Color n. A substance, such as a dye, pigment, or paint, that imparts a hue.
Fiesta n. n : Festival, an elaborate party (often outdoors)
Welcome to Color Fiesta where we celebrate color every day, every minute!

I am a California based glass artist. Color Fiesta is a joint venture between me and my husband, Mohit. Most of our weekends are spent setting up our glass art booth at California art festivals, where we meet lots of friendly people who value all things handmade. Though we have participated in over 150 such festivals, shows and markets, Color Fiesta still continues to give us sleepless nights in a way that only small businesses can! :)

A little known fact about me: I am a qualified software engineer. I consider myself a designer at heart, I have been creative for as long as I can remember. As a child, I loved creative writing and penned poems about life and nature. Though glass art happened to me much later in life, I embraced it whole-heartedly. I chose glass as my medium because I believe colors, have a way of looking multi-dimensional on glass. Glass art is more of a passion to me, it is who I am.

My association with the glass medium started with handpainting stemware at a local adult education class. Soon, my whole studio(or should I say living room?:-)) was full of glass painted in funky colorful patterns. I was encouraged by friends and family to start selling and there has been no looking back since then!

As a glass painter, I believe in glass art which has function, primarily and form, secondarily.
I paint on a variety of glass bases like platters, vases, windows, stained glass paintings, but with special emphasis on painting designer stemware like martini glasses and champagne flutes. Why? Because I love the challenge the curvature and shape these kind of glasses have to offer. I try to strike a balance between the transparency of the glass and the color I add to it, always struggling to preserve the original spirit of the glass. Each piece is heat cured and signed with my trademark initials - "SV". My glasses are not mass produced(shudder), limited edition, and a labour of my love for glass art.

Since "Color Fiesta" has always been my full time 24X7 job, and being restless by nature, I have pretty much dabbled in all kinds of glass art - stained glass, glass jewelry, glass blowing and last but not the least lampworking.

First a bit of lampworking: it is a technique to make glass beads. Beads are made on the flame of a torch, where colored glass rods are melted and wrapped around a steel rod(called a mandrel). After that, they are kiln annealed for strength and durability. I started off making beads, and slowly branched out into making rings. Technically, the only difference between making glass rings and glass beads is the width of the rod. However, the glass canvas is larger - so one can have more fun with it - and ofcourse its wearable art!

My love for lampworking started with being introduced to Murano glass products many years back. Once I was exposed to the art, there was no stopping me! Since then, I have studied, attended bay area lampworking workshops, and trained under an experienced lampworker friend. Lampworking is a passion, I have made many of these exquisite little specs of glass starting with beads and graduating to rings. These are fun to do - the melting, layering, adding foil, glitter and experimenting with opacity of glass rods. Over the last couple of years, I have been concentrating on designing, and perfecting ingenious ways to put these magnificent glass rods melted together.

My designs are detailed and intricate, and are sometimes made on paper or it maybe just something that pops in my head. As you can tell, glass melts at dangerously high temperature, so it is better to have some idea of what you plan to do with it. But well, maybe my best designs have been totally unplanned! :-)

Because of the handmade nature, each ring is one of a kind. I try to make sizes in a single style, but each piece is 100% unique, and only a few sizes are possible. There will always be a wayward bubble, or a crack in the foil, or a difference in the shape of one glass ring from the other which adds to the individuality of the pieces. There's no way I can have an exact match, or an exact replacement.

My wearable glass portfolio comprises of bold signature jewelry pieces designed for women who take pride in their feminity and are willing to experiment. Jewelry design is too much fun, it gives me great satisfaction. I especially love to see how excited clients get when they try on my pieces! In my portfolio, you will also find a variety of necklaces, chandelier earrings, bracelets and anklets - designed for the contemporary woman who loves to accessorize!

My designs are best described as whimsical, I bend towards the abstract. I am constantly improvising, and I play a lot with color. Color is what Color Fiesta is all about..or..did I tell you that already? :)

Thank you for stopping by & I hope I am able to communicate the endless joy I feel in creating my art..

Sincerely,
Surbhi
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