2023 GAS Journal

THE GLASS ART SOCIETY JOURNAL DETROIT 2023

THE GLASS ART SOCIETY JOURNAL

DETROIT

2023

COMMUNITY, CROSSOVER, AND COLLABORATION ANNUAL CONFERENCE DETROIT, MICHIGAN, USA JUNE 7–10, 2023

DETROIT 2023 2

GAS BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2022-2023 President Vice President Treasurer Secretary

Nadania Idriss Heather McElwee Michael Saroka Lisa Zerkowitz

Ben Cobb Eric Goldschmidt Sara Hulkkonen John Moran Purnima Patel Frederik Rombach Debra Ruzinsky

Erika Tada Kimberly Thomas Sunny Wang Martha Zackin Ibrahim Erdogan Student Representative Leia Guo Student Representative

GAS 2023 DETROIT CONFERENCE SITE COMMITTEE Brooke Breckner Kim Harty Allison Key Drew Kups Andrew Madvin Aaron Schey April Wagner Josh Wojick Albert Young GAS STAFF Brandi Clark, Executive Director Amanda Crans, Communications Manager Jennifer Hand, Conference + Events Manager Marja Huhta, Digital + Design Assistant KCJ Swedzinski, Operations Assistant Julie Thompson, Development Manager Robin Babb, GASnews Editor* Mike Berger, Conference Photographer* Sarah Kulfan, Journal Graphic Designer* Cathy Noble-Jackson, Bookkeeper* *Contract employee

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Published by: GLASS ART SOCIETY 700 NW 42nd St #101 Seattle, WA 98107 USA glassart.org Editor: Amanda Crans Graphic Designer: Sarah Kulfan Photographers: Mike Berger, Amanda Crans, Leia Guo, Jennifer Hand Copyright © 2023 by Glass Art Society ISSN 0278-9426

Hoseok Youn served as gaffer for Tiff Massey at the Conference Kick-Off.

No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced in any form without the written permission of Glass Art Society. The opinions expressed and text written in the GAS Journal are those of the annual conference presenters and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of Glass Art Society, its Board of Directors, or staff. Copies of this GAS Journal may be ordered for a fee from glassart.org For information about the Glass Art Society, visit glassart.org or email us at info@glassart.org Cover image Front: Pipe, Earl Jr. and Ryan Fitt. Photo credit: Jared Cortland Back: Glass Workshop ANU, 3D printing glass using a Maple 3 printer. Photo credit: Dr. Jeffrey Sarmiento.

All permission for photographic reproduction is the responsibility of the author. Unless otherwise noted, the photographs were submitted by the artist. Dimensions, when available, are usually given in inches or feet as height x width x depth.

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CONTENTS REFLECTIONS President’s Message by Nadania Idriss

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Site Committee Letter

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AWARDS Lifetime Membership Award: Eddie Bernard

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GAS Impact Award: Glass Society of Ireland

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EXHIBITIONS Evolution, Connection, and Trace Exhibition Winners

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LECTURES Willson Lecture Tiff Massey

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Littleton Lecture: Herb Babcock

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Stephen Paul Day

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Laura Donefer

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Michael Hatch

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Floor Kaspers

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Joshua Kerley and Guy Marshall-Brown

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Francesco Langer

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Josefina Muñoz Torres

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Dr. Lisa Naas

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Cooper O’Brien

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LECMOS Fumio Adachi

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Adrienne DiSalvo

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Jenna Efrein

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Morgan Gilbreath

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Jin Won Han

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David King

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James Labold

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Steven Ciezki and Stephanie Moyerman

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Catie Newell

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Harsh Vardhan Nowlakha

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Sally Prasch

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Kaitlin Santoro

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Dr. Jeffrey Sarmiento

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Zac Weinberg

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Mark Wolcott

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PANELS Saxe Emerging Artists Geoffrey Bowton, Scout Cartagena, and Hoseok Youn

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Creating Space for Artists to Thrive Michelle Plucinsky (moderator), Grace Serra, April Wagner, and Shannon White (panelists)

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European Opportunities for Glass Artists Mary Savig (moderator), Marzena Krzemińska Baluch, Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk, Andy Paiko, and Marek Vaselý (panelists)

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Green + Sustainability Panel Brian Frus (moderator), Tyler Gordon, Min Haeng Kang, and Salime Harp Cruces (panelists)

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Combatting Imposter Syndrome in the Glass Field Kayla Cantu (moderator), Scout Cartagena, Ying Chiun Lee, Hoseok Youn (panelists)

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Legal Matters for Glass Artists Martha Zackin (moderator), Atreya Mathur and Laura Winston (panelists)

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Small Business Considerations Lynn Read (moderator), Jen Fuller, Kelly Howard, and Sibelle Yuksek (panelists)

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Studio Glass in Detroit Nolan Young

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Your Guide to Proposal Writing Nadine Saylor (moderator), Cheryl Derricotte, Therman Statom, and Norwood Viviano (panelists)

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DEMONSTRATIONS Marc Barreda and Kitty Laméris

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Theo Brooks

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Lauren Kalman

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Maple Glass

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Charlyn Reynolds

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Alejandra Toribio

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FILMS THE FLAME

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Creating with the Fourth State of Matter: Plasma Artists in the Studio

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CONFERENCE PROGRAM

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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CONFERENCE IN PHOTOS

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BERLIN 2024 PREVIEW

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C O M M U N I T Y, C R O S S O V E R , A N D C O L L A B O R AT I O N

GAS Executive Director Brandi P. Clark with GAS Board President Nadania Idriss at the Conference Kick-Off.

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President’s Message Dear Friends and Colleagues, Only a few short months ago we met with full hearts and open minds in Detroit for the 2023 Glass Art Society Conference. We spent four action-packed days connecting and growing in one of Michigan’s premier cities, buoyed by the hospitality of our Site Committee and invigorated by the rich cultural history of our host city.

We would like to express our thanks once again to the site committee members: Brooke Breckner, Kim Harty, Allison Key, Drew Kups, Andrew Madvin, Aaron Schey, April Wagner, Josh Wojick, and Albert Young. The time, energy and resources they invested in our gathering made for a truly spectacular program and showed off the very best of their home city.

We would also like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the College for Creative Studies and the Michigan Glass Project (MGP). The opportunity for our members to witness the MGP’s annual event provided a crucial moment of exchange between our two audiences, furthering our shared goals to work towards positive change in the arts through our passion for glass.

GAS Board President Nadania Idriss welcomes attendees to the Annual GAS Conference in Detroit, Michigan.

Our conference comes to life thanks to the energy and talents of our presenters. Thank you to the nearly 100 individual presenters who traveled from across the globe to contribute their time and knowledge to expand the understanding of and appreciation for glass. Detroit’s program displayed an astonishing array of ways of working with the material, along with geographical and social diversity representing the full spectrum of our members and supporters. Next year as we return to Europe for the 2024 conference, we look forward to being able to welcome even more of our international membership to participate as presenters, program partners and more.

Finally, thank you to each and every attendee who came to join us in Detroit. We are honored to work on your behalf to put together this program year after year, and we can not wait to welcome you next year in Berlin!

In Gratitude,

Nadania Idriss GAS Board President

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From the Site Committee Dear Conference Goers, We hope you fell in love with Detroit.

Whatever preconceived notions you’ve had about the city, this conference showed you the grassroots energy, reverence for craft, and hustler attitude in the bones of Detroit. The conference sites welcomed you to the worldclass collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts where the Corning Museum of Glass Mobile Hot Shop was stationed, the College for Creative Studies, which originated in 1906 as the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, and the Russell Industrial Center, the iconic home of a multitude of artists and small businesses.

This year, attendees had the opportunity to visit and experience the Michigan Glass Project, a live glass, art, and music festival with a 40-torch flameworking demo area hosting over 100 glass artists whose pieces are auctioned to raise money to return art class curriculum to Detroit public schools. Detroit is also home to the world’s oldest and largest studio glass gallery, Habatat Galleries. Outside of the formal conference, there are an abundance of world class museums, studios, including The Henry Ford Museum, Flint Institute of Art, The Cranbrook Museum of Art, Michigan

Detroit 2023 Site Committee member Kim Harty welcomes attendees to Detroit.

Hot Glass, Axiom Glass, Epiphany Glass, Glass Academy, Wasserman Projects, and more. Our programming showed you some of the most exciting artists and designers in Detroit including demos by Tiff Massey, Chris Schanck, Lauren Kalman, and Form and Seek. Unique to this conference was a series of technology-related programming with the highlight showing Maple Glass 3-D printer in action, and as always, outstanding demos, lecmos, and lectures with an international reach. We were also excited to support Glass Impact members attending the conference. Community, collaboration, and crossover is the perfect theme for a conference that weaves together artists from different backgrounds, disciplines, and expertise and supports communities in glass, in Detroit, and beyond.

Signed, the GAS Detroit 2023 Site Committee: Brooke Beckner College for Creative Studies Kim Harty College For Creative Studies Allison Key The Michigan Glass Project

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Drew Kups Urban Pheasant & The Michigan Glass Project Andrew Madvin Axiom Glass Aaron Schey Habatat

April Wagner Epiphany Glass Josh Wojick The Henry Ford Albert Young Michigan Hot Glass

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AWARDS

Connection, the GAS Member Exhibition, on view at Axiom Glass.

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L I F E T I M E M E M B E R S H I P AWA R D

Eddie Bernard

Eddie Bernard performing his “Glass Magic Show” at the 2017 GAS Conference in Norfolk, VA. Photo credit: Heather Baigelman.

The Glass Art Society honored Eddie Bernard with a Lifetime Membership Award at the Annual GAS Conference in Detroit, Michigan.

A member since 1995, Eddie exemplifies the best the glass community has to offer: from supporting the next generation of glassmakers to innovating new technologies. He served on the GAS board from 2004 to 2011 and continues to be a force for good within the glass community. We were able to interview Eddie about his connection with GAS and what it means to be honored in this way.

How have you been connected with GAS? Eddie: I first attended a GAS conference as a student volunteer in 1995. Our company, Wet Dog Glass, has had a booth at GAS Tech Display (now called GAS Market) since 1999. My first lecture at GAS was in 2004, and I joined the board later that same year, serving through 2011. While on the board, I effected a few important policies that I believe persist today. Examples include recommending permanent schedule slots for the “Green

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Panel” discussion after the 2008 Portland, OR conference and for the “Performance” presentation category after the Burnt Asphalt Family performed at the 2009 Corning, NY conference. My wife Angela and I founded the Student Representative fund around that same time, providing up to $1,000 per year for student reps to travel to board meetings and conferences. I’ve moderated six or so panel discussions on sustainability and written about 20 GASnews articles on technical issues and pre-conference topics. I’ve also donated artwork to and purchased pieces at the conference auctions and helped orchestrate them.

After my board service, I’ve continued to participate by serving on the Nominating Committee and Strategic Planning Advisory Committee, and by performing my “Glass Magic Show” at the 2017 Norfolk, VA conference. Angela and I donate to GAS annually through our business and recently created a scholarship to help others with travel and accommodation expenses relevant to GAS conferences.

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It’s no stretch to say that without Pamina throwing my name into as many hats as she did, my career and my relationship to GAS would be different.

What does it mean to be honored by GAS? Eddie: To be honored in this way by GAS feels special to me.

It means that my peers appreciate me and have come to the consensus that what I’ve done in and for the glass arts community has been significant. While at first I was sure the board had made a mistake, I reflected over the next few weeks on the 34 years of my glass career sufficiently enough that I could see how, over time, lots of little contributions can add up to a big one.

What is your fondest GAS memory?

Eddie Bernard, recipient of the 2023 Lifetime Membership Award

You’re committed to being a mentor to the glass community.

Who are the people who have mentored you along the way?

Eddie: To me, a mentor actively and genuinely looks out for the mentee’s best interests. There is a level of bidirectional trust and admiration in the relationship that makes it work. Artist and former GAS board member Paulo Dufour was my first real mentor. My lucky break came in high school when I landed a job working for Paulo at his home studio after school each day and on weekends. It was the first time in years where I would experience a family setting where parents and children lived and ate meals together and where the children had structure. As a mentor and true friend, Paulo insisted I go to college, despite the fact that he would have benefited monetarily by keeping me as an employee. I continued to work for and with him for a total of about ten years through summers and part time as I started to build Wet Dog Glass from nothing.

In the glass department of Rochester Institute of Technology’s School for American Crafts, I met my “big sister” Pamina Traylor.

She was a first year grad student when I was a first year undergrad in 1992. I trusted her because of the integrity she displayed, and perhaps she believed in me simply because I showed up. I had chosen to be there to pursue a career in glass, so I wasn’t wasting that time. Pamina recognized this and would eventually open doors for me that may have taken years or decades to open for myself, and stepping through those doors opened yet more. She used her relationships to create opportunities for me, including my joining the GAS Board of Directors, building some of my first furnaces outside of Louisiana, and serving as teaching assistant, co-teacher, and eventually teacher of my own hot glass classes.

Eddie: I discovered magic in 2013 and dove deeply into it over the next few years. I developed about 15 original glass-related magic effects and incorporated them into a one-hour hot glass magic show. Eventually I performed it at the 2017 Norfolk GAS Conference in front of roughly 200 people who work with the material. It was the ultimate test. The room was full of smiles and laughter throughout the show, and it felt like a special achievement for me.

What do you see as the value of GAS? Eddie: GAS brings a cross-section of the glass arts “industry” together, allowing us to follow and interact with, to teach and learn from, each other in the ways that work for us. As a supplier to the community, I can interact in person with my clientele, put names to faces, and meet potential coworkers. As a long-time community member, I most enjoy watching young artists grow to create and hold their own spaces—to make their own marks.

About Eddie Bernard An artist, craftsperson, designer and businessperson, Eddie Bernard was born and raised in New Iberia, LA. In 1996 he earned a BFA from RIT and founded Wet Dog Glass, LLC, a small manufacturing firm specializing in art glass processing equipment for schools, universities, museums, private and public access studios, glass labs and factories around the world. He has instructed hot glass sculpting workshops at Ox-Bow School of Art, Pilchuck Glass School, Penland School of Craft; Glass Furnace, Istanbul, Turkey; and The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass. Eddie was a founding board member of the New Orleans Creative Glass Institute (NOGCI) and served on the Board of Directors of the Glass Art Society (GAS), as Board Secretary of Central Park NC, and as Board Chair of Craft Emergency Relief Fund Plus (CERF+). Eddie currently serves as Town Commissioner in Star, NC and operates Wet Dog Glass, LLC with wife Angela and an amazing team of makers.

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G A S I M PA C T AWA R D

Glass Society of Ireland

Clockwise from top left: GSOI members in front of ‘The Keep Well Glass Quilt Project’ exhibited at the Venice Glass Week 2021. GSOI members enjoying the eco-conscious ReView exhibition and gathering in Hunting Brook Gardens, County Wicklow. Participants in GSOI’s workshop in County Leitrim pose with their instructors from Glint Glass Studio, Róisín de Buitléar and Sinead Brennan. GSOI members relax after the Summer Fest stained glass walking tour in Dublin.

Established in 2022, in partnership with NEUES GLAS/NEW GLASS magazine, the Impact Award celebrates organizations who have made a significant impact or contribution to the glass community through their work in the past year.

The Glass Society of Ireland (GSOI) is a volunteer and member-run professional non-profit organization that promotes and celebrates the contemporary Irish glass community both locally and internationally. The organization aims to increase public appreciation of Irish glass by promoting exhibitions and events, championing the work of its members, and developing the international profile of Irish glass through partnerships. GAS Executive Director Brandi P. Clark says, “GSOI provides community-level

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support for Irish glass both within Ireland and in the global glass community and GAS is thrilled to recognize GSOI’s vital work with the 2023 GAS Impact Award.”

– A Breath of Fresh Air (2021) which traveled extensively and is currently on display at the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life.

GSOI board chair Róisín de Buitléar remarked on the recognition of the 2023 GAS Impact Award: “We are thrilled to receive this award which gives us more determination to work closely with our community in continuing to make changes in our practice which benefit our planet and continue to build on collaborations with other glass communities around the world’.

In 2022, the GSOI continued to pursue its aims by hosting a multi-platform festival event that featured online lectures from national and international speakers, studio visits, masterclasses, and walking tours. As part of the summer festival initiative, the GSOI also organized the eco-conscious ReView exhibition, resulting in a film being accepted into the Glass Meets the Future International Film Festival.

