Bringing the Figures to life in glass

Lys’s original hand-drawn figures were full of delicate, expressive lines that gave each one a unique personality. Recreating them in mosaic would’ve meant chopping them into hundreds of tiny pieces (grout lines everywhere!). And while ceramic might’ve held the shape, it wouldn’t have held up to decades of foot traffic at Barton Springs. So, she turned to something magical and mighty: kilnformed glass.

Lys approached me—Kristine Shafer at Helios Fused Glass Studio—to help bring these characters to life through fused glass. After some serious experimenting, we had a plan that would preserve both the design’s integrity and its durability.

the kilnforming process (glass + heat = magic!)

We used a technique called kilncasting to make the figures, which let us sculpt each drawing into solid glass tiles that could be safely walked on and last for generations.

Here’s how we did it:

1. Puzzle Planning
   Each figure was broken into smaller, puzzle-like pieces. If the finished tile was too large there was worry it would break underfoot. So, we split each figure into pieces no larger than 4in long. Every piece had to be made separately but still fit back together perfectly—no pressure, right?

2. Custom Colors & Texture Magic
   Kristine’s skin tone color sample tiles from her studies at Bullseye Glass Factory brought the figures to life. Using Bullseye glass powders, she mixed custom colors for each person’s skin tone, hair, and clothing. With the help of studio volunteers, we then cut and pinned down ceramic fiber paper (kind of like glass-safe thick fabric) to form short walls in the shape of each puzzle piece. This formed a “dam” to hold the glass powder in place and in the perfect shape.

3. Upside-Down Engineering
   Each piece was built upside down and on a fiber paper mat. This special setup gave the tiles a textured and completely flat matte surface (instead of the usual shiny, rounded fused glass look), making them perfect for a floor installation embedded in the custom LithoMosaic concrete (and safe for wet barefoot feet at Barton Springs!).

4. Into the Fire
   After covering each powdered shape with a thick layer of frit to build up the thickness of the tiles, we loaded all the filled molds into the kiln. We fired them to 1490°F, melting the powders into solid, sculpted glass tiles—strong enough to be walked on by the thousands of visitors to Barton Springs.

5. Refining the Fit
   Once cooled, each piece was hand-ground (yes, by hand!), cleaned, checked, and re-fitted like a jigsaw puzzle to ensure the tiles lined up with just the right 1/8-inch spacing. That gap is essential for the final LithoMosaic installation method.

And no—we didn’t get every piece right the first time. But with patience, grit, and a bit of glass magic, we got them just right.

And then…The Stars

Ok, I’m only talking about the process of how we made these stars. For the drama of what happened along the way you’ll have to ~wait for the documentary~ to come out. (Yeah!! Lys’s journey of this project was filmed by Malikita Productions for Cina de las Americas! Final Film to be revealed in 2026!)

For the stars that make up the two constellations embedded between the frolicking figures, Lys envisioned something magical. Something ethereal. In the glass world that means only one thing…dichro. Dichroic glass’s delicate metalic coating creates highly reflective and scene stealing beauty. But, it’s delicate nature required a different kilnforming approach. We sandwiched the beautifully thin dichro pieces between protective glass layers which added to it’s allure as a sunken gem in the final floor installation. )

To create the star shape, Kristine and another Helios superstar, Sarah Bolm, hand cut each layer of glass separately (a base of black, the delicate dichro, and a thick 6mm layer of crystal clear glass) to match each of Lys’s hand drawn stars. Every one of the 42 stars is completely unique. All the layers were cut, stacked, and then popped in the kiln to fuse into a solid piece at 1385*F. After firing they were each again hand trimmed and polished.

the result

After over 200 hours of creative and community-powered effort the final fused glass elements feature over 24 unique figures made from over 150 individually cast glass pieces and 42 star medallions, embedded gorgeously in a massive mosaic artwork that celebrates community, resilience, and beauty—just like Barton Springs itself.