Nevada artist Kristi Lyn Glass created five artistic awards for recipients of the 2024 Elko, Nevada, Mayor’s Arts Awards. Elko Mayor Reese Keener presented the awards at the April 22, 2025, Elko City Council Meeting. Glass is pictured above with three of the award recipients. The fourth, Cynthia Delaney, was not present to accept her award.
Winners are:
- Individual Artist: Cynthia Delaney
- Arts Organization: Elko Community Concerts Association
- Service to the Arts: Sandy Beeler
- Arts Education: Jeanine Hoskins
The fifth award is on permanent display at the Elko City Offices.
Award Creation Process
I created the awards by first cutting mirrors into six 8″ x 11″ rectangles (adding one for a spare, in case problems occurred). I used masking tape to mask a central rectangle on each mirror so I could add an enameled border. I also masked off the back sides of the mirrors to keep them free of drips during the creation process.
Using a technique I have perfected on my mirrored glass pillbox tops, I planned to use Pebeo Prisme and Moon Fantasy Enamels on the mirror borders, but these enamels take on a life of their own as they cure. Therefore, I cut some mirrors into sizes that would fit on pillbox bases, so I could use them to test combinations of various enamel types and colors. Here is a look at some of these test pieces, which later became quite lovely pillbox tops.
I finally settled on the pattern and enamels above, and piped a series of similar blue, gold, and cream diagonal stripes on the mirror borders. I did this all on a level surface in a well ventilated area that was kept at 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit. The enameled mirrors and my test pieces are shown below, after I carefully removed the masked area from the center of each award.
While I waited a few days for the enamels to thoroughly dry, I used my Silhouette Cameo 4 cutting machine to cut out the award lettering on black adhesive-backed vinyl.
I then added the title “2024 Mayor’s Art Award, Elko, NV” lettering to the top of each mirrored area. Then I added the award category title to the bottom of the four respective awards’ mirrored areas. I put “by Kristi Lyn Glass” lettering on the fifth award, which would be on permanent display at the Elko City Offices.
The next step was to sprinkle gold and blue glitter on the respective colored enameled areas of the mirror borders. I then piped clear epoxy resin onto the entire surface of each award. I filled the mirrored areas first to help keep the glitter from roaming into them. After three hours of effort, I had completed this step on all five mirrors. I kept the sixth enameled mirror unlettered and unresined, as a backup, should anything happen to one of the five awards.
While the resin took several days to cure, I worked with my woodworker neighbor, David Armuth, to create the wooden award bases. He created and stained them for me, and I sprayed them all with a clear protective coating. I am very grateful for his expert help!
I had brass name plates engraved for four of the five awards and adhered them to the front edge of each award’s wooden base. The completed award for display at the city offices is shown below.
This was one of those projects where something could go horribly wrong at any step along the way, but God helped me complete it without any setbacks. I especially like the depth the glitter adds to the finished products.
The Mayor, the award recipients, and the Elko Arts and Culture Committee members who commissioned the awards were all very pleased with my creations. I was greatly honored to have been asked to create these awards for the City of Elko.