The GSOI’s initiatives include the annual publication of Glass Ireland, showcasing emerging and established practitioners, and collaborative member projects such as the Keep Well Quilt Project

The GSOI remains dedicated to supporting and promoting the growth of the Irish glass community both locally and internationally.

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EXHIBITIONS This year’s GAS exhibitions reflected a stellar international lineup of emerging and established makers. Artists addressed themes including PTSD, sustainability, bodily autonomy, and fantasy in stunning works which were viewed both online and in person at the Russell Industrial Center. The GAS Marketplace hosted EVOLUTION 2023, the GAS Student Exhibition, where Elena Esposito’s trompe l’oeil pâte de verre “Saltine Crackers” and Kristina Pace’s “flower” were playful additions among the pieces displayed. Axiom Glass generously donated their studio space to display the works of CONNECTION 2023, the GAS Member Exhibition, where among the works displayed, a whimsical nautical sculpture by Tim Spurchise was bathed in the light of Chuchen Song’s “Croaking in the Night,” a freestanding panel of enamel on glass. TRACE 2023, the GAS Green Exhibition, was viewable on monitors in the GAS Market, and provided insight into emerging practices in sustainable glassmaking as well as works addressing the environment.

View the 2023 exhibitions by clicking on the exhibition names below.

EVOLUTION

CONNECTION

TRACE

E V O L U T I O N E X H I B I T I O N AWA R D S

First Place Winner: Alyssa Radtke Infestation of Fixation, 2022.

Second Place Winner: Noa Hagiladi, Searching for Soil, 2022.

Third Place Winner: Heather Phillips, Grief, 2022.

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C O N N E C T I O N E X H I B I T I O N AWA R D S

Second Place Winner: Péter Borkovics, Vertical Reflexion3, 2022. Photo: Viktoria Győrfi.

First Place Winner: Geoffrey Bowton, Sykes Regulars, 2022. Photo: Mario Gallucci.

Third Place Winner: Sandra Bacchi, Seeking Nowhere, 2020.

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G R E E N E X H I B I T I O N AWA R D S

First Place Winner: Hannah Gibson, Recycling Narratives, Ten Green Bottles, 2022.

Second Place Winner: Cheryl Wilson-Smith, Seeking:The Storm, 2022.

Third Place Winner: Morgan Gilbreath, Devotional, 2022.

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LECTURES

Herb Babcock lecturing about the cast glass sculptures he created for Campus Martius Park in Detroit.

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ROBERT WILLSON MEMORIAL LECTURER

Interview with Tiff Massey During the Conference Kick-Off, Detroit artist and activist Tiff Massey collaborated with 2023 Saxe Emerging Artist Awardee Hoseok Youn for a demonstration at the Corning Museum of Glass Mobile Hot Shop situated on the lawn of the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Massey spoke with GAS Conference + Events Manager Jennifer Hand about glass, collaboration, and access to art education in Detroit and beyond; an edited transcript of their conversation is presented below.

On Massey’s first encounters with glass as an artistic material.

The first time I saw a glass studio was at CCS. My mom would take me there when I was a kid and put me in art classes. I would see the students there working, but it never really clicked to me that this is something that I would be doing. Moving heavily fast forward, going to seek a masters in metalsmithing, I was thinking about all of the elements of contemporary art jewelry and what materials say and do depending on how they’re manipulated within the form.

When I was curated into an exhibition in Detroit called Trashin, a goal of mine was to produce work that did not look like trash. I turned found objects into gems, or placed them in necklaces as the focal point. The glass that I found was from this huge industrial building left standing in Detroit that has all of this cool turquoisegreenish glass all the way around the white building because I was struck by the color choice.

When I was in grad school, my friend David Licata had a glass background, and he would make lampworked chains. He gave me some glass and showed me how to do it and that was probably my first introduction to manipulating the material. But when I did the residency at Red Bull, it just made sense to do a neon sign that said, “Bitch, Don’t Touch My Hair” to talk about the many facets of adorning oneself, but also to highlight the labor and the time that is spent when Black women adorn themselves and how that is translated into other materials that we manipulate for protection.

Doing a glass residency in Toledo at the Glass Pavilion was very eye opening, to be welcomed into the glass community. Small craft-based groups can get so technical, like if you’re not doing shit a certain way, it’s a problem. In the metalsmithing community, people would be critiquing, “Did you make your own ear wires?”

Like, who the fuck cares? Why is that presumed to be taking the medium seriously? The clique of craft wasn’t my experience with glass. Going to several glass studios, a lot of people were willing to help me out. But the glass residency wasn’t long enough for me! It was a hella glass intro because I really needed to see all the processes and how it worked, and how long it takes for me to actually hold the object, which always kills me, and to learn to not get devastated when the shit breaks. I work with metal, you can drop that shit on the ground and just have a dent or a scratch! At

Tiff Massey spoke about her work during the Conference Kick-Off.

this point, I’m fully tapped in. There will be glass incorporated in my practice for the rest of my life for sure.

On glass’s material limitations Once I’m attracted to something, I’ll always try to see what the limitations of that material are or try to exploit it to its full capacity. I don’t think that I’m necessarily attracted to glass because of its fragility, but just what it does. For lighting, I can’t imagine using a different material for what I am trying to achieve. What I am recreating, which is large-scale adornment, needs to have the richness and the sleekness that glass carries. A lot of the objects that I’m very interested in producing need to be in a kiln for a very long time, and therefore, they’re gonna be very expensive works.

So I try to compromise when I can depending on the overall goal, and right now I’m conflicted with these works that I really need to see produced. I’ve made the object that I want to see in glass and wood. I love it in wood, I think it’s so sexy, but I think it would be next level to have the same object in glass. I really think that it would take people’s breath away.

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I design for myself, like, “How dope is this?” “Have I seen anything like this before?” That’s usually the conversation that I’m having with myself quite often: This is good as it is, but what would really take this shit to the next level and slap people all up in the head?

What’s gonna do that thing?

On where she sees opportunities for growth and access in the Detroit art scene I came out of the Toledo residency wanting to build a glass studio with a focus on high school kids. This is coming from a larger idea that I am working on to build an institution called Blackbrook that is heavily based on Cranbrook’s pedagogy. I have quite a bit of land attached to a building, and I want to transform the parking lot into a sculpture park with an outdoor bar. I’m really thinking about space in a way that I never thought that I would. I think half of that has to do with me being born and raised in Detroit, and all of the narratives around space and who owns a lot of the space contemporarily as opposed to what was happening before, the shifts of ownership.

What is Detroit going to look like in five, ten years? We’re one of the Blackest cities in the nation. Will I be able to see people who look like me owning their own spaces or their own studios or their own homes like I did when I was growing up? Also, where does the culture piece come in? Last year I put on a festival and I got food truck hookups, curated eight DJs, small business vendors for food and eight artists. It was the first time that I curated an art exhibition, and it was the first time for some of the artists to exhibit and sell work. When I think about where my building is located, this type of stuff don’t never happen in the hood. Even the development that I’m looking at right now, none of that is neighborhood focused. It’s either activists or artists or sometimes both who are trying to do the things that developers could do easily if they were actually thinking about community more than their pockets. I think that there’s a way to be an ethical developer and still make a ton of money.

Thinking about my own experience of going to Cranbrook Academy of Art, and being the first Black woman to graduate from the metalsmithing department in 2011, I think about access. When I think about access, I mean, shit, there needs to be a lot more access. My mom used to drive me 40 minutes outside of the city - that’s where I got access. She wanted me to get a college prep education and I did, but I also found metalsmithing because that’s where they had these studios that are not accessible in Detroit. So, if my mom didn’t believe in my education, I would have never had that experience. We would never be doing this interview. Because the level of access just does not exist.

Then, once I was in grad school, I was teaching at after-school programs where they bring art back into the schools, but the people who were in charge and how they’re teaching these classes, I’m like, this is not going to translate into these kids thinking that they could do this for a living. This is some busy work type shit and it’s not introducing that this is a practice. And I think that that can be introduced at a younger age. We need to get real about having the conversation that everything that we are looking at is designed by somebody. So there’s money in art! Somebody literally designed everything that we’re fucking looking at, from this damn phone to the damn app to the earbuds, to the glasses on my face. I’m just saying, there’s a lot of work to be done. And I’m doing quite a bit, all of this activism I am now claiming to be my art practice even though I have to switch on different brains from art practice to talking streetscapes with the City of Detroit.

On Bitch Don’t Touch My Hair, Massey’s first work in neon from her Red Bull Residency

Tiff Massey, Beaubien.

The neon made sense based on a lot of experiences that I have on a regular basis, where people I don’t know want to touch me out of nowhere, which is the craziest thing to experience. It’s one thing for me to make a piece, but I think it’s really interesting when people actually see it happen to me and they’re like, “Oh my god, why would somebody just try to touch you?” Especially your head,

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which is such an intimate space where only certain people who have significant closeness can actually do that.

It’s assault if somebody touches you without permission. The piece highlights something that people think is so innocent, but is the worst feeling in the world. I’m trying to understand why this is a recurring thing. I was thinking that this was gonna be a selfportrait, but for a lot of people who have curly, big hair, this is their experience too.

On the messages in her practice The theme within my work is that I know who the conversation is for. I’m having a conversation for Detroiters. I’m having a conversation for Black people, a lot of the time. It’s about preserving the culture within this adornment conversation and then highlighting the things that were overlooked that we just thought were fucking amazing, and how we utilize materials that we get ahold of to create an abundance.

My overarching theme is adornment…period. But when I think about my art practice, a friend of mine essentially was questioning my being an artist, because he’s saying there’s no distinction between my practice and who I am, right? But then also, when I think about what I’m doing with my art practice, I never wanted to be that one trick pony. So you’re never gonna see that one thing and then a derivative of that one thing with a twist. I might as well just hang it up right now. I know that that’s basically how the majority of the art world functions. Okay, we got one Rothko.

Can we get a black and white one? Can we get a red on red? Can we get a green and blue? Some people get caught up in that stuff, but I never wanted to do that. And even when I was making jewelry and hustling jewelry at the art fairs, I would see one woman with a booth and it’ll be the same rose in various different ways. And I didn’t want to do that, either. These are two very specific examples of what you could do with your art practice, but they are still trying to lock you into just doing that one thing. It was important to me that I maintained this interdisciplinary aspect to my practice because it’s about the materials and what they’re saying. In every series I’m having a different conversation. I don’t want to just talk the same shit all the time, you would get bored talking to me! This allows me to have that space, so I can explore glass, and what that actually means to adornment, why I’m utilizing it, the objects that I’m mimicking, and why I recreated them in this way.

Even though I am having a very specific conversation with a very specific audience, these things are not confined to that audience and so that’s what I like about it, it’s actually crossing many cultures and conversations. Being very specific is actually the opposite of what they try to teach you in grad school because they want you to talk to the damn white audience because they’re the ones who’s gonna buy it, as if they’re the only people who got the money. I’m just trying to stay true to what I would like to focus on because this is my life’s work. What do I want to do with the time that I actually have? We never know how long that is. So that’s what I’m doing

Tiff Massey, Bitch Don’t Touch My Hair.

with my platform is making sure that people who look like me, see themselves and don’t have to question, is this a Black artist? Is that work for me or not?

On her current experiments combining glass and mixed metal jewelry I’ve made tons of goblets, but a lot of them didn’t make it because I was embedding pieces of jewelry into the glass. And I know that y’all know that that’s a no no, but I was like, well, that’s what we’re doing. And I have a lot that survived, and what’s awesome is that sometimes the negative or the bubble where the jewelry piece was is still there. So there’s just a lot of aspects of combining these two materials together that I really enjoyed and so I imagine that I’ll be doing a lot more that. So I’m like, let’s go figure out what the limitations are, there’s a way for this stuff to happen. Every material that I get introduced to, I always just go back to what my foundation of materiality is. It’s metal. I’m always combining these two things, even when people are saying, “This is what you can and can’t do,” and I’m like, “Well, how else do you know you can’t do that shit unless you try it?”

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LIT TLETON LECTURE

Large-Scale Public Works

By Herb Babcock Campus Martius Park is a small, urban park in the center of downtown Detroit. The city’s tricentennial was the impetus to create a public space in the center of downtown to mark this significant milestone for Detroit and to make something notable to enhance Detroit and benefit the citizens. To coordinate the celebration and design a fitting tribute to the tricentennial, the Detroit 300 Conservancy formed as a nonprofit entity. The resulting park is a vibrant year-round gathering place, funded by the Detroit 300 Conservancy from corporate, foundation, and individual donations.

The new Campus Martius Park opened in 2004 as a lovely, urban gathering place. As the city administration was aware, the site contained “The Point of Origin.” This original survey monument is a nine-foot granite column buried seven feet underground for almost two centuries. The City of Detroit and the entire State of Michigan is mapped from that point, and it is still used as the basis of all surveys. The column was lifted closer to the surface and covered by a thick glass disk so visitors could view the pyramid top of the monument. The new park’s multiple attractions include fountains, gardens, grassy areas for summer use, winter skating, performance stages, a cafe, and two new monument markers.

The two monument markers are works of public art: the Woodward Marker and the Monroe Marker. I was commissioned to design and produce the large, glass panels for both pieces. The Monroe Marker castings reference Detroit’s cultural arts: dance, performance, music, and design arts. The Woodward Marker castings reference Detroit’s industrial and technological history: automotive, chemical, raw material production, and navigation. My work attempts to translate the “objective” of nature into “subjective” interpretation: the shapes and gestures of our existence. I use my understanding to reach or stir people with a message.

etc. The park was designed by Rundell Ernstberger Associates. I collaborated with the designer, Eric Ernstberger, on both sculptures, exchanging ideas and drawings that resulted in 22-foot- tall fabrications of glass, steel, stone, and fire. This was my first collaboration and it offered new opportunities to integrate glass into art.

The Monroe Marker is a three-sided stainless steel sculpture. Each side holds three glass panels. It is vertically curved with the arch of a 26-foot-diameter circle.

The 3/4” thick glass panels were slumped so the images were punched into low relief on the surface of the panels.

Slumping provided a smooth outer surface from the casting mold, and textured surfaces on the protruding shapes create the images.

More important was the surface response of the clear “flashed glass” with no mold contact due to the controlled temperature slump of the glass. This produced a 2/3” thick, clear, lensing outline of the imagery.

Spring view of sculpture on Campus Martius, Detroit, MI. Monroe Marker, slump cast glass, stainless-steel, stone, fire, 2003. 22’ tall.

The steel structure was fabricated in Indiana with unyielding tolerances. The glass from my Michigan studio was cast to meet the specifications of the steel structures. Roush Manufacturing Technologies produced three CNC molds that were concave, “Ren Shape 450,” polyurethane board with a master edgeline embedded in the surface. From those, I made three convex plaster molds in my studio.

The plaster molds were taken to Fox Fire Glass, LLC to make glass slumping molds. The owner, the late Laurel Fyfe, had skill and experience slumping automotive window glass and creating unique slumped glass furniture and architectural glass. Molds were made by packing shredded high-temperature silica fiber onto the plaster molds, pouring rigidized colloidal silicate onto the fiber, and tamping the surface down to three inches thick.

Steel legs supported the mold bases. With these large, concave surfaces, I could lay out the imagery to cast.

Most projects, especially large-scale work, require collaboration and communication for site preparation, installation, illumination,

Graphics were hand-formed molds of Zircar, a RS-A Moldable refractory fiber averaging 1.5” tall, formed and dried previously on the concave Ren Shape 450 molds. The casting fiber graphic was laid out loose on the mold surface; after one image is cast, the mold is set up for the next image. This slump-casting process is like printmaking.

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THE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

Spring image of sculpture with pedestrians sitting at the Woodward Marker, cast glass, stainless-steel, stone, fire, 2004. 22’ tall.

in the mold and moved to the edge for steam-out/pre-firing.

Shrinkage cracks were filled with dry plaster.

The casting glass was Bullseye Crystal Clear billets, weighed out per volume; calculated, cleaned, washed, and stacked into the mold with space between billets. Melting and annealing of the glass was a nine-day cycle. The largest relief casts averaged 300 pounds. Annealed and cleaned, the back surfaces of the castings were ground and polished to remove any devitrification.

Art Park also installed the Woodward Marker. Panels were slotted into stainless-steel mounts and were sealed with silicone. Panels cantilevered from the structure to allow for greater glass imagery.

