About us
Dos Sirenas Glass Studio was founded in 2006 by artists Candy Armstrong and Terese Butler, just after completing an intensive apprenticeship in fused glass art. Though each brings a distinctive voice to their work, they continually inspire and challenge one another, evolving their craft with new techniques and creative approaches that continue to delight collectors and admirers.
Their friendship began years before their artistic collaboration. Candy and Terese first met—along with their husbands—on a scuba diving trip organized by a local dive shop. A shared passion for the ocean and its endlessly fascinating creatures quickly bonded them. Over the next fifteen years, they explored the underwater world together, documenting their travels with stunning photography and building memories that would later fuel their artistic journey.
As they prepared to leave behind their careers in the corporate world, Candy and Terese embraced fused glass as the perfect medium for their creative expression. The name Dos Sirenas—Spanish for “Two Mermaids”—along with their signature logo of intertwined mermaid tails, is a tribute to their love of the sea and a reflection of its influence in many of their designs. When they relocated to Tucson in 2007, the vibrant beauty of the Sonoran Desert introduced a new wave of inspiration, expanding the themes and colors present in their work.
Each piece created at Dos Sirenas Glass Studio is a joyful fusion of friendship, nature, and imagination. As Candy and Terese like to say:
“Have fun—and it will be reflected in your artwork!”
terese butler
CANDY ARMSTRONG
Glass holds a paradox I find endlessly compelling: it is both precise and unpredictable, solid yet fluid, ancient yet modern. In my work, I aim to capture that contradiction—to create pieces that feel alive in their stillness and speak with quiet intensity.
My creative process is deeply intuitive. I begin not with sketches, but with a feeling, a color, or an abstract rhythm I want to translate into form. Working with sheet glass, powdered pigments, stringers, and found materials, I layer compositions much like a composer builds a score—each element contributing to the harmony or dissonance of the whole. Heat is my final instrument. The kiln’s cycles become both refinement and revelation.
Fused glass is uniquely suited to this kind of expression. It allows for rich layering, subtle transitions, and dimensional depth that shifts with perspective. I often incorporate negative space and contrasting opacities to draw the eye and slow the gaze. My work is not meant to be consumed quickly—it asks for contemplation.
Much of my inspiration comes from patterns in nature and the architecture of memory. The striations in stone, the echo of a landscape long after it’s been left behind, or the fractured way we recall emotion—these themes guide my hand in the studio. I am less interested in literal representation and more fascinated by the essence of experience.
For me, glass is not a craft. It is a medium through which ideas are made tangible, where thought becomes surface, and light becomes story.
As a fused glass artist, I am drawn to the interplay of light, color, and transparency—the alchemy that happens when raw materials are transformed by fire into something luminous and enduring. My work is rooted in the idea that glass, though fragile by nature, holds immense strength and permanence when shaped with intention.
Each piece I create begins as an exploration—of texture, tension, movement, and the emotional response that can be evoked through the layering of color and form. Using sheets of glass, frit, enamel, and metallic inclusions, I build compositions that reflect the rhythm of the natural world: the shifting tides of the ocean, the heat-sculpted formations of the desert, or the stillness found in a shadowed grove. The kiln becomes both collaborator and unpredictable force, often lending surprising nuance to the final piece.
Fused glass allows me to blur the boundaries between painting and sculpture. I approach each work as a visual dialogue—inviting viewers to look beyond the surface and discover the energy that exists within the layers. Whether wall-mounted or freestanding, my pieces are meant to catch the light, change throughout the day, and become living elements within a space.
Ultimately, my goal is to create art that resonates—quietly or boldly—with something inside the viewer: a memory, a mood, a sense of place. In this way, glass becomes not only a medium of expression, but a lens through which the intangible becomes beautifully visible.
Welcome to our fused glass studio — where every piece is handcrafted with love, a touch of magic, and the occasional bark of approval from our quality control supervisor, Bonnie the dog. She's got an eye for color, a nose for snacks, and a strict policy of tail wags only.
Welcome to our fused glass studio — where every piece is handcrafted with love, a touch of magic, and the occasional bark of approval from our quality control supervisor, Bonnie the dog. She's got an eye for color, a nose for snacks, and a strict policy of tail wags only.