Toby Klein - Capturing a Kaleidoscopic World of Color

Meet the Artist

Toby Klein: An award-winning and published artist recognized both locally and on the national and international art scene.

Toby Klein will have her art for sale at the Arts Trussville Gateway Art Festival on Sunday, October 13, 2024. The art festival will be held at the Trussville Gateway Entertainment District from 11 am - 5 pm. Bring the whole family for great art, music, dancing, food, and fun! For more information, please visit the Arts Trussville website at https://www.artstrussville.org/

About the Artist

Toby Klein is a mixed media and glass artist, whose work is contemporary and ranges from different degrees of abstraction and experimental to representational.

From the Artist

My glass is created with bursts of colors and the designs capture my Kaleidoscopic World. Always intrigued by the natural vibrancy of glass and the beautiful reflections it creates, I began to add pieces of glass to my mixed media work. After I started working with kiln-formed glass, I began adding fused glass to my collage art. During the Pandemic, I started creating larger pieces of glass, and it changed my direction in art. Now, after working with fused glass for 20 years, I am primarily exhibiting glass. Understanding color, design, and technique has allowed me to experiment with glass, develop my style, and create different and unusual pieces. My kiln-formed glass shows my love for color, depth, and texture.

How Toby Makes Her Art

My work is an adventure – beginning with an idea and then working through each phase to completion. The journey begins by creating color, depth, and texture by overlapping pieces of glass with abstract shapes, leaving spaces in between to create rich hues, design, and dimension. Using special glass made for fusing, I cut and work with the glass and spend a great deal of time creating my original designs. Then I prepare them for the kiln. The glass pieces are designed to have variable thicknesses and alternate in depth. Special schedules and multiple firings create the smoothness of glass yet retain the texture and shape of the final piece.

Each piece is individually designed and handcrafted. To create bowls, vases, wall hangings, and other pieces, I use handmade, purchased, or manipulated molds in a process called slumping. This would take place in a separate firing of the item and the glass would be slumped into or over the mold. The addition of copper or bronze wire to the design, intertwined with the glass, is sometimes used to complete the overall effect.

Using the same processes but on a smaller scale, I create original jewelry, most often using dichroic glass that gives it that special sparkle. Silver or copper wire designs create the final piece.

Toby's Award-winning Mixed Media Art

The thought process and stages of creating mixed media collage art and kiln-formed glass are similar, although one uses paper and paint and the other uses colorful glass to create the artwork. Also, the paper products are attached with an acrylic medium where the pieces of glass are fused by the heat of the kiln. Even though I enjoy the process of creating with glass, I still love my mixed media collage work and sometimes will stop and take time to create small pieces.