The 3-D relief of the panels are viewed “to-the-right.” From the left, images are read through the transparent glass. Refracted sunlight adds optical advantages.

Two views of mold in kiln. Top with modeled imagery placed on mold. Bottom of glass slumped onto mold. Glass for Monroe Marker, slumped glass, 2003, ¾” x 5”.

The grand opening of Campus Martius Park was November 19, 2004. The two monument markers were illuminated with internal color lighting and flame in the top metal basins. My sincere gratitude is to my assistant studio team helping to create this project: the late Theresa Pierzchala, Kevin Carlin, Bruce Boatman, and Alice Smith. Special thanks are due to my wife Donna, Project Manager, for keeping me on track.

With fiber graphics laid out, the molds went into the kiln. Plate glass, 3/4” thick was placed on the mold, taken up to slump temperature and annealed. The intent was to register the graphic form tips but retain the clear, curve flash on the edges. Each panel was placed back on the original Ren Shape 450 molds using the embedded master edgeline to cut glass to size. The largest of the panels was four feet tall by six feet wide. Finally, the panels were lightly sandblasted on the interior concave mold surface, so this surface would refract and highlight the smooth, flashed glass surfaces.

The Monroe Marker was installed in November 2003, a year before the park was finished for the sponsor, DTE Energy’s 100th anniversary. Art Pack installed the nine glass panels within the tight constraints of the interior framework of the stainless-steel structure. The Woodward Marker, sponsored by Lear Corporation, was completed the following year. This columnar tower has four equal and equidistant vertical sections extending outward. The four sections hold a total of 12 panels of relief-cast glass. The design images reference industrial arts and was inspired by Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry Murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Tall panels of 48 inches with a proud rib top and bottom allowed the panels to slot into steel support arms. From clay forms, the casting molds were silica flour and plaster with shredded fiberglass strengthener. Once the clay was removed and the mold cleaned, vent holes were drilled through the bottom surface reducing air entrapment. Molds were placed in the kiln on a bed of sand or vermiculite to level them. Stainless-steel supports surrounded the molds and sand filled gaps avoiding mold rupture. Volume displacement for the glass was determined with measured sand with one liter of sand equaling 5.5 pounds of glass. Sand was left

Detroit youth group early morning inspirational meeting, 2005.

This project took on an unexpected but pleasant surprise early one morning. I intended to photograph the Monroe Marker with the sun rising and no people around. However, two people were already there, then six, and soon 30 young people gathered around the Monroe Marker. It was a Detroit youth group in red sweatshirts; there was conversation, then an exercise routine, finally a spoken mantra, and they left. When I asked, they explained the group liked to meet at favorite locations in the city to gather and start their day. They enjoyed the Monroe Marker because the morning sun greeted both them and the sculpture. Visiting the park now, I watch individuals gather by either marker; on the phone, holding briefcases or parcels, scheduling a ride, etc. I had no idea; but the park planners probably anticipated… “Meet me at the sculpture.”

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LECTURE

Der Himmel fängt am Boden an. | Heaven Starts on the Ground.

By Stephen Paul Day the opposite of each other. Erwin was fierce and brash, creating his powerful works without priority to technique and intuitively firing paint on his glass and canvas. Tom, on the other hand, was a methodical, classically trained painter building his exquisite paintings through a trained intellectual eye. Nonetheless, the two artists became close friends and together developed the seed for the new school that would find its home in Frauenau, Germany, the tiny village where Erwin and his family found their roots dating back hundreds of years.

View of Frauenau.

I want to share a story with you, a serendipitous journey that revolves around two wonderful and significant artists, Erwin and Gretel Eisch. This story begins 33 years ago when I first began working with them in Frauenau, Germany. Their vision and generosity certainly opened doors for me and for so many others as unforgettable magical moments of seeing things in a new way happened so often in the art academy they started in 1988. They left us last year but their spirit lives on.

Erwin and I often enjoyed talking about the past and how we met at Pilchuck Glass School in 1984. I was his eager student and he was an enigmatic teacher, and I remember one special moment as all the students anticipated an exciting lecture Erwin was to give. There was suddenly a voice from the lodge’s balcony as the students watched with glee as Erwin, dressed as a glorious woman, preached in broken English about the need for more women to take their place in the glassblowing world. As I sat and listened, I realized that his way of teaching was not to show how something was made, but instead, why and what we should be making. Ideas of the individual and narrative structures, of the personal human story were the primary message Erwin wanted us to hear. For him, the figure was all important as it embodied the life that a work of art should impart. I made an important and life-changing decision to work with him at Pilchuck which led to so many years of being part of Bild-Werk, the academy the Eisches started with their daughter Katarina some years later.

This tiny village is steeped in glassmaking traditions that date back 500 years. A culture of brewing beer and making glass was a match made in heaven, as was the abundance of natural materials suited for both livelihoods. Erwin’s family, like most of the families in the Bavarian mountains, were workers in the glass factories. Erwin’s father was an engraver as was his father before him. This led Erwin also to become an engraver, which led the young and restless artist to pursue his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. This move away from the traditional and towards a free-thinking poetic lifestyle would in the end prove fateful, not only for Erwin and his artwork, but equally for the glassmaking tradition in Bavaria and beyond.

Painting by Erwin Eisch for Stephen Paul Day and Sibylle Peretti.

Places like Pilchuck and Bild-Werk often create connections that evolve into relationships later on in life. This happened with me and Erwin who had been part of Pilchuck since the school’s beginning. One important relationship for Erwin, and for myself, was meeting Tom Buechner, the then-head of Steuben and the Corning Museum of Glass. Tom and Erwin were in many ways

In 1952, the Eisch family opened their own glass factory. At the time, Erwin was painting in Munich and had become disillusioned with making his work–he took the opportunity to return to Frauenau and start working in glass. He did not conform to the traditional ways of working in glass, instead creating installations with his wife, Gretel, an established and remarkable artist.

Erwin and Gretel broke every acceptable norm treating glass as they would with any artistic medium. It was about idea first and

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Erwin and Gretel Eisch

Erwin painting in his studio.

material second. This led to an astounding number of significant works in glass and mixed media and would serendipitously lead to a chance encounter with Harvey Littleton and establishing them both as the founders of the Studio Glass Movement.

tant additions to the curriculum. The original philosophy has not changed and Gretel has left an everlasting mark of love and poetry to the soul of the school.

In August 1962, Harvey and his wife were traveling in Europe to gather information around glass and glassmaking. In a tiny shop near Frauenau, Harvey noticed a strange glass object that immediately told him an artist had made the work. He inquired about the origin of the object and was directed to Erwin and Gretel’s house. There, the two couples met and shared insights into the use of glass as an artistic material, which subsequently led to a deep and profound friendship that would alter the course of the glass movement worldwide.

Harvey invited Erwin to the first glass conference in New York City and in turn Erwin invited American artists to visit and work in Frauenau at the family’s factory. This exchange grew into an influential dialogue which helped determine the direction of glass and art. Of the many artists that visited Erwin from all over the world, his old friend Tom Buechner became a stepping stone toward the creation of Bild-Werk. As the school developed, several American artists, including David Hopper and myself, were asked to add their expertise towards realizing a project that not only explored the use of glass in art, but explored all artistic mediums based in the philosophy of creating art rooted in human stories, poetry, and using the human figure as a primary starting point. It was to be a school where an artist found expression through a constant play of material, rebellious disregard for technical priority, and a passionate fervor for instinctual creativity placing primary importance on the idea of individuality in forming unique and significant art.

So many artists and teachers have been part of this school, inspiring others as well as being inspired themselves. In the heart of the school is Erwin’s old studio which he called Heaven. He often walked up the wooden stairs to the stone studio where he painted hundreds of canvases and countless drawings. He would often look outside standing on the balcony and happily stare at all the students working downstairs carving wood, engraving in the studio below, or painting landscapes in the beautiful forest bordering the school. He often told me how excited he was to see how different all the work was and that it was his mission to help every student find their individuality and unique expression. Through Gretel and Erwin, I found that expression and I know that so many others have and will continue to find that magic moment where you know you have found something that is yours and only yours.

The garden at Erwin and Gretel’s villa is still covered with beautiful wildflowers. Here heaven is truly starting on this ground. There are also wonderful flowers now covering their graves as they passed away some months apart in 2022. In many ways, they continue to inspire through works left behind to a school that continues to inspire through a philosophy of love and freedom of creativity. One can easily imagine Erwin standing on the balcony where he often sang and danced. That song lives on: “Heaven and earth, in between, we are.”

Through the years, the school developed a wealth of new ideas and disciplines that have made the academy what it is today.

Its unique vision has grown to include classical painting, song, theater, puppet making, and film alongside glassblowing, bronze casting, lampworking, ceramics, and so on. With the influence of Gretel Eisch, wood carving and printmaking became impor-

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LECTURE

Laura Donefer’s Glass Fashion Shows

By Laura Donefer ing wild dressing-up festivities with glassblowing, where everyone unleashed their inner divas and let loose in outlandish attire. A personal paradise!

Inspired by my mother’s insistence on play, the idea for that first Glass Fashion Show was born! A combination of my childhood memories of costume joy and those wacky dress-up days and nights at Pilchuck, I thought a fashion show showcasing glass was a perfect blend of self-expression and celebration of the craft. Convincing my glass friends and students to make costumes, I used my own money to rent the magnificent Royal York Hotel ballroom in Toronto, and so the first Glass Fashion Show took place in 1989. Its success surpassed my wildest dreams, an outrageous idea that has somehow become a 35-year tradition and one of the most beloved events of the glass world.

From the very beginning I wanted the Glass Fashion Show to be a safe place where any glass artist, no matter what shape or color or age or gender, could create something outside of the comfort zone of their everyday studio practice, and strut their stuff on the catwalk surrounded by an adoring, accepting, and excited glass family. (I wholeheartedly accommodated a very well-known glass collector for his desire to dress in glass drag!) For me, this is a labor of love, an inclusive, entertaining celebration that demonstrates the passion we all have for glass and for each other.

Laura modeling a test tube dress in the 1980s.

To prepare this talk, I searched through thousands of images from 18 Glass Fashion Shows, and am only now realizing the huge amount of work I put into organizing each one. Before the internet made coordinating hundreds of people SO much easier, it was just me alone with my dial-up phone and fax machine. (Oh, those long-distance

Flashback to 1988, when GAS approached me and Daniel Crichton about a plan to hold their first international conference in Toronto, and asked us to be the host coordinators. As president of the Glass Art Association of Canada, I jumped at the chance to be involved in this historic event! But how to put on a truly memorable glass gathering? What wacky and unforgettable spectacle might bring artists working with glass out of their separate studios and into the spotlight?

Growing up with my mother Vera, an artist in her own right, was a parade of endless dress-up parties, during which the whole family wore costumes to the dinner table and beyond! She made sure that her children’s lives were full of creativity, passion and joy–a trait she thankfully passed onto me. These childhood memories of creative costume parties had been re-awakened when I went to Pilchuck in the mid-eighties, which was an amazing environment ripe for blend-

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Laura with glass collector extraordinaire Dudley Anderson (in drag) with his pal Joe Mendel.

THE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

calls from Europe in the middle of the night!) Each GFS takes me about three years to organize. The work always eats into my studio time, but I am now ready to acknowledge that all the Glass Fashion Shows are my version of performance art and the hundreds of hours spent creating them are part of my artistic practice. (Can you imagine what could be done if I had an actual budget!)

Every Glass Fashion Show is a total adventure! Despite planning for over a year, I did not make it to the second one in 1991 because my daughter Ana Matisse was born early. I was giving birth instead of running the show! Still in the hospital, holding my brand-new baby, I got a call from Corning LAMBASTING me about a particular costume that they found INAPPROPRIATE! (Hence the #1 rule that no pubic hair may be shown on the catwalk at the Corning Museum of Glass!) During another show, a very heavy huge Susan Bloch costume with wheels arrived, and we scrambled to get a new ramp built in three hours just so we could push the model up onto the catwalk. Just HOURS before the show in New Orleans, I had a bad accident during rehearsal and tore some muscles in my thigh. I had to go on stage in a wheelchair high on Percocet, but I am told that this GFS was the raunchiest ever!

Rik Allen and his incredible space suit at the 2016 Corning Glass Fashion Show. Photo: Heather Baigelman.

dedication of the Muranese and international glass artists was phenomenal, and I’ll never forget the experience of getting us all dressed in Lino Tagliapietra’s backyard cabana. The fact that no one fell in the water was an enormous relief because, of course, my husband and mother do not swim.

Laura with Angus Powers and the Alfred University crew at the 2016 Glass Fashion Show at the GAS Conference in Corning, New York. Photo: Heather Baigelman.

My amazing recollections of all these Glass Fashion Shows could fill a memoir! Zombies versus Space Cadets, Eric Meek on stage partnering his ballerina wife, Angus Powers and the Alfred crew bringing down the house with their crazy glass heads, Bill Gudenrath in his pink pickle outfit, Fig aka Mike Mangiafico unable to stand in his lizard costume weighed down by over 2,000 flameworked scales, and my mother Vera waltzing in her bubble-pack creations having the best time of her life! And the unforgettable moment when Rik Allen kinda fainted into my arms after doing his amazing Space Man catwalk because he forgot to put a breathing hole in his helmet and ran out of air! Oh yes I could go on and on!

But the memory of all memories is Murano, when 33 models in 12 boats performed along the canal! I’ll admit it was magical, even though Lucio Bubacco and Cesare Toffolo did NOT give me very much time to organize, and the expense of transporting costumes to Italy was mind-blowing ($6,000 out of my pocket, just as an example.) But the

I hope that everyone who has participated in and attended a Laura Donefer Glass Fashion Show has as many of these memories as I do. Though I know I can become an absolute pest, relentlessly cajoling/wheedling/inveigling/sweettalking certain artists (Jasen Johnsen!) until they give in and shout “YES LAURA”, when semi-reluctant people finally do get on the stage, they usually love it so much they are immediately asking about the next one! As Rik Allen (one victim of my determination) once wrote to me, “Thank you for being so diligent in your efforts to me to commit to participating in your GFS, I felt great joy to be part of something so incredible!”

Just ask Beth Hylen, who has been in six of them and is already working on her next costume! My devotion to our glass family is heartfelt, and messages like this one continue to feed my fire: “Laura, thank you for your tireless industry with

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Gondolas full of glass fashion models cruise down the canal at the 2018 Glass Fashion Show in Murano.

the glass fashion shows that bring such joy and mirth to the entire community!”

35 years ago, I had an idea. Now the Glass Fashion Show seems like an institution, and I feel shaky with pride when thinking of the place that these unique performances have made in glass history.

But the accolades go to the hundreds of glass artists who committed to making wearable art out of glass, because there is no Glass Fashion Show without them.

Sometimes it takes years to fabricate just one costume! Everyone does it in their precious spare time. My gratitude to these devoted participants and performers knows no bounds; it is their perseverance and endless enthusiasm that keeps me going. Thank you everyone who has helped to make my Glass Fashion Show dreams come true, I cannot wait to see you all on the next catwalk!

Laura Donefer’s Glass Fashion Show Timeline 1989 “First Glass Fashion Show” | GAS/GAAC Toronto, Canada 1991 “Second Glass Fashion Show” | GAS Corning, New York 1994 “Beyond Pink Glass Fashion Show” | GAAC Toronto, Canada 2001 “Glass Fashion Odyssey” | GAS Corning, New York 2002 “Glass Fashion Show” | San Jose California Glass Exchange Conference–Laura as Mistress of Ceremonies 2003 “Harbourfront Glass Fashion Show” | GAAC Toronto, Canada 2004 “BURLESQUE Glass Fashion Show” | GAS New Orleans, Louisiana 2004 “Seattle New Year’s Eve Glass Fashion Show” | Seattle, Washington 2009 “Glass Fashion Extraordinaire” | GAS Corning, New York 2011 “Verre Couture” | GAAC Montreal, Canada 2012 “Toledo Glass Fashion Madness” | GAS Toledo, Ohio 2013 “James Renwick Alliance Fundraiser Glass Fashion Show” | Washington, D.C. 2015 “Mixed Media Fashion Extravaganza” | West Texas A&M University Canyon, Texas 2016 “Crazy Corning Glass Fashion Show” | GAS Corning, New York 2016 “Toledo Museum of Art Fundraiser Gala Glass Fashion Show” | Toledo, Ohio 2018 “Glass Fashion Show in Boats!” | GAS Murano, Italy 2021 “Denizli Glass Bienniale Glass Fashion Show’’ mentor | Denizli, Turkey 2022 “1st Iberoamerican International Glass Art Biennale” mentor | Cartago, Costa Rica

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LECTURE

Black Workers in Hand Blown Bottle Factories

By Michael Hatch

“In the Alexandria glass factories, negroes work side by side with the white workers. Also in Richmond. These are some of those working in the Alexandria (Va.) Glass Factory.” Lewis Hine, Alexandria, Virginia, 1911. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, National Child Labor Committee Collection, (LOT 7478, no.2270 [P&P] LC-DIG-nclc-01300) Link: https://www.loc.gov/resource/nclc.01300/

I was invited to Detroit to present my research for an article I am writing for the Journal of Modern Craft with the journal’s guest editor, noted Black material culture scholar and co-founder of the Black Craftspeople Digital Archives (BCDA), Dr. Tiffany Momon.

