Mark Miller has been working with glass for 20 years. In the beginning it was windows and windshields, but before long he’d learned to turn mirrors and shower doors into art. He opened his business in 1998.
So how creative can a shower door be?
We do custom, decorative work. Right now it’s a lot of the heavy frameless doors with 3/8- and 1/2-inch glass. But we can take a door that normally has straight lines and do freeform cuts – curves and like it’s been broken off. We also sandblast and chip edges.
What’s the coolest shower door you do?Probably a bent glass door – they work well in corner showers where they bend around the radius of the door opening.
The coolest mirrors?We do a mirror with chipped edges – we call it a bark edge. We also have one in our showroom that’s cut in the shape of Michigan – both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas. People love it.
Tell me about the technical end.We’re the only company in Northern Michigan that fabricates our own glass. That means we cut, polish and notch it for hinges. We can also bevel and edge it.
Are all your projects high-end custom?No, if Mrs. Smith calls and wants something simple, we can do it.
Elizabeth Edwards is managing editor at Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine.lissa@traversemagazine.com
Note: This article was first published in March 2007 and was updated for the web February 2008.