Artist Statement

Rhonda is a glass artist who studies the outdoors every chance she gets not only because of her love for it, but because it is the focus of her art style. She spends a lot of time outdoors observing and enjoying trees, lakes, flowers and animals. She takes photos as a reference, capturing fine details including colors and textures. Capturing dew drops remaining on leaves lying on the ground, or the serenity of the lake on an early, foggy morning. She loves putting what she sees into the pieces of art she creates.

She uses various forms of glass to bring to life memories of what she has seen. She enjoys the relaxation of working with powdered glass to create fused glass paintings. Adding layers of powdered glass and various sizes of crushed glass frit adds depth, texture, and shading to my pieces. She pulls hot glass from a kiln to create stems and grass components used in her work. She also uses enamels and underglazes on a specially created texture on the glass to create watercolor style fused glass paintings.

In order to create texture, she experiments with various kiln firing schedules. Some pieces are fired multiple times to create various shapes and textures. Each piece she creates has its own story and often represents places she has visited or dreamt of visiting. Some of her pieces have a photographic appearance, while others are whimsical. She uses vibrant colors of glass in her whimsical pieces. Her nature pieces use earthy tones with pops of color to capture the feel of the gardens, trees, and flowers they are meant to represent.

Mike is honing his skills as a potter who picked up the techniques and forms very quickly. He’s a natural. He started throwing pottery semi-regularly in 2020 with a long time local potter. He works full time at his ‘day’ job, but pottery fills his spare time and is working into his retirement plan. Mike continues to create pieces that Rhonda glazes to finish off the pieces of art. Most of the pottery pieces they create are functional and food safe. Rhonda is enjoying exploring various glaze combinations to create the effects that bring out her artistic touches. Their pottery work is done in small batches.

Bio

Rhonda and Mike Bruggeman are the wife/husband artist team behind the scenes of Rhonda's Bits of Glass and Pottery in Papillion, Nebraska. Rhonda works from their home studio as a full time artist and Mike throws pottery in his free time. They have art in several area co-op style galleries, as well as participating in several local art shows throughout the year. Rhonda primarily works with glass using various forms, including powdered glass, frits, sheet glass and molten glass called vitrigraph. She also works with non-fusible glass creating mosaics and garden stones. She began working with glass in 1999 as a self-taught stained glass and mosaic artist; stopped for awhile and started working with fused glass full time in 2015. She is constantly learning new techniques to offer a wide variety of styles. She accepts commission glass work.

In early 2020, Mike began his pottery journey by learning skills and form from a long time local potter. He quickly picked up techniques of making the pottery, but due to his full time job, he doesn't have time to glaze it, so Rhonda stepped up to the challenge and began the glazing process to further accentuate his pottery forms. Their pottery is made in small batches and is ever-changing as they continue to identify their styles and color palette.