The initial research for this project was supported through a Craft Research Grant from the Center for Craft in 2020.

I set out to answer the questions Hensley posed to the reader: “What were their names? How old were they? Did they continue to labor as glassworkers? What did they do in these factories? Do any of the bottles or other objects they created survive? What other trades did African American children labor in before child labor laws were passed?” 3

This project was inspired by an Instagram post by Victoria Hensley of the BCDA on October 29, 2020, which included four images of African American boys identified as glassmakers standing in front of a glass factory in Alexandria, Virginia1.

The photographs were taken in 1911 by labor rights activist Lewis Hine who is best known for his documentary images of child labor practices while he served as the official photographer for the National Child Labor Committee from 1911 to 19162. The Hine collection is the best early twentieth century collection documenting the presence of African American children laboring in America’s glass factories.

What quickly became apparent to me was that because of craft history’s long-term neglect of documenting and sharing the African American experience in craft, I was going to have to turn to sources outside of those considered canon in the field to find the answers I sought. As bell hooks writes, “We have too often had no names, our history recorded without specificity, as though it’s not important to know who—which one of us— the particulars.”4 That is what makes this work important, but also challenging.

I found a list of names, ages, and addresses of some of the Black people who worked in the factories compiled by award-winning genealogist and independent scholar Char McCargo Bah.5

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During my presentation in Detroit, I read each of their names as they were added to a list that slowly filled the screen. And I admitted that I still don’t know the names of the people in this photograph or the work that they did.

In an interview conducted by Pamella Cressey in 1982, Virginia Knapper describes working in the glass factories in the early 1900s, but mostly talks about her experiences growing up in Cross Canal, an African American neighborhood in Alexandria settled shortly after the Civil War where many of the factory workers lived.6 She is definitely not one of the boys in the picture, but her stories provide insight into life outside of the factories, and it is the only interview I could find.

Most of the people named by Char MaCargo Bah are registered as laborers in the glass factories. That does not mean that they were directly involved in the glassblowing process. In fact, after searching through thousands of images in the Hine Collection I could not find a single photograph of Black people making glass.

These factory sites were huge, consisting of multiple buildings across acres of land which included sawmills, carpentry shops, stables, and multiple storage pits holding sand and coal.7 There were many supportive roles that the people in this photograph most likely filled.

Through the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, I learned that none of these people were represented by the glass unions at the time; unions were organized to represent the skilled white workers.8 Without union representation, African Americans, women, unskilled workers, and children were at the mercy of the factory owners who provided poor working conditions and low pay.

Due to the lack of support from labor unions, labor rights activists like Lewis Hine fought for the interests of these neglected laborers, but they failed to recognize that these children had limited options available to them. Black and white laborers may have worked side by side in the factories in Alexandria, but Black and white children could not attend the same schools. Hallowell School, which taught Black students, only went up to the sixth grade. Therefore most of them began working at a young age after they had reached the end of their educational opportunities. Their income helped their families survive.9 Unfortunately, the laws created through the work of labor rights activists were often not enforced. In a court case filed against Alexandria Glass Company, four Black children testified that they rotated between six day shifts one week, and five night shifts the next. The president of Old Dominion said that his company was operating at a loss due to their numerous child labor law violations. The judge in the case, was explicit in his denunciation of the law stating, “The only effect of the new labor law, which prohibits the employment of boys under sixteen years of age after 9 o’clock at night is to stop legitimate manufacturers and assist in the manufacture of criminals.”10

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Though I found a lot of information about the factories in my research, I could never find the identities of the people in the photograph. I was left to speculate about their lives and the work that they did. It all comes back to the bell hooks quote, “We have too often had no names, our history recorded without specificity, as though it’s not important to know who—which one of us— the particulars.”11 During the question and answer portion of my presentation, I moved forward in time to discuss the lack of African American artists in the early days of the Studio Craft Movement, which was fueled by funds from the GI Bill after World War II. The GI Bill provided college tuition for veterans of the war. This was during the Jim Crow era when many colleges would not admit Black students. Experimental glassworking courses were probably not the best way for a person who was struggling for basic civil rights to benefit from the opportunity to attend college.

I finished my time talking about the current scene where BIPOC, female, and queer glass artists are staking out their space in what has been a white boys’ club for too long. I spoke about some of the demos at the conference that highlighted how the scene was shifting. I was particularly interested in the communication between young artists and their mentors from Firebird Community Arts as they created and assembled multiple components during their demonstration.

Firebird Arts is one of several organizations working to bring glassworking to young people who are underserved in the arts community including YAYA in New Orleans, and Hilltop Artists in Tacoma.

Crafting The Future is partnering with youth arts organizations across the country to provide their students with scholarships to renowned craft schools and pre-college programs.12 After the conference, I decided that my next project will move from historical research into documenting the particulars of what is going on now, so that someone like me researching this shift in the glass community fifty years from now can place the names with the pictures and the stories.

1. Victoria Hensley (@blackcraftspeopleda), “African American glassworkers in Alexandria, Virginia. and Cape May, New Jersey,” Instagram photo, October 29, 2020, https://www. instagram.com/p/CG8E0llj-Aa/ 2. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, National Child Labor Committee Collection, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USZ62-108765] 3. Hensley, Instagram.

4. bell hooks. yearing: race, gender, and cultural politics. “Aesthetic Inheritances: History Worked by Hand”, 116 5. Char McCargo Bah. “Working in the City’s Glass Factories”. The Other Alexandria, The Alexandria Gazette, 2/05/2019. http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2019/ feb/05/other-alexandria-working-citys-glass-factories/ 6. Virginia Knapper, Interview With Virginia Knapper, interview by Pamela Cressey, Alexandria Legacies, City of Alexandria Oral History Program, March 24,1982. https://media. alexandriava.gov/docs-archives/historic/info/history/oralhistoryknappervirginia.pdf 7. The Washington Times (Washington, D. C.) January 28, 1906 http://www.sodasandbeers.com/ManufactureNotes/SABManufNotes63367.htm 8. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois , ed., The Negro Artisan (Atlanta, GA: Atlanta University Press, 1902), 82.

9. Knapper Interview.

10. Judge Denounces Labor Law: The Washington Times (Washington, D. C.) February 2, 1915 http://www.sodasandbeers.com/ManufactureNotes/SABManufNotes63367.htm 11. hooks. “Aesthetic Inheritances.” 116 12. Crafting The Future. https://www.craftingthefuture.org/who-we-are

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LECTURE

From Czechia to Mecca: A History of the Bead Trade

By Floor Kaspers down the slopes of the Jizera Mountains in Northern Bohemia to scatter the five continents. Jablonec is the main town of that region and the centre of bijouterie for the whole world.1 History of beadmaking in the Jablonec region European glassmakers in the 16th century were mostly in need of one thing for their craft: wood. It was needed for fuel, but also for making potash, an ingredient for glass. Several early glassmakers’ settlements in Germany were depleted of wood and they were on the move. In the thick woods of the Jizera Mountains in Northern Bohemia, wood was in ample supply. The first Glashütte, or glass workshop, was opened in the Jablonec area in 1550. At the time, the glassmakers mostly made things like small windows and cups.

Glass beads scattered in the garden, Jablonec nad Nisou.

When I first arrived in Jablonec nad Nisou, the Czech center for glass bead production since the 18th century, I literally walked on glass beads. The small apartment we were staying at had been home to a family that made some extra money by stringing beads from the factory nearby in the 1970s and 1980s. In the summer, they would do this outdoors in the garden and vegetable plot.

Beads that were not perfect would simply be dropped on the ground. By the time I was first there in 2010, the garden soil had become mixed with beads in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. Some of the beads resembled coral or turquoise. Other beads I recognized as the long beads from Islamic prayer bead strands. These discarded beads raised questions for me, as a bead researcher and glass artist from the Netherlands, and were my introduction into a world of bead history. Egon Erwin Kisch had similar thoughts in 1935: I am holding a small glass bead between the fingers of my left hand. I can see a great deal in this pearl, continents and villages, for even a small globe represents the earth. I gaze upon it steadily to discover whether I might not distinguish within it some of the things I know to be there, colonial policy, world economy, to find out whether or not it does not reflect the fate of the overseas consumers and that of the producers in the Jablonec region, from where this bead derives. It is one of the trinkets that come rolling

In the 18th century, the Venetians created a ruby-red glass.

At the same time, stone cutters from Turnov, a town close to Jablonec, started running low on good local garnet stones. The Czechs then developed (or copied?) a similar type of glass as the Venetian one and started making glass stones made to look like the popular Turnov garnet. The glassworkers from Jablonec also invented a type of tongs for molding glass into stones. Starting with molded glass stones, they quickly turned to faceted, drawn, seed, blown, Prosser, and lampworked beads.

Stained glass window from the villa of Heinrich Hoffman, Jablonec nad Nisou.

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Sample card of glass turquoise ‘stones’, showing the variety of colors and patterns of natural turquoise mimicked in glass.

Islamic prayer beads, intended to be sold in Mecca for visiting pilgrims

the Middle East, and India… They also developed a system by which ‘sample men’ roamed the globe, sometimes for two years, visiting the remote corners of Asia, Africa, and America. These men would buy a few of the most valued beads they encountered to send home, where the beads would be imitated in glass, no matter what their original material.

In the 1860s, large trading companies started in Jablonec. The export continued to grow, reaching a peak in the 1920s. In 1922, 11 million kilograms of beads and fashion jewelry were exported from Jablonec by hundreds of export firms. About 25,000 people were working in the factories and workshops of Jablonec, and another 10,000 people were working from home. Up to 98% of the total production was exported to other countries.

These tactics explain the fact that some unlikely items were made in Jablonec, such as Islamic prayer beads and pendants with inscriptions from the Quran on them. Some of these beads are known as ‘Hajj’ beads, as they were a popular souvenir for the pilgrims returning from Mecca.

Not all glitter and shine

Mimicking materials

The history of trade beads is connected to colonialism, exploitation, and a one-sided view of the world. This is illustrated by one of the images of a large stained glass window in the villa of Heinrich Hofmann (1875-1939), an exporter of Czech beads and jewelry.

It shows how the Czechs at that time viewed themselves: spreading jewels across the different continents, with the “customers” represented as babies with stereotypical cultural artifacts. My focus in this article is part of that one-sided view, as it is told from the perspective of the Czechs in a very different time. For this article, I recognize that this tells only one side of the story and does not give a complete history of the oftentimes brutal colonial trade.

The main technique for making beads in Jablonec was molding.

This allowed for a huge variety of detailed shapes to be made.

Together with the plethora of glass colors that were available, the Czechs mastered mimicking materials in glass. Precious stones, such as turquoise, agate, lapis lazuli, and jade were copied in glass very convincingly. Other precious materials such as seashells, coral, tortoise shells, and pearls were also copied. Some of these items are hard to distinguish from the original, such as the glass talhakimts or tanfouks intended for the Touareg people in Northern Africa. More examples include glass cowry shells, snake beads (which imitate snake vertebrae), and faceted beads, resembling agate beads from Idar Oberstein in present-day Germany.

Market research and export

One of the experts in satisfying the overseas market was Albert Sachse (1851–1921). His company first made glass bangles that were exported to India, and then it expanded its market. The Sachse company was known for documenting local glass beads and objects made in Jablonec. As they joined colonial expeditions, Sachse’s salesmen could study the tastes and demand of native people and, by way of exchange, gain artifacts from them, which then served as models in the jewelry production.

One of the successes of the Jablonec industry was their export strategy: While the Czech beadmakers imitated some Venetian fashions, they also developed styles all their own. Some appealed to European tastes, but early on they were doing a roaring business overseas.

They developed new varieties to sell to specific markets in Africa,

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–Peter Francis2

THE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

Jablonec after WWII As the heyday period of trade beads ended after WWII, things looked very different for Jablonec. Many of the glassmakers in Jablonec were originally from Germany, and they had sided with Nazi Germany during the war. They were forced to leave the Jablonec region and resettle outside of (then) Czechoslovakia.

Jablonec would be under communist rule until 1989, and all glass and jewelry business was conducted through the massive state company of Jablonex. The export offered a chance for the struggling economy to gain access to hard currency.

After the Velvet Revolution ended the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1989, Jablonex lost its state monopoly. Private ownership of businesses was allowed, and many producers started their own businesses producing glass beads and jewelry.

Jablonec today

Sample card of beads mimicking talhakimt pendants from the 1920’s, collection of the Museum of Glass and Jewelry Jablonec nad Nisou

Over the last few decades, the glass bead and jewelry industry in Jablonec has been struggling. Competition is stiff on several fronts with beads coming from India, China, Japan, and Indonesia. Some of the highly-skilled workers in small workshops will probably be the last generation doing this work, like pressing glass buttons and cabochons. However, some Czech companies have once again managed to push Jablonec to the forefront of innovative beadmaking. Developing new bead shapes and working with renowned jewelry designers is putting them back on the map.

The history of beadmaking in the Jablonec region is long, and hopefully will be much longer still.3 1. Urban, Stanislav. Jablonec Nad Nisou, the town past and present. Usti Nad Labem, Czechoslovakia: Severoceske Nakladatelstvi, 1975, 42.

2. Francis, Peter. Beads of the world, a collector’s guide with price reference. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 1994, 6.

3. For more information about the Jablonec bead trade, please see Jargstorf, Sibylle.

Baubles, buttons and beads, the heritage of Bohemia. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 1993 and Kaspers, Floor. Beads from Jablonec. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Marblings Publishing, 2014. A free download of Kaspers’ book is at www.beadmusum.com

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LECTURE

Modular Moulds for Kiln-Glass Utilising Digital Tools

By Joshua Kerley and Guy Marshall-Brown

CAD model of mother mould, Guy Marshall Brown, 2022

We met at the Royal College of Art, UK, in 2017. We had established glass and ceramics practices, respectively. Josh was making multipart refractory moulds using conventional analogue methods and utilising them to make delicate pâte de verre works– a technique for which Josh has become well known. Guy’s lack of enthusiasm for mouldmaking prompted a conversation with Josh about using 3D-printed Polylactic Acid (PLA) tooling to make master moulds for casting plaster parts which would subsequently become assembled into multipart press moulds for ceramic applications.

In late 2021, Guy successfully applied for funding from Arts Council England to fund the development of this mould-tooling system into a modular one, and more significantly, to generate an opportunity to apply these modular mould systems to kilnformed glass.

Altering the Traditional Workflow The project aimed to see if this technique could be utilised with refractory moulds and kiln formed glass processes. However, it quickly became apparent that the modular mould process would alter our workflow by removing several stages of the traditional lost wax process.

It did not simplify the process; instead, it transferred some of the materials–wax

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and rubber–into steps that were more affordable and more accessible. The typical initial model-making stage was replaced by 3-D modelling, whilst the production of a rubber mould and subsequent wax were replaced by time spent on 3-D printing and plaster pouring. Our method may be more labour-intensive and time-consuming. However, once the PLA master moulds have been produced, the plaster pouring stage is a simple process of repetition. We frequently printed multiple sets of PLA master moulds, allowing us to pour multiple plaster components in one go–an essential step if one of the moulds comprises 96 parts.

Mould design and construction We started with a cylindrical form and then applied a repeating surface pattern to demonstrate the modular nature of this mould system. A series of diagonal lines following the curve of the cylinder in both directions created a pattern of repeating Xs. We utilised this X design for a series of tests in ceramic and glass– utilising methods such as press moulding and slip casting, kiln casting, and pâte de verre.

