For The Love of Dance - Debbie

Debbie Moseley discovered her love for dance at a very young age. Her father Moe was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force during World War II, which required Debbie's mother, affectionately known as "Smokey", and her 6 brothers and sisters to travel all over the world. When Debbie was seven years old they moved to Paris, France and it was there that she took her very first ballet class. From the moment she put on those ballet shoes, Debbie became obsessed with dance and has not stopped moving since. Every style of dance became a new adventure for her, and at a young age Debbie found that she could express so many emotions through movement. She has shared her gift through her own dancing, through teaching dance for many years, and through the choreography she is known for.

This passion for dance and her innate ability to capture emotion and tell a story through movement is what inspires her beautiful jewelry. As she shapes each piece, the colors and textures she uses portray the movements fusing together to create the "dance". Just as each measure in dance moves and changes, so does her jewelry. Debbie specializes in creating one of a kind pieces that stand out. While dance is one of her biggest inspirations, so are the seasons, natural landscapes, trends in fashion, and her own unique imagination. Debbie's personal sparkle shines through in every single piece of jewelry she designs.

Debbie resides in Dayton, Ohio and her jewelry studio is in her family home there.  Although she tends to remain very busy, you can often find her in her "glass room", lost in music and in her vision, giving live to movement through her dancing glass jewelry.

 

My Mother, My Role Model - Terrah

Debbie and her daughter, Terrah Rash, have a very close relationship. From a very young age, Terrah understood her mother's love and obsession for dance and gymnastics. Any time music was on, her mother was moving, watching TV in the evenings Terrah would see Debbie's toes move as she mentally danced to any song that came on, even sitting down.

Although Terrah did not quite understand her mother's obsession with making fused glass jewelry at first, eventually she began to grow interested in the process and joined her mother in the studio. Because Debbie is in constant motion, Terrah loved the opportunity to share a hobby with her mother that allowed them to slow down and spend quality time together doing something they both love. She is constantly in awe of her mother's creative ability and imagination, her endless perseverance and strength, and her unconditional love. She is eternally grateful for her mother's influence and for passing down her love for dance and creating movement through art.

Terrah lives outside Cleveland, Ohio and has a small jewelry studio in her home. You can find her there most days, attempting to tap into the creative DNA that her mother has given her, listening to music, and following in her mother's footsteps (even when they're dancing). 

 

Our Jewelry

Each piece of jewelry created is an exclusive design that begins with a vision. The very first medium we started with was fused glass and is essentially the majority of the jewelry we make. However over the past few years, we began experimenting with other mediums that we now incorporate into our process. 

Fused Glass Jewelry

Our fused glass jewelry begins with large panes of glass that we score, cut, stack, and carefully place in the kiln. This is where the magic begins. Bringing the kiln to temperatures reaching 1500+ degrees allows the glass to become liquid and "move" or fuse together. Working with glass is a unique process, that takes time and creativity. It is very exciting for Debbie and Terrah to wake in the morning and peek into the kiln to see what surprises are in store with each new piece. 

Each piece of fused glass can take several hours and sometimes days to complete. In addition to the design process of cutting several pieces of glass, incorporating different colors, and stacking them in a way that will produce a unique piece or artwork, there is a lengthy annealing process that requires several hours in the kiln with close oversite to ensure the proper technique is followed. Once that is completed and the glass has fused together and cooled, many of our pieces are wet grinded into the desired shape and then fired in the kiln again. Some pieces require several firing and grinding rounds to achieve the desired outcome. 

Dichroic Glass

Dichroic glass is one of our favorite types of glass to work with, and it comes with a very unique story. The technology behind dichroic glass was initially used by the Greeks nearly 2000 years ago, they would add small amounts of gold and silver in a larger quantity of melted glass. This would result in the glass partially reflecting the light that would pass through it and would give the viewer different colors depending on where the light source was. 

In the 1950's and 1960's NASA brought dichroic glass back to life as a way to protect their astronauts. NASA needed to find a way to protect the vision of the astronauts, spacecraft sensors, and other things from the harmful rays of the sun when left unfiltered. NASA created a process that vaporized the metals by electron beams in a vacuum chamber which was then applied in a thin film directly to surfaces. This process is repeated several times and results in a material sufficient to reflect radiation while still allowing the glass or polycarbonate to still be transparent to the human eye. 

Dichroic glass is found in several of our pieces, as we really love the "sparkle" it creates in some of our most spectacular pieces of jewelry that stand out as truly unique works of art. 

 Guitar String Jewelry

One important thing about the Moseley family is that they are all, in some way, performers at heart. Whether it be dance, music, telling jokes, or being the most entertaining person in a gathering, each of them comes with their own unique talent and creativity. Debbie's brothers Mike, Mark, and Willie have played the guitar for many years. While visiting with her brothers, Debbie witnessed them throwing their used guitar strings in the trash and inspiration struck. In an effort to save hundreds of guitar strings from going in the trash, she had her brothers send her their retired strings to her. Through lots of trial and error, Debbie began creating beautiful pieces of jewelry by incorporating guitar string with unique glass beads, natural stone, and even her own fused glass. Just as music is an integral part of dance and movement, so guitar strings have become a staple in our collection.

Horse Hair Jewelry

One of Dancing Glass Jewelry's biggest fans is Debbie's sister-in-law Karen. Karen is an avid horse lover and has owned horses for many years. Her long time companion, Harley, sadly passed in 2020 and Karen reached out to Debbie to create memorial jewelry out of Harley's mane. Debbie created an incredible memorial set for Karen to always have a tangible reminder of the special bond she shared with her horse Harley. Through this process, Debbie has now branched out to creating pieces with horse hair not only as memorial jewelry, but as beautiful statement pieces for horse lovers.