Shawn Steichen's fused glasswork will be casting a colorful glow at the Bella Vista Arts and Crafts Festival.

Steichen is traveling from Haslet, Texas, to sell her wares, including glass art, trays, dishes and lampshades designed to play with lighting. She's also willing to take orders and make custom art, she said.

Glass is a passion, she said, and its important to her that it be accessible.

"We try to keep the prices fairly low so that they're affordable to everybody. I love glass, I always have, but most of my life I couldn't afford it," she said. "I try to keep it a whole lot lower than that so people can get it if they want it."

She enjoys working with the glass and playing with different textures and shapes to change how light filters through it, she said, and it often proves more interesting than typical frosted or clear glass.

"You won't walk into the neighbor's house and see another like it," she said.

She's also modified and made lamps, she said. In one case, she used a copper pipe lamp base and made a pale blue shade, which gave the appearance of a shower head.

Inspiration, she said, can come from anywhere.

"I have a lot of stuff that I do that's inspired by the Caribbean .... I love the Caribbean water and just the colors you get in the Caribbean are amazing," Steichen said.

The works often start as sheets of glass, she said, which are heated in a kiln, along with frit -- or small pieces of broken glass -- to produce patterns and textures.

Once the color and texture are right, the glass goes back into the kiln for a second process called draping, where the glass is set on an object and allowed to fall over it as it heats and softens, sometimes with fiber paper, fiber board and fiber rope in place to fine tune the shape. Thinner glass, she said, will fold in tighter, while thicker pieces will result in a wider overall shape.

She's been making glass for nine years now, she said. She started with a gift for her 50th birthday -- a glass-working class. After the class, she said, she was hooked.

"Now it's turned into this," she said. "I don't think the kilns have shut down except when we're not home."

She sells at several art shows, she said, but this will be her first year selling at Bella Vista.

"We're looking forward to coming up there and checking out the area," Steichen said.