The 3-D-printed PLA master moulds used in this process were typically constructed using five pieces. The first part is the faceplate, the surface that ultimately becomes cast in glass. The remaining four pieces are interlocking sides that interface with the faceplate and hold the poured plaster while incorporat-

ing the forms of positive and negative keys. These keys are reproduced in the refractory components, enabling each mould component to align and connect to the next securely.

The PLA mould parts are assembled, secured with rubber bands, and filled with a refractory mould mixture. The open face of the master mould is shaped in such a way that when skimmed, the outer surface of the refractory mould part is curved. When aligned with its other parts, this curved outer surface would produce a continuous circle–lending itself to being strapped together and ensuring a consistent wall thickness of the finished mould.

Nichrome wire is used to staple and bind the refractory mould parts together, whilst a jacket coat of plaster-silica, including strengthening modifiers such as ceramic grog and glass fibre mesh, follows. This method ensures a secure, leak-proof mould.

Assembled Boolean X refractory mould for pâte de verre, Joshua Kerley, 2022.

Example mould recipe for Boolean X Pink: Water (ml)

Plaster (g)

Silica (g)

Fine grog (g)

Coarse grog (g)

Glass fibre

Layer 1: Poured mould parts

50

35

35

15

–

–

Layer 2: Jacket coat

600

420

420

90

90

Glass fibre mesh

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Applications These moulds were used to produce numerous objects. Initially, we made pâte de verre (PdV) works but discovered that the shrinkage of the plaster-silica components would cause the PdV skin to pull apart during the firing, leading to tears and fissures on the surface. Whilst the finished works were structurally integral, we were not satisfied with the appearance of these fissures. Several attempts at the PdV process with these modular moulds led us to establish that it was better suited to different working methods.

plaster manages to capture the very fine details produced through the 3-D-printing process–fine striations on the surface of the print, which then ultimately get transferred into the glass object in a very subtle but present acknowledgement of the design’s origins. Again, the shrinkage of the plaster modules creates small gaps into which the molten glass flows–creating small flashing points on the joints between the modules. We thought that, once again, it was an aspect of the making process and so we left these.

Variations Once we had established that this technique would work, we set about creating and testing variants of the idea. We applied the working method to flat open moulds, creating a simple tile design which could be tessellated in different combinations to create varying repeating patterns or distinctive flowing linear designs. These were cast using sheet glass.

Top: Boolean X Pink and Green, Joshua Kerley & Guy Marshall Brown, pâte de verre, 2022. 19 x 12 x 12 cm. Bottom: Boolean X Pink, Joshua Kerley & Guy Marshall Brown, cast glass, 2022. 19 x 12 x 12 cm.

We then experimented with kiln casting.

We successfully cast a high-quality edition of the X patterned cylinder using Bullseye Glass Erbium Pink billet and named it Boolean X Pink. To save on the amount of glass required and reduce the annealing time of the object, we produced a plaster-silica core. We cast it into the cavity between the core and our modular mould–creating a tube-like shape rather than a solid cylinder. The refractory

We wanted to test the method of moving away from cylindrical or flat forms and instead try out some more complex geometry. We 3-D-modelled an icosahedron–a polyhedron with 20 faces.

We added a small detail to each face so that, again, it would create texture for the casting process to pick up, but also it would generate small undercuts–testing the technical limitations of this process.

We made a 20-part mould, which we first tried slip casting, by carefully holding all 20 pieces together while rotating the mould partially filled with slip. We then assembled a refractory version, using super glue to hold the faces together until we could apply a plaster silica coat to secure the mould. We cast this solid with frit-tinted glass.

To truly test the limitations and creative potential of this modular mould process, we designed a complex mould produced from 18 flowing curves. When assembled, it creates a twisting pillowed form of two joined spheres–an intentional design feature so that the object could only be produced using this working method. The plaster components enclose the form entirely so there is no entry point into the

mould; therefore, a traditional kiln casting technique was impossible. Instead, we utilised Joshua’s recently developed glass foam casting method, which relies on adding a foaming agent to the cold glass.

Using this method, we partially assembled the mould parts, added the powdered glass/additive mixture to the mould cavity, and then completed the assembly.

The foaming agent releases gas during the firing, which becomes trapped within the molten glass, causing the glass to expand and fill the void. As this particular mould had no opening, little to no cold work was required. Once again, the finished surface captures the fine striations of the original 3-D-printed surface, and the contraction of the plaster components leads to small amounts of flashing at the seams.

This latest work, titled Boolean Bloat, is by far the most exciting outcome of this project and has revealed to both of us an entirely new way of fabricating forms in cast glass. Casting glass foam within an enclosed mould produces its own unique and un-glass-like aesthetic, a quality Joshua strives for within his glassmaking practice. The modular mouldmaking method, in tandem with digital design and fabrication tools, has allowed Guy to push the possibility of form within kiln-cast glass. The highly successful Boolean Bloat has sparked ideas for further collaborative works that utilise the expanding qualities of glass foam in combination with evermore complex enclosed modular moulds.

Boolean Bloat, Joshua Kerley & Guy Marshall Brown, cast glass with foaming agent, 2023. 34 x 18 x 18 cm.

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LECTURE

New Technologies, New Approaches

By Francesco Langer

Structures on an field elm tree created with a 3-D printed clay mold. 52°33‘45.4“N 13°22‘25.0“E, Francesco Langer, mold-blown glass. 2023. 9.8 x 5.9”.

I grew up as the son of a gifted German mountaineer and adventurer. As far back as I can remember, I was always outside as a kid: hiking, climbing, mountaineering, skiing, rappelling down into canyons, and exploring new climbing areas. I had an exciting and privileged hildhood. To this day, there is simply nothing more beautiful for me than being in the mountains.

I spent time visiting my mother’s hometown in the Peruvian Andes, a small town called Caraz with 15,000 inhabitants, which is one of the most beautiful places I know. This place means family and refuge to me. It is my escape from German perfectionism; it’s my paradise, my place of inspiration, and the starting point of many adventures of my childhood.

In 2014, I started to study integrated design in Dessau, Germany at a multidisciplinary program that is very practice oriented. What I found most exciting was the idea of learning as many disciplines as possible and combining them with product design. Having everything in my own hands was appealing to me, but the desire to be able to do everything mysel

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made me feel like I couldn’t do anything well and I almost dropped out of my studies.

My girlfriend and I decided to do an exchange semester at the Rochester Institute of Technology, a partner university of ours, before we started our final theses. It was a happy accident that we ended up in Suzanne Peck’s glassblowing class. It was one of the best coincidences of my life. This was the turning point for me; I realized how much I preferred working with materials to just designing, planning, and maybe making a prototype.

This craft touches so many of my personal interests. It requires strength, technique and discipline that I know from climbing; it involves the same endurance and mental toughness that is needed to climb a 6000-meter-high summit, and it takes a team that you trust.

Upon returning to Berlin, I became involved with Berlin Glas. From my colleagues and through courses, I learned several glassmaking techniques, including 3-D modeling, moldmaking, cold working, and furnace working. With growing experience and enthusiasm, I

Vase with 3-D scanned structures of a wild cherry tree. 52°27‘15.4“N 13°18‘25.9“E, Francesco Langer, mold-blown glass. 2023. 9.8 x 5.9”.

decided to do my bachelor thesis with glass and was full of excitement to finally be able to think through a project from start to finish.

In 2020, I traveled to Peru for five weeks to do an expedition on my thesis topic, the melting of tropical glaciers, which is dramatically altering the landscape of my mother’s homeland that I love so much.

This project resulted in a documentary1, 2,000 photos, and 100 3-D scans of glaciers. I dedicated this project to my grandfather, Romulo Pajuelo Prieto. He was always one of the people I admired the most and never really got to know. He was known for being socially and politically involved to support the people in his region. On his tombstone it says: “Solo se ama lo que se conoce, y se defiende lo que se ama,” or “You can only love what you know and protect what you love.”

Caraz is located deep in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range, surrounded

THE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

by tropical glaciers. As climate change destroys the glaciers, the lives of people, animals and plants are threatened. The 2020 report by the National Institute for Water (ANA) shows that global warming has caused the water-storing glaciers to lose 40% of their surface area in the past 70 years.2 136 glaciers have disappeared over the past 42 years and on average, the glaciers retreat 19 meters a year. I asked myself what I could do as a designer to share this story and to inspire others to combat global warming.

With the 3-D scans I made of the glaciers, I refined the scans to produce high-quality 3-D prints made with PLA. Using a plaster-silica mix, I built glassblowing molds and melted out the plastic. These single-use molds were then brought into the hot shop for me to make into blown vessels and light fixtures. By freezing the current state of these glaciers in the transparent and icy-appearing glass, I can juxtapose the permanence of the glass with the impermanence of the ice. Only by illuminating the beauty and relevance of what is still there, but will soon no longer be, can we understand the power of our collective action and initiate change. This work has been slow due to the pandemic, but presenting at the GAS conference inspired me to renew my efforts in this project and begin making more work like this.

The long-term goal of my thesis project is to create an exhibition to give people an insight into this hidden world of mountains, valleys, canyons, snow and ice, and how integral it is to the lives of people, animals, plants, both in its vicinity and beyond. Only by imparting the knowledge of what has been lost and the beauty of what is still there, but will soon no longer be, is it possible for people worldwide to demonstrate the strength of their collective action, and to initiate change.

Cast 3-D scanned structures on the dying glacier Pastoruri in Peru. 9°54‘56.3“S 77°11‘00.2“W, Francesco Langer, hot cast glass. 2023. 9.8 x 1.2”.

Vase with 3-D scanned structures from a 250 year old black poplar tree in Berlin. 52°31‘42.5“N 13°16‘06.2“E, Francesco Langer, mold-blown glass.

2023. 8.7 x 4.7”.

Pendant Light with 3-D scanned structures of a tropical glacier in Peru. Fragments, Francesco Langer, mold-blown glass. 2020. 9.8 x 5.9”.

1. The full documentary is available on YouTube at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2sCDxFF-I8.

2. Autoridad Nacional del Agua, “Perú perdió el 51% de sus glaciares debido al cambio climático.” Plataforma digital única del Estado Peruano. July 4, 2020. https://www.gob. pe/institucion/ana/noticias/212329-peru-perdio-el-51-desus-glaciares-debido-al-cambio-climatico.

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LECTURE

Outside Your Realm: Exceptional Initiatives & Creators from Latin America & East Africa

By Josefina Muñoz Torres

Josefina Muñoz Torres at GAS Conference, Detroit 2023.

Over the past 17 years, I have developed a successful international career as an independent multidisciplinary artist, often working with glass. Given my research-based practice, I travel widely and have spent extended periods of time in divergent cultural contexts, learning from global communities of creators and critical thinkers.

After each video, I reflected on the relevance of each interviewee’s contributions, referenced their trajectories, and further discussed their practice. Abundant audiovisual material was shared throughout to complement the narration. The following paragraphs briefly synthetize the one-hour lecture, summarizing the biographies and legacies of each selected creator.

Sentient of the habitual underrepresentation of cultural agents from the Global South within the North American glass art circuit, I used my lecture to highlight the work of nine thriving key players from Argentina, Brasil, Honduras, Méjico, Kenya, Uganda, and Uruguay. Characterized by a community-based approach and an inventive use of resources, these individuals convey alternative ways of employing glass art as an effective creative medium, igniting high-impact cultural nodes in seemingly unmerited geographical regions.

Ana Paula de Maria | Arenas de Vidrio

Following a period of research, I invited selected creators to undertake virtual interviews this year, which were recorded in consensual agreement. With the aim of providing first-person perspectives and bridging the distance between interviewees and audience, during my lecture in Detroit, each creator was selfintroduced by a two-minute excerpt of the interview. All videos were generously edited and subtitled in English by Calama©.

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Uruguay has a population of about 3.4 million and no glass industry. Therefore, all glass containers and glass for construction is imported, and subsequently, is all sent to the landfill once discarded. Conscious of this situation (and opportunity) Ana Paula de María funded Arenas de Vidrio, through which she is searching for solutions for discarded glass in the country.

Arenas de Vidrio has generated a network with other companies, entrepreneurs, and academics, successfully building a system to collect discarded glass and process it as an aggregate.

This aggregate is then used to manufacture tiles, pave streets, and to fill beaches that are affected by coastal erosion. For more information, see @arenasdevidrio on Instagram.

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Gisa Brian | Afrika Arts Kollective

Street paving process in Montevideo, Uruguay by Arenas con Vidrio.

Gisa Brian is the founder and creative director of Afrika Arts Kollective, an art collaborative centering on uplifting the community through art and communal engagement. Ekilawuli, a community art studio, started in 2017 in the pre-urban slum Kyebando, Uganda, with an initial focus on glass recycling and upcycling. With growth and help from international partnerships, Ekilawuli went from offering cold working workshops to glassblowing, beadmaking, and other hot processes. Gisa and his team empower community members with skill training and an entrepreneurial social club, whilst only using glass waste collected throughout Kampala. For more information, see @ekilawuli on Instagram or visit www.afrikaartskollective.org.

Andrea da Ponte

Coldshop and flame working studio at Escuela del Vidrio El Progreso, in Honduras.

Andrea da Ponte is an artist and educator from Argentina and is widely known as “the teacher of teachers.” Besides pursuing her own artistic career, Andrea develops periodical itinerant, multitudinous, in-person workshops throughout Argentina and Iberoamerica, holds online classes, and leads the experimental glass group in her country. Andrea also created a unique image transfer technique onto glass that requires very simple materials, which she shares freely on her YouTube channel. For more information, follow Andrea on Instagram @andreadaponteglass.

Elisa Martinez | Escuela del Vidrio El Progreso

Gisa Brian and team at Ekilawuli hot shop in Kampala, Uganda.

Elisa Martinez is the director of Escuela del Vidrio El Progreso, in Honduras, where underprivileged youth (beginning at 13 years old) get technical education in glass art and gastronomy. Initially receiving direct training from glass masters from the Real Fábrica de San Ildefonso (Segovia, Spain), the school now has local instructors who have graduated from their own programs. With the aim of providing young people with the capacity to support their homes once they graduate at 18 years old, the school currently offers classes on kiln forming, fusing, stained glass, enameling, cold working, engraving, and sandblasting. Follow @escueladelvidriohn on Instagram or visit www.escueladelvidrio.org.

Tonney Mugo | Pambazuko Glashaus Kenya is known for being one of the main economies in sub-Saharan Africa, and its capital, Nairobi, is characterized for being a major commercial hub in the region. Within this context and considering the expansion of the city, artist Tonney Mugo at Pambazuko Glashaus Tonney Mugo founded Pamba- in Nairobi, Kenya. zuko Glashaus in 1998, an architectural glass studio specializing in large-scale residential,

Andrea da Ponte YouTube channel.

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ful learning by bringing together students and members of the community for activities and research through direct handling of the material. Since its foundation, the Lab has advocated for relevant socioeconomic themes like sustainability, innovation, and the promotion of glass design spaces. Follow Laboratorio de Vidrio on Instagram @lav.eucd or visit www.fadu.edu.uy/ laboratorio-vidrio.

Elvira Schuartz | Espaço Zero

Iberoamerican Congress of Women in Glass; scientists and artists at MAVA, Madrid, 2022. Organized by Objetos con Vidrio.

Sofía Hernández sketch and finished work at Centella Glass, in Guadalajara, Méjico. Mixed media and glass.

commercial, secular, and religious projects. Trained in Germany and based in Karen Village, Tonney has worked persistently over the past two decades on merging the European stained glass tradition with his African heritage, whilst incorporating architectural glass into Nairobi’s growing cityscape. Follow Tonney on Instagram @tonneymugo4.

Beatriz Amorín | Laboratorio de Vidrio Beatriz Amorín is based in Montevideo, Uruguay, and teaches at the School of Architecture, Design and Urbanism (FADU), at the Escuela Universitaria Centro de Diseño (EUCD), in a laboratory called Laboratorio de Vidrio (Glass Laboratory). She is part of a team that has been working since 2010 with glass within a unique design framework. The Lab promotes meaning-

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For over thirty years Elvira Schuartz has pioneered in the development of glass art in Brasil. In 1989 she founded Espaço Zero, which is a glass hub located in the heart of Sao Paulo, comprising a fully-equipped glassblowing studio, gallery, library, store, and artist residency spaces. More than five thousand students have been part of Espaço Zero’s programs during these 34 years, standing as a true incubator of glass artists in Brasil. Elvira is also the founder of IVI - Instituto do Vidro (Glass Institute), the first digital museum in the field of glass in Brasil, advancing the mission of preserving and expanding glass art in the country.

For more information, follow @espacozero on Instagram or visit www.espacozero.com.br.

María Eugenia Diaz de Vivar | Objetos con Vidrio For the past 15 years, María Eugenia Diaz de Vivar has been strengthening awareness of glass art from the online platform Objetos con Vidrio (Glass Objects). Based in Argentina, María Eugenia began the site in 2007 as a blog, which has grown to be the main glass reference in the global Spanish-speaking community, showcasing glass artists, curators, architects, collectors, and educators. The platform also organizes open classes, lectures, conferences, congresses, and workshops. Objetos con Vidrio has positively brought together the international Iberoamerican glass community, consolidating and centralizing the protagonists of the region, and by doing so, has been able to give visibility to underexposed creators and to generate powerful ongoing synergies. Follow @objetosconvidrio on Instagram or visit www. objetosconvidrio.com.

Sofía Hernández | Centella Glass Merging tradition with a contemporary vision, Sofía Hernández, from Méjico stands as an up-and-coming creator who is developing her own voice as an artist. Embracing the uniqueness of being a third-generation glass artist (her grandfather and father were in the glass industry), Sofía has matched her training as a designer with her innate connection to glass to found Centella Glass in 2015. From her studio in Guadalajara, Sofía develops her own mixed-media and glass pieces and also fabricates functional commissioned work employing an array of kiln-forming processes, including pâte de verre, fusing, stained glass, and kiln casting.

Follow Centella Glass on Instagram @centellaglass or visit www. centellaglass.com.

THE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

LECTURE

Forwarding Glass Education: My PhD Thesis is Post-Studio Glass

By Dr. Lisa Naas

This image shows the physical Black Box Dissertation as it appears fully open, with the main body of the thesis (right), a placard displaying a poem (center), and Book of Ideas and Book of Lyric (left) and Spectacles (far left). The Black Box Dissertation (open), Lisa Naas. Book board, paper, glass, acetate, CR-39 plastic, ink. 2020. 4.1 x 24 x 14.1”.

Introduction

Thesis Overview

The Black Box Dissertation is my creative, non-traditional, doctoral thesis that explores ideation in glass art and design, using both academic and lyric writing. I designed my dissertation to encourage dialogue about glass and glass education while shifting boundaries and perspectives around glass creativity and thesis making. Successfully defending the work as “post-studio glass”, I earned my PhD in 2021 from Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) at the University of Edinburgh. My PhD thesis is a work of glass.

The Black Box Dissertation is the shortened title for my thesis, Association in Creative Idea Generation: A Black Box Dissertation Staged in Lyric Inquiry and Glass Concepts. It exists in both physical and digital forms with multiple, interconnected parts that together comprise the work.

The physical version, a modified clamshell box, showcases the main thesis body, a poem in the center, and fitted to the inside cover, two small handmade books, alongside Spectacles. I designed Spectacles—a handheld, optical tool—to aid readers in navigating the thesis. With three movable sets of folding lenses

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Left: Spectacles is the optical tool I designed to aid the reader in navigating my thesis. I collaborated with Cubitts Bespoke (King’s Cross, London) to produce the piece. Spectacles for the Black Box Dissertation, Lisa Naas. Acetate, glass, CR-39 plastic, metal. 2020. 9.8 x 1.2” (width varies). Photo credit: Christine Serchia.

Right: Spectacles references and combines aspects of traditional opera glasses, Swiss Army knives, mapmaking lenses, and reading glasses to create a “re-framing” or perspectives tool. Detail of Folding Spectacles for the Black Box Dissertation, Lisa Naas. Acetate, CR-39 plastic, glass, metal. 2019. 9.8 x 1.2”.

that magnify, mirror, and tint, it incorporates glass material and offers conceptual and practical uses in the thesis.

Glass exists in society, in its many material forms and uses, and also in this intangible, de-materialized way as concepts.

The digital thesis is available on my website, where viewers can open and interact with each digital object.1 A compressed PDF version is also available through the University of Edinburgh Library.2

In How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, neuroscientist and psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett writes that concepts can change and become more complex as a person experiences more instances of them that contain new information.3 While glass is ubiquitous, this means we can still have personal, dynamic, and unique concepts of glass.

Context: My Creative Practice As a conceptual glass artist, I work with an idea first and choose the media and techniques to best express it. My creative process begins with associations—quick flashes of words, images, memories, experiences, sounds, or emotions that solidify into lyric phrasing to drive my project. Final pieces have layered meanings and offer viewers access from multiple perspectives. My primary medium is glass because I see endless possibility for conceptual exploration with its unique material qualities, history, societal roles, and associations. I began material exploration and studio training in 2006, earning my MFA in Glass in 2015 from ECA. The Black Box Dissertation is a work of glass from my creative practice. It challenges expectations around the doctoral thesis form, the process of writing and making that thesis, as well as expectations of glass art and design. Concepts of glass permeate the text and are significant elements of my thesis.

Context: Glass Concepts Glass concepts are ideas and understandings of glass held within words and images that include tangible, material properties, and intangible associations, characteristics, and meanings related to the material. For example, “reflection” is a glass concept that includes associations with time, mirrors, optics, the self, and more. Glass concepts can incorporate the word “glass” and related phrases that indicate glassy states or glass-like characteristics. Found within language, art, storytelling, and memes, they include lyrical uses of “glass” (e.g. “breaking the glass ceiling”).

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Context: Post-Studio Glass Recently, an artistic shift is occurring away from Studio Glass, moving into a widely-encompassing space—one embracing a conceptual approach, including a use of glass concepts. Based in the United Kingdom, artist-researcher Jerome Harrington mapped this space, calling it “the expanded field of glass”.4 American Craft Magazine called the shift “post-studio glass.”5 Susie J. Silbert, former curator at the Corning Museum of Glass, coined the term “glassy thinkers” for artists working in this space and “focus[ing] on the methods and methodologies of glassmaking as a means for art making.”6 My thesis and creative practice fit in this developing area of glass activity.

PhD Research & Word Triangulation I staged my research in ECA glass workshops, studying how words and associations are linked to creativity and how university students used associations with glass to develop ideas for studio projects. I made both objective studies and also researched through my artistic practice to provide perspectives on glass creativity and the early point in the creative process.

A critical output of my research is Word Triangulation, an ideation technique/tool that I designed to facilitate access to glass material through glass concepts for novice glass students. Word Triangulation aids users in developing associations and expanding

THE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

every page of academic text that explained my glass creativity research, I wrote a lyric line (or used an image) of glass, about glass, from glass, or referencing glass to dissertate with, associate with, or respond to the academic voice. The voices complement and challenge each other, telling the multifaceted stories of this research. As I wrote, their association sparked ideas which I captured in a stream of consciousness voice. I embedded glass throughout my thesis using glass concepts.

An Artist’s Book of Glass

This image shows a completed map-sketch created using Word Triangulation by a biomedical undergraduate student who used the gateway concepts of “glass”, “daily life”, and “creatives”, which are highlighted by the yellow triangle. The yellow circles indicate the idea in sketch form that the student developed using the technique and which she later realized as a glass object. Biomedical Student Word Triangulation Map-Sketch, Lisa Naas, paper, ink, pencil, computer graphics. 2016. 23.4 x 33.1”.

glass concepts for shifting perspectives or metaphor making. The technique uses three gateway words and the student’s associations. It acts as a centering meditation that results in a map-sketch and seed ideas for projects. The technique enables students to recognize their own knowledge, experience, and background in glass material through their personal glass concepts.

“Reflection” is the most prominent glass concept I used. While the academic voice explains the research, the lyric voice muses on glass through glass concepts to “reflect”, “refract”, “mirror”, and “filter” the academic text. Lyric pages reflect academic pages; poems reflect chapters; and the Book of Lyric reflects my personal stories on the fringes of the research. The Book of Ideas reflects my ideation.

Spectacles is the recurring idea in the Book of Ideas that I realized as a physical piece to express and reflect my research outside of writing. The tool offers a fan of seeing and reading options. The lenses reflect the three voices of my thesis: the magnifying lens represents the academic voice, the tinted lens the lyric, and the mirrored lens is the stream of consciousness voice. Spectacles is my thesis argument as an object: that a lyric association encourages ideation through reframing and shifting perspectives to enable the reader to see new relationships necessary to creativity.

The Black Box Dissertation is an academic report on my research and also an output of that research—an artwork in its own right.

In creating the thesis, I practiced theories of creativity and I employed my own Word Triangulation ideation technique.

The reflection concept culminates with the entire thesis form reflecting its content: my thesis is a Word Triangulation map-sketch and an artist’s book of glass.

Thesis Writing & Design

This thesis expands the boundaries for post-studio glass in higher education. It presents the argument that lyrically using “glass” and glass concepts enables inclusivity and access to the glass medium for university students, regardless of glassworking skill level, ability, or studio availability. My thesis is a work of glass: it is a performance of “glass” and reflects my creative process, enabling access to the glass medium for reader and author.

To keep the thesis grounded in my practice, I challenged myself to be creative about its writing and design, posing this question: How can I write as if I am making glass? My response was lyrical: I would have an initial period of flow and instability where the words would feel like honey slipping off their sentences. Glass slips, slides, and is a shapeshifter. Gathered out of the furnace on a pipe, it feels, looks, and acts a bit like honey on a wooden dipper. To write as if I were making glass, I needed to write so that words and meanings slipped, flowed, and associated with each other, untamed by structure and grammar.

As Word Triangulation aids lyric association, I adopted design elements and superimposed the technique onto my writing process. For my three gateways, I wrote with three voices: academic, lyric, and stream of consciousness. Through the thesis writing process, I developed ideas to express my research outside of words in another form and media.

Throughout the thesis, I juxtaposed small, creative writing pieces about glass with formal, focused academic writing. For

Conclusion

1. Naas, Lisa. “Black Box Dissertation.” In Concert With Glass. Accessed June 6, 2023. https://www.inconcertwithglass.com.

2. Naas, Lisa. 2022a. Association in Creative Idea Generation: A Black Box Dissertation Staged in Lyric Inquiry and Glass Concepts. Edinburgh Research Library. Accessed June 6, 2023. https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/38635.

3. Barrett, Lisa F. How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. London: MacMillan, 2017.

4. Harrington, Jerome. 2012. “Glass in the Expanded Field.” Jerome Harrington. Accessed July 22, 2021. https://www.jeromeharrington.net/glass-in-the-expanded-field.

5. Moses, Monica. 2014. “The World Beyond Studio Glass.” American Craft Magazine.

April/May 2014 issue. https://craftcouncil.org/magazine/article/worldbeyond-studio-glass.

6. Bard Graduate Center. 2018. “Susie J. Silbert Lecturing on ‘Blue Chip Artists, Glassy Thinkers, and Boro Boys: Navigating Contemporary Glass’”. YouTube video, 54:03. From recorded lecture April 13, 2017. Posted February 6, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=RHJR2R_k1Ac. 7. Naas, https://www.inconcertwithglass.com.

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LECTURE

The Polished Subject

By Cooper O’Brien In this lecture, given from my perspective as a glass artisan in the high-end design world, I examined the aesthetic lineage of reflective surfaces and their preeminent desirability. Specifically, I considered the role of polish in communicating prestige and value while also obscuring its relationship to fetish and control.1 Polished surfaces were a harbinger of creative industries’ postmodern turn to commercialization and the contemporary art market as it is today. I make the case that smooth reflective surfaces pervade this lustrous material culture as a therapeutic mask that is ingratiated to our deep-seeded desire for stability and sovereignty over nature. A polish is an homage to this culture, recapitulating its environment through reflection. Not every shiny object undergoes polishing, of course, but that is the effect pursued by polishing; its requisite labor is a hidden inversion of the smooth unbrokeness of these gleaming apparitions. Rendering surface this way, polish becomes a separate entity from its underlying material. As a line item that frequently dwarfs other considerations of cost, it is a commodity in and of itself. Working in this field, I lay out the contentious relationship between this finish and the labor that produces and maintains it.

The act of polishing is concerned with the superficial appearance and aesthetic hygiene of the built environment much like maintenance or custodial work. The moralist refrain, “cleanliness is next to godliness” has morphed to an agenda through which we gratify a desire for sublimation and control. A polished surface is the epitome of this instinct, a supernormal stimulus signified by buffing away its own trace. This is fundamental to the character of polishing; that it is a hyperbolic means to disassociate labor from its product, it is the most diversionary and dazzling surface and also the most labor intensive. The highest concentration of fastidious detailed work, it is the embodiment of working something for the sake of an untouched appearance. A disappearing act. It is no coincidence then that polished surfaces are revered as somewhat “magical” but are in fact a calculation of gloss against elbow grease. Invariably we design the world around us to exhibit control and to communicate intent. Even ornamentally, polishing is a maximalist exhibition of intent–and is unsurprisingly employed to convey a spellbinding authority.

Defining a polish, I offer that its texture is fine enough to appear preternaturally smooth, has a reflection we can identify as such, a surface which announces itself by disappearing behind the glimmering reproduction of the space around it—a polish is seen through while being looked at. In developing a polished

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Jeff Koons poses with “Rabbit” at the Tate Modern in 2009. Photo credit: Daniel Deme/EPA, via Shutterstock

surface as a distinct material and site of aesthetic consequence, I discuss the hypothesis that a material’s surfaces are only made to polish by “briefly becoming viscous” and forming a separate substance known as the Beilby layer. As the tool comes into almost molecular contact with the sheet of molecules on the surface and drags it off like a skin. The fresh molecular layer left by the removal of that skin retains its mobility for an instant, and before solidification is smothered over by the action of surface tension, thus producing the liquid-like surface.2 A polish emerges center stage as the curtain is drawn back, the evidence and site of the labor that begot it is literally delaminated and dragged aside. There is the contractile phenomena of surface tension but also the visual surface tension that draws in and reflects the surrounding environment as an image on the surface. So that the contraction is not just a physical one but a conceptual plucking of visual information onto that polished surface. It is through this quality of reflection as reproduction that polishing starts to make waves in the history of contemporary art.

Clement Greenberg, in commenting on the antecedents of abstract expressionism, described images unwilling to overcome the materials that compose them.3 Giving way to the plastic character of their medium, the avant garde embraced a formal abstraction of self-contained, autonomous work. Puncturing what he called the “transparent imposition” of the pictorial plane onto the physical surfaces of paintings, The illusory qualities of shiny surfaces mirror back and therefore allow real space to enter the autonomous image as external reflecTHE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

tion. In other words, through its very surface the painting threatens to become part of the everyday reality- an object among other objects.4 This crisis of objectification would soon deflate l’art pour l’art, which had distinguished the avant garde of the modernist sensibility and amplified shining surfaces as sites of determination within the emergent consumer culture of the early sixties. This aesthetic “problem” of reflectiveness in painting opened the door to what Marx would call, “the phantasmagorical form of the relation between things,”5 a mode of commodity fetishism that was poised to be implemented in the arts through the medium of shiny polished surfaces, the same industrial sheen of common consumer objects.

To illustrate this trend, I point to the Finish Fetish scene of the early 60s in Los Angeles which reappropriated industrial materials in the service of sophisticated and indulgent surfaces. The work of this small movement drew from the flourishing car and surf cultures emblematic of that moment in which polished surfaces were a powerful signifier. Directing its attention to the viewer in the language of consumption, of enticement and luxury–these aesthetics borrowed from those of the capitalist production that delivered the seamless surfaces of consumer goods, a model in which the disappearance of the labor that produces them is vital and systematic.

Approaching Minimalism, I interpret Michael Fried’s criticism of the “theatricality”6 enabled by the cool reflection of industrial surfaces. In stripping away the decorative and expressive qualities of abstract expressionism and laying bare the malevolent character of the contemporary object, the minimalists unearthed the fundamental forms of power and hegemony. Unfortunately this was not accompanied by condemnatory bite but a revelatory fixation on embodying that power.7 The polished surface typifies Fried’s “concept of interest” which “implies temporality in the form of continued attention.” The continuous present of the theatrical object relates back to this idea of surface tension, of the simultaneous approaching and receding that takes place on the surface as a reflected image. A shine is interesting because it is a visual accentuation of objecthood, that mimetic projection is continually happening as reflection, as a temporal interaction with the ‘world of objects’ around it. In this way a polished surface is a theatrical one, perpetually drawing the eye to an ever-present reiteration of its surroundings.

