they sold quickly!”

Mary’s work will be one of over 60 local artist’s showing at the 13th Annual Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation Festival of the Arts Oct. 25 and 26 at Henderson Beach State Park. Visit  www.mattiekellyartsfoundation.org for more information.

“I love the annual Mattie Kelly show,” Mary adds. “The location is just beautiful and it is so great to be there with other artists and best of all to meet the people who buy your art and interact with them.”