Pop Art was no less indulgent in these fetish surfaces as conduit for interpreting and reflecting culture back to itself. As such, it bore less of the jackboot authoritarianism of the minimalists in favor of a more saccharine reimagining of the readymade for a new age of viewer as consumer. That inheritance brought this short history to 1986 and the genesis of Jeff Koons in the exhibition “Damaged Goods: Desire and the Economy of the Object”

at the New Museum. His now infamous piece Rabbit, which debuted in this show, recently broke the auction sale record for a living artist, selling for over $91 million. I weigh that against the cover of the show’s catalog featuring the photographer Barbara Bloom’s Lisbon 1985, which captures a car showroom in a moment when, noticing the camera, a janitorial worker pauses to regard the viewer.8 Foregrounding the maintenance work that keeps the merchandise shining proposes a distinct tension between Koons’ Rabbit and Bloom’s Lisbon 1985; the polished object is not interrogating the viewer insomuch as it depicts the subjectification of the labor that produced it. This revised emphasis is “a reformulation of artwork to art work–art that is the work of production, reproduction, maintenance, and circulation of fetish objects.”

Polish is the absolute surface at the crux between Adorno’s collision of absolute artwork with absolute commodity.10 That construction is illustrated by an art world which has come to represent its own objectification in the cultural landscape of capital interest and the fetishization of labor.11 That totalizing infiltration of market logic into the art world has reimagined the conditions of an autonomous artwork, one that is self-reflexive in an osmosis of consumer culture into creative capital.

A polish is the material incarnation of contemporary art’s commodity character. For artists, ignoring this comes at the price of their own powerlessness–this lecture was given in the hope that these seductive surfaces are deployed as sites on which to build a critique of the power relations they codify.

1. The following is a short summary of my argument, the complete essay and bibliography can be found at https://dub-nominal.blogspot.com/ 2. G. T. Beilby, “Researches of Polished Surfaces, ” Transactions of the Optical Society 9 (1907): 71.

3. Clement Greenberg, “Towards a Newer Laocoön,” Partisan Review VII, no. 4 (Summer 1940): 296-310.

4. Christian Spies, “Shiny, Glossy, and Smooth: Commodity Surfaces in 1960s and 1970s Painting,” in Materials, Practices, and Politics of Shine in Modern Art and Popular Culture, ed. Antje Krause-Wahl, Petra Löffler, Änne Söll (London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2021), 207-218.

5. Karl Marx, “The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof” in Das Kapital: A Critique of Political Economy, ed. Frederick Engels (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1887), 47-53.

6. Michael Fried, “Art and Objecthood” in Art and Objecthood. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998, 148-172.

7. Anna C. Chave, “Minimalism and the Rhetoric of Power,” in Art in Modern Culture: an Anthology of Critical Texts, ed. Francis Franscina and Jonathan Harris. New York: Phaidon Press, 264-281.

8. Sven Lütticken, “Schein and Shine,” E-Flux Journal, Issue #61 (Jan 2015), https:// www.e-flux.com/journal/61/61008/shine-and-schein/ 9. Sven Lütticken, “Fetishize This! Artifacts and Other Agents at the Edge of Art” in Objections: Forms of Abstraction Vol. 1. London: Sternberg Press, 67-71.

10. Theodor W. Adorno, Aesthetic Theory. London: Bloomsbury, 2017.

11. Stewart Martin, “The absolute artwork meets the absolute commodity,” Radical Philosophy 146 (Nov/Dec 2007), 15-25.

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LECMOS

Dr. Jeffrey Sarmiento explored 3-D printing possibilities during his lecmo.

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THE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

LECMO

Glass Art and Technology

By Fumio Adachi pattern in my artwork. To emphasize the free transformation of the material in my artwork, I choose a simple glass form as a starting point. The work then begins in the simplest possible form, allowing me to minimize my own input and allow the materials themselves to follow their natural course and shape the work accordingly. This method is derived from Zen Buddhism as exhibited in the glazing of Japanese pottery, calligraphy, and other art forms, where the creators prepare the groundwork but then rely on the movement of the material to transform its shape. Emphasis is placed on the process rather than the end result, and the richness of artistic expression is favored over a completed result.

Perfection is seen as a hindrance rather than a goal because it limits the range of free expression. The process of ladling molten glass into the mold serves as an ideal way of realizing this method.

I studied plaster molds for mold blowing glass at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture in the late 1980s. After returning to Japan, I taught myself to use sand molds for metal casting starting in 1993. I then started exhibiting sand-cast glass work in 1995. I initially made prototypes with wood and polyurethane with molds made by mixing silica sand with clay, bentonite, sodium silicate and PEP SET (a chemical binder). When I started work at Taylor Backes Glass Studio in Pennsylvania in 2017, the moldmaking process became time consuming since I had to make my designs in Japan and create the molds in the United States. This led me to switch to computer graphic design and graphite molds.

Top: Fumio Adachi’s hot casting demo, Tim Frankenfield (left) and Fumio Adachi (right). Photo credit: Emily A. Masuda. Bottom: Object mesh data in ZBrush.

I use two types of software to carry out the process, ZBrush and Fusion360. Both can be used through a subscription. ZBrush is used to determine the actual shape and size of the graphite mold, while Fusion360 is used to convert the shape into a solid body

My lecmo was a lecture on the process of creating a graphite mold from computer graphics and a hot demonstration using the mold. It was my first participation in a GAS Conference since the conference in Seto, Japan in 1998. The aim of the Detroit conference was to provide artists with an opportunity to share creative ideas and approaches in the field of glass art and related fields, and I was delighted to take part in it.

Personally, having studied 3-D design at an art school in Japan and delving into art based on philosophy in the United States, the fusion of art and design is something I naturally envision on a regular basis. Therefore, presenting at this conference felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Currently, I explore the free transformation of the material by melting gold foil onto the surface of molten glass, using it as a

STEP finalized solid mold data in Fusion360.

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Fumio Adachi, Turn the Tide, graphite-mold casting with gold-foil fused glass, 2020. 19.25 x 11.5 x 6.25”.

Fumio Adachi, The Universe, graphite-mold casting with gold-foil fused glass, 2022. 27 x 17 x 8.5”.

by means of a computer graphics “mesh.” The former is a computer graphics software created by artists for artists. Interestingly, it has also been used for special effects in Hollywood movies such as Godzilla. The latter is a very effective tool and is much more automated than other 3-D CAD software. Many technical high schools in Japan make use of it. Both ZBrush and Fusion360 may seem difficult to use at first, but once you get used to them, they become incredibly convenient.

Using novel, innovative approaches in the field of glass art is both thrilling and challenging. Ultimately, those challenges prove to be valuable learning experiences leading to new artistic directions.

Participating in the GAS conference and observing other innovative presentations and demonstrations has been incredibly inspiring to me. This event has provided artists with a great opportunity to learn from each other and push the boundaries of glass art.

During the lecture, a short video demonstrating how to create mesh data for a mold in ZBrush and convert it to a solid in Fusion 360 was shown. If you are interested in the details of this process, please email me at adachifumio@icloud.com and I will be happy to send you the video free of charge. It is my great pleasure to share my work with as many as possible and stimulate lively discussion and the exchange of ideas.

In the hot demonstration, I ladled into two molds, including the type that I introduced in the video, using gold foil made in Kanazawa, Japan. In hot casting, the glass piece itself has thickness, so careful attention must be paid to the temperature difference between the inside and outside of the glass. During the process, although I do reheat with a torch, I never attempt to touch it even with gloves. This is to ensure that no cracks form on the surface of the glass. Therefore, I used a large device, not typically seen in regular demonstrations, to flip the heavy graphite mold and remove the poured glass from the mold.

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I’d like to thank the attendees of my lecmo for the many kind words I received from them, and for bearing with the heat during the ladling demonstration, since it was a very hot day. I sincerely hope that my method will be helpful to other artists, inspiring them in their creative pursuits.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Tim Frankenfield, Tyler Smith and the staff at the College for Creative Studies for helping with the lecmo.

THE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

LECMO

It’s What’s Inside That Counts

By Adrienne DiSalvo someone very important to our Studio Glass world: Harvey Littleton. I thought it fitting to pay tribute to him and his legacy by carving his portrait on glass.

Closeup of Adrienne DiSalvo spinning her glass thaumatrope, the side of the glass disk with Harvey Littleton’s portrait is visible. Photo credit: Chadd Lacy.

Closeup of Adrienne DiSalvo spinning her glass thaumatrope, mid-spin. Photo credit: Chadd Lacy.

I had the distinct honor of being invited to demonstrate the coldworking techniques that I utilize in my own studio practice at the 2023 GAS Conference in Detroit.

This was my second time demonstrating at a GAS conference and I was thrilled to be able to do it! In my demonstration, I got to the heart of “It’s What’s Inside That Counts” by carving away layers of glass to reveal the colors underneath.

For my demo, I chose to create a glass thaumatrope; a spinning glass disk with different images on each side that visually appear to merge together when spun, combining to create another image.

colors, both in rod and powder form.

This piece I brought for my demo has a transparent color core, with opaque colors layered over top of it. The color layers are as follows: opaque white as the outermost surface color, then a layer of opaque black under that, and then transparent pink as the innermost core color.

As my carved pieces generally take me weeks, if not months to complete, I prepared much of my piece ahead of time. I fabricated a brass armature to hold the moving glass piece with bearings at the top and bottom of the frame. As this is a kinetic piece, I stabilized it with a powder-coated heavy steel base. The thaumatrope itself is a solid borosilicate disk with clear glass rod attachments at the top and bottom to create the vertical axis for it to spin upon. Those clear rods sit within the inner rings of the bearings.

The disk is created using layers of glass

Much of my recent work revolves around the idea of memento mori (Latin for “Remember that you (have to) die”).

It is the biggest absolute truth of our existence. It is a humbling thought and also a highly motivating one, we must make the most of the time that we have.

In keeping with this theme, I am passionate about carving skeletons. I have an odd relationship with my own skeleton– I have dealt with medical issues most of my life, and in childhood I probably had more X-rays than photographs of myself. A thaumatrope seemed like it would be an excellent mechanism with which to create an X-ray. One side of the thaumatrope disk would be a recognizable portrait of the person as we see them in real life, and the other side would be their skeleton, creating an X-ray when spun. I chose to depict

I carved most of Harvey Littleton’s portrait on the one side of the disk before the demo. I also created some transparency tools to use during the demo to help me check and ensure that both sides of the thaumatrope will be generally symmetrical in composition, so that the images will gracefully merge visually when spun. I left the skeleton side uncarved, but I did take the time beforehand to draw my plans out for the skeleton side in permanent marker onto the glass. A large portion of my time creating a carved piece is in the planning and drawing phase. There is no undo button; every carved mark is permanent! The stakes are especially high for a piece like this where the two images must merge cohesively. I prefer to draw out my plans in a variety of colors of Sharpie. As long as the glass is uncarved, the marker can easily be erased with a little alcohol. I use the little pre-packaged alcohol wipes that are used for medical purposes.

I started my artistic career as a metalsmith, so a lot of my tools and techniques carry over from carving waxes or lapidary work. My main tool that I use for carving glass is a Foredom SR flexshaft, and I personally prefer the feel of the narrower quick-release handpiece. I find that I prefer a motor with more torque, so that the diamond bit does not immediately slow down once it meets glass. For this demo, I had my travel kit, which includes my smaller and older flexshaft, a 1 ⁄ 4 horsepower Pro-Flex by Arbe Machine MFG. In my home studio, I built myself a carving enclosure to keep glass dust and water from contaminating the rest of my workspace. For this demo, I only had my

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open top travel bin to carve in, so I opted for safety glasses and a splash warning for the front row of spectators. I also brought a smaller light to see tiny details with, several microfiber clothes to pad my carving bin and to dry the glass with, and a small water pump with attached tubing so that I can direct water flow over the area that I am working on. Lastly and most importantly, I brought a variety of my favorite diamond bits, including my absolute favorite, a 1mm ball diamond bit. It is really satisfying to finish a piece and clean up the tiniest of details with that teeny tiny 1mm bit! The smaller the bit, the longer it will take to remove material, so I always start with the largest bit and work my way down in size.

My first carving move was to trace lightly over the Sharpie lines with a wheel bit to make sure that my carefully planned drawing is not lost. Then I started with the largest diamond bits in a variety of shapes to clear out the largest areas through both the white and black layers down to the innermost transparent pink core color. Since the larger bits remove a lot of material quickly, it was easier to demonstrate the different visual marks that each of the bit shapes make during this process. Once I cleared out those open areas, I chose progressively smaller bits to clean up the edges of the skeleton and to start to get into some details.

Occasionally, I cleaned and dried off the glass disk and place it in the brass armature to spin and test the thaumatrope. It was really exciting to see a test of theory!

Once the heavy lifting is done with the larger bits to remove bulk material, I start shading, and for me, this part of the carving is really fun. I don’t plan or draw on the glass with a Sharpie as much. I really start to feel out the depths of the different layers and try to get not only the shape and feel of the cameo style low relief carving right, but also the colors achieved with shading right at the cusp of where the layers meet. Despite all efforts made to get uniform thicknesses of the layers, there is always variation because of the movement of the glass during shaping.

For example, the layers of colors on this disk have thinned at the outer edge and gotten thicker towards the middle of the flat sides where they cooled first during the big squish. While the inconsistency can be frustrating sometimes, I find it very interesting to explore and really get to know the piece of glass that I am working on. It says a lot about how the glass has moved and cooled during its life as a hot, moving thing.

Closeup of Adrienne DiSalvo spinning her glass thaumatrope, the side of the glass disk with the partially carved skeleton is visible. Photo credit: Chadd Lacy.

I am so grateful for this wonderful opportunity to share what I’ve discovered along my coldworking journey. It has taken me many years of carving a variety of materials to get to where I am today. I cannot recommend experimenting enough! Every shape and size of carving bit has their own unique marks, keep playing and make your own mark!

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LECMO

Glass, Marine Biology & Physics

By Jenna Efrein, Carolyn (Jack) Delli-Santi, and Vivek N. Prakash Glass and physics, this connection we understand, but why add marine biology? At the University of Miami, interdisciplinary research collaborations are actively encouraged. Through an exploratory contemporary glass working group initiated by the University of Miami Lowe Art Museum’s director and curator Dr. Jill Deupi, Jenna Efrein met Dr. Prakash, who runs an organismal biophysics lab, working at the interface of physics, engineering, and biology. The purpose of this glass working group is to explore creative avenues in which glass can integrate into other areas of study and be influenced by it.

The Lowe Art Museum has a large space predominantly dedicated to glass, the Palley Pavilion. Jenna offered anyone from the working group that had yet to see the glass studio to come for a visit.

Dr. Prakash came with a project in mind.

He wanted to represent in glass the microscopic marine animal he was studying, the Trichoplax.1 The animal mirrored many of the same qualities of glass; depending on the heat, it can be elastic, ductile, and brittle. As intrigued as Jenna was, she needed two things: 1) a research directive beyond representation, and 2) help. Along came Carolyn Delli-Santi.

They were a student with Jenna and were also a double major in marine science and biology. They became what Jenna likes to call a “hybrid” student. Since they knew both areas well, they were able to translate science into accessible language and be the continuity and fact checker throughout the process, as well as the glass fabricator and shop assistant..

The research directive became refined when we applied for and won an internal University grant called U-LINK, as a team led by Dr. Prannoy Suraneni, an assistant professor of civil engineering. The U-LINK grants support teams

animals for these studies is the asexual millimeter-scale organism in the Placozoa phylum known as Trichoplax adhaerens.3 We would build on our biophysical observations of this simple marine animal.4 Some of our initial questions were: Can glass be used as a material to study tissue strain?

How does physics shape biology?

Trichoplax adhaerens is one of the “Earth’s simplest animals” (Image courtesy of Oliver Voigt/Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-SA-3.0.)

of scholars from multiple disciplines in collaborative, problem-based inquiry to address complex challenges. The goal of the investigation through glass is to provide valuable scientific insights into marine biology and physics, most specifically animal tissue strain. The purpose of these studies is to investigate the fundamental principles of epithelial tissue integrity and repair.2 This comprehension aids in tissue recovery in organ transplants and skin grafting. One of the best-suited

What are the extreme limits of cell morphology and the results when they go beyond the physical limits?

What are the tissue characteristics and qualities as they change shape and stretch toward and away from their physical limits?

The Trichoplax’s body plan is composed of three confluent tissue layers, and the upper and lower layers are composed of adjacent, connected cells. On their lower tissue layer, they have cilia, or small hairs, that enable them to move laterally. The upper layer’s cells are slightly flatter and larger than those of the bottom layer. The central layer is composed of loose cells sandwiched by the upper and lower layers,

After first bend test on dome

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Trichoplax adhaerens single layer of animal cellular structure in simulated animal shape in red veiled cane.

best described as gooey. The animal’s tissue properties are exemplified in their physicality. During its elastic state, the animal can stretch and return to its original shape. In its ductile state, the animal can change its shape permanently and start thinning, and at some point, break into two pieces and reproduce asexually. In the brittle state, it will sustain fractures or interior voids that may or may not heal. The tearing of the tissues begins at the lower layer and migrates horizontally first, and then vertically.

To begin our glass model, we needed to replicate their form keeping in mind their base physical properties. We decided to create single layers. The reasoning behind this was to simplify the form to maintain the best possible mimicry of the animal. We experimented with various cellular structures made of clear cane before we finalized our selection of veiled cane. We sampled green and blue for softer cellular walls and red for stiffer cellular walls. These differences would help us model the elastic to brittle qualities while maintaining a core similarity.

It also provided a perimeter structure for each cell allowing for measurement post-process. Each cane was cut to approximately 1/4 of an inch in length, stood on end, and fused together allowing for some surface undulation. In the beginning, we shaped it like a sampling of

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Top: Disk model versions of Trichoplax adhaerens in red (stiff) and blue (soft glass). Bottom: 8 inch disks on graduated frustums with control disks

an actual animal. Upon further thought and discussion, we shifted to creating circular disks of about eight inches for easier comparative analysis.

Once the single layers were fused, we proceeded with experiments to replicate their movement and cellular deformation. Bending the fused glass seemed to be the most likely comparable to the animal’s motility. Relying on gravity as a constant force, we started by bending an organically fused piece on an even plaster-silica convex dome.

This yielded the anticipated results of a gradually morphed cellular wall. This aligned with what happens to the Trichoplax adhaerens as they move. This is when we decided to reduce the factors on the glass for consistency in testing by shifting to eight-inch circular disks and removing the glass dust from in between the veiled cane walls.

For consistent comparable cellular strain, we augmented the bending structures.

Focusing on the physics of similar forms, we increased the pitch at which the glass was being pulled down by gravity. Our new frustums for bending were truncated cones.

THE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

The team in the glass classroom from left to right: Carolyn (Jack) Delli-Santi (copresenter), Leah Henseler (future “hybrid student), Jenna Efrein (co-presenter), Vivek Prakash, Gopika Madhu (physics graduate student). Photo credit: Anthony Miles.

ing these promising results with the ability to create precise experimental parameters and the unique ability to arrest and study an experiment at any time step (i.e. through sudden cooling) proves that glass tissues have a promising future in the study of tissue mechanics. This creates unique methodologies and opportunities for investigation that are not feasible in live animal studies, especially just before and at the moment of brittle fractures.

Top: Cell measurement before bending. Bottom: Cell measurement post bending.

They were designed in Rhino, carved on a CNC machine, and then cast in plaster-silica molds. They all had the same upper surface contact of three inches, but their bases increased in width to five, seven, and nine inches respectively. The concept was that the smaller base with the sharper downward pitch would increase the force on the tissues while maintaining the same upper heat temperature and soak time. A reference “control” disk was also included in the firing. About ten random cellular walls were measured before and after the bending process. It was clear in the results that the cellular movement and tissue deformation increased the cell apex area with increasing force.

As glass bent over the frustums, it first accumulated in dense masses along the slopes of the frustums before migrating toward the base, eventually accumulating around the perimeter of the base. Similarly, collective tissue migration begins with cell density rising as neighboring cells restrict the motion of each cell before the dense mass forces the cells to migrate as a group. The glass tissues created here modeled Trichoplax properties effectively. By creating cohesive tissues and measuring cell area change before and after entering the transition state, cellular movement and tissue deformation could be observed and quantitatively measured. Combin-

With the knowledge that glass can be used as an analog medium to study the Trichoplax, we will develop more specific tests to strain the tissues, recombine, and fracture. As our methods evolve so will the complexity of our models combining the three layers into a single animal. will be designing different strain tests and recording the tissue deformation observed in lateral stretching and epithelial layer healing experiments.

1. Vivek N. Prakash, Matthew S. Bull, and Manu Prakash. “Motility-induced fracture reveals a ductile-to-brittle crossover in a simple animal’s epithelia.” Nature physics 17, no.

4 (2021): 504-511.

2. Setareh Gooshvar, Gopika Madhu, Melissa Ruszczyk, and Vivek N. Prakash. “Non-bilaterians as Model Systems for Tissue Mechanics.” Integrative And Comparative Biology (2023): icad074.

3. Ibid.

4. Prakash, 504-511.

5. Ibid.

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LECMO

Experimental Kiln Forming With Recycled Glass

By Morgan Gilbreath Working with recycled glass can offer many benefits to your studio practice and serve as an endless playground for your ideas.

Found glass materials are a sustainable, accessible, and affordable alternative to specialty art glass that is brimming with aesthetic and conceptual potential for artists and institutions alike.

When working with a piece of found or manufactured glass, it is important to assess the glass based on the following considerations: • Source: Where did the glass come from? How was it made and in what quantity? If you know the manufacturer of the glass, you can attempt to contact them for the precise information you are seeking (annealing point, melting point, strain point, etc). Exploring the source can also give you insight into the working properties of the glass and help inform the writing of your kiln program. For example, if you are a furnace worker, think about the differences between blowing with furnace glass versus brown beer bottle glass. Furnace glass has a longer working time, while the brown bottle glass was formulated to get hot really fast (to be blown into factory molds and then rapidly anneal and cool).

• Compatibility: Every stable piece of glass should be compatible with itself. When using plate glass, it is best if you can work from one sheet of glass rather than several different ones.

When using bottles (with labels and all adhesives removed), note that all manufacturers are different. To help ensure compatibility, I try to use bottles from the same package in hopes that they were produced at a similar time, and therefore have similar COEs. Even with all of these precautions taken, compatibility of found and collected glass is no guarantee. It is a calculated creative risk, but sometimes your kiln failures become your best new discoveries. Although I sometimes encounter compatibility issues, more often than not I am pleasantly surprised at what I’m able to get away with.

• Devitrification: Unlike furnace glass and fusible art glass, manufactured glass is not formulated to be re-heated and re-worked. Because of this, devitrification is much more prevalent and harder to control. This factor cannot be avoided entirely; although some surface devitrification may be cold worked away. In my personal work, I love the texture of devitrification and think that it can be utilized as a unique design feature.

• Particle Size: What is the format of the glass you will be melting (sheets, bottles, shards, frit, powder, etc.)? The

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Morgan Gilbreath, What We’re Made Of, waste glass collected from various studios, kiln cast and coldworked, 2018. 11” x 9’ when stacked.Photo credit: Stephanie Price.

smaller the particle size, the more surface area that will be prone to creating bubbles and/or devitrification in your kiln formed glass. If you are seeking visual clarity in your kiln formed glass, larger pieces, sheets, or blocks of glass would be recommended.

• Fluxes: Understand that the more times you heat a piece of glass to melting point, the more the fluxes and additives in the glass will burn out. This can affect the color, workability, devitrification, and even the COE. This will happen at different rates in each glass. Pay attention and take note of any observations.

• Annealing Point: If the annealing temperature is unknown, do an annealing test in the kiln; I use Fritz Driesbach’s cane-in kiln method as described in Henry Halem’s Glass Notes. Over time, you will begin to get a sense of each type of glass and its properties. When doing small tests, I estimate the annealing temperature. But when working on a large piece, I will complete several different annealing tests before firing the final object.

THE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

Clockwise from top left: Morgan Gilbreath, E.Q.1: The Human Spirit, collected glass ground to powder and re-fused, cast, and cold worked, 2017. Photo credit: David Hale. 8.5 x 5.5 x 1”. Morgan Gilbreath, Tower of Babel, found Medial glass vials, fused, 2017. Photo credit: Stephanie Price. 9 x 13 x 18”. Example diagram of how to set up a test kiln with different types of glass in piles. Example diagram of various glass bodies fired to four different test temperatures (400/hr to 1350/1400/1450/1500, 10 min hold.)

CLEAN , SORT, LABEL, & TEST: The mantra when it comes to working with found glass is to CLEAN, SORT, LABEL, and TEST everything. This will prevent contamination of incompatible glasses and help you to control as many variables in your process as possible. Ultimately, this will help increase your chances of success and creative discovery.

Identify glasses that are compatible and clearly label them in separate containers. Before firing in the kiln, thoroughly clean the glass using Dawn dish soap or an abrasive cleaner like Ajax or Comet and rinse with water (distilled if you’re fancy). Finally, scrub the glass with a toothbrush and 99% isopropyl alcohol. This thorough cleaning method will help prevent the risk of cracking and also discourage devitrification. On the other hand, if you want to intentionally increase the hazy devitrification effects on your glass, I’d suggest not cleaning your glass.

I also recommend doing a melt test with your glass in which you fire samples of your glass at various temperatures and observe

the results. I typically set up several test kilns that each hold at various top temperatures: 732° C, 760° C, 787° C, and 816° C (1350° F, 1400° F, 1450° F, and 1500° F) for 10 minutes. The kiln setup is a kiln shelf containing piles of various glass bodies such as broken float glass, beer bottles, test tubes, furnace glass, and Bullseye. I use the Bullseye and Spruce Pine furnace glass melts as controls–glass types that we can predict and understand. By using these predictable glasses as benchmarks, we can begin to compare and contrast the behavior of different sources of glass. The resulting test firings can be used to inform the appropriate firing program for your project.

Working with found and recycled glass offers endless creative possibilities that reach far beyond what is achievable with formulated art glass. By considering the unique working qualities of each individual type of glass and completing melt tests at various temperatures, we can begin to demystify the technical challenges of working with found and recycled glass.

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LECMO

Introduction to CNC Machining for Glassforming

By Jin Won Han How can we encourage our students to utilize CNC machining in glass? At Sheridan College, I have been developing a curriculum for a course titled “Experimental Glassforming” that explores the whole process–from digital modeling to CNC milling to glassforming.

Equipment

Materials Used

Software

Roland MDX 40A Work area: 12 x 12 x 4.13” Spindle speed: 4500-12000 rpm Resolution: 0.00008 inch Max tool size ¼” G-code/NC code compatible

Graphite Polystyrene Plaster-silica

Adobe Illustrator Fusion360 SRP Player Pro

Key Features of Fusion360 for CNC Machining 1. Extrude, Revolve, and Loft: major commands to create 3-D objects from 2-D drawings.

2. Accessibility Analysis and Section Analysis: two major inspection tools helpful to address undercut issues.

3. Team Cloud: a collaborative feature that facilitates seamless file sharing among class members and file management for instructors.

4. CAM function: a user-friendly tool that seamlessly integrates with CAD function support for a wide range of processes.

General Process

Sandcasting with a Press Mold. 3D model, CNC milled polystyrene mold, sandcasting in progress, and glass outcome. Photographed by Jin Won Han, 2021. 5 x 5 x 2”

narrow grooves in the design, leading to less clean glass outcomes.

To avoid these defects, some options such as adding a taper angle while extruding the profile or applying Fillet to the edges of the extruded faces can be considered. Those options help eliminate steep angles that could interfere with the sand and deep corners that molten glass cannot reach.

Digital modeling –> conversion –> milling –> glassforming

Creating an object with Form or Pipe commands is another effective way of avoiding sharp edges or corners.

Applications of CNC Machining

Models for Kilncasting

Press Molds for Sandcasting As part of the “Experimental Glassforming” course, I chose press molds for sandcasting as the initial project for students due to its simplicity in creating a 3-D model and low cost for mold materials. This project also provides fast results, allowing students to observe their creations quickly.

Using CNC for crafting models offers some notable benefits, particularly when working with geometric shapes in polystyrene foam. The CNC machine enables precise cutting, leading to cleaner surfaces and well-defined forms.

Students were instructed to use the Extrude command to create their own press molds, either by drawing them or importing ready-made SVG files. The size was set at five x five x two inches.

Design Methods Ideal for Sandcasting In some cases, using a simple Extrude command can create deep

Example of Pipe Command. 3D model, polystyrene mold, and glass outcome.

Photographed by Jin Won Han, 2023. 6 x 6 x 2”.

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Models for Kiln Casting. left: Soar by Jennifer Rodger Mediratta. 2022. Right: Arch

by Owen Johnson. Comparison of 3-D printed and CNC milled models. 2023.

Inspecting Undercuts. Accessibility Analysis identifies the undercuts red.

Open Face Molds

Cutting Graphite and Plaster-Silica

The Combine-Cut command in Fusion360 is a useful tool for moldmaking. To create an open face mold, start by drawing a main object. Then, enclose the object within a box by dragging it up until it’s fully embedded. Finally, cut out the model from the box using the Combine-Cut command, which allows you to join or cut the components as needed.

Creating a marble mold for flameworking can be one of the simplest projects in moldmaking. The form can be achieved by cutting out hemispheres from the box. Thus it became my first graphite milling project. Compare to polystyrene foam, graphite requires lower feed speed around 500-700mm/min. The process can get quite dusty, so using an enclosed CNC machine for graphite cutting would be a better choice.

The logic behind the virtual mold drawing is identical to the one in traditional moldmaking. I found that students who are knowledgeable to one could easily understand the other.

While limited to a single use, CNC milling directly onto a plastersilica blank offers the advantage of skipping several moldmaking steps in kilncasting. However, design possibilities may be limited due to accessibility issues.

Two-part Molds for Mold Blowing CNC milling two-part molds can be a complex project due to more factors to consider such as cutting orientations, undercuts and parting lines.

How to Draw an Open Face Mold. A screenshot of Fusion360, illustrating Combine-Cut command.

Inspecting Undercuts In moldmaking, an undercut refers to areas that the cutting tool can’t reach due to obstructions or overhangs in the design. For first-time students, it may be a somewhat confusing concept and challenging to identify undercuts physically. CAD offers great visualization, which helps students understand undercuts more easily.

Understanding the equipment capabilities and planning for undercuts is crucial in CNC milling. I found two analysis tools particularly useful for inspecting undercuts. The Accessibility Analysis helps identify areas that may be unreachable during the milling process. The Section Analysis allows users to examine cross-sections of their designs, ensuring there are no unexpected interferences.

The basic steps of drawing two-part molds are similar to openfaced molds: draw the main body, build a box around it, and cut out the main body by Combine-Cut command. But this time, the box should be split to allow the main body to exit. Midplane and Split Body command were used to separate the mold.

Parting lines In casting, the parting line refers to the boundary or line that separates the multi-part mold. Properly designing and locating the parting line is crucial for achieving an outcome with minimal imperfections and easy removal from the mold after solidification.

Using CAD software to make the parting line has great advantage as it allows for precise and efficient design adjustments.

Fusion360’s inspection tools, like the Accessibility Analysis, provides a clear visual representation of the mold, enabling experiments with different parting line options and identifying potential issues before the physical mold production. This helps save time and material costs.

Analysis tools are more beneficial for an organic body, where the appropriate parting line may be irregular and hard to be defined by eyes.

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Open face molds. Graphite marble molds (3 x 6 x 1.25 inches each) and a plastersilica mold (6 x 6 x 2”. Photographed by Jin Won Han. 2020–2023.

Engraving Engraving with a CNC machine is widely used in various industries and a popular choice for creating detailed and intricate designs.

For glass engraving, I chose a 120° Diamond drag bit, operating with the spindle off.

Ideal Designs for CNC Machining Certain tasks are better suited for computers than humans; CAD excels in areas involving geometric, parametric, modular, or repetitive elements.

Top: How to Draw a Two-part Mold. MIDPLANE and SPLITBODY command were used to separate the mold into two. Middle: Pokeballs. CNC milled graphite mold, borosilicate glass. Flameworked, mold blown, sandblasted. 3D modeled by Brianna Wong.

Produced and photographed by Jin Won Han. 2023. 2.8” diameter. Bottom: Identifying Parting lines. Process of creating parting lines through Accessibility Analysis.

The Wavy Vases project demonstrates how CAD enables swift generation of design variations. It empowers exploration of a wide array of design possibilities with remarkable efficiency, all starting from the original shape on the left.

Conclusion CAD offers excellent visualization, aiding in comprehending the traditional mold-making process while also encouraging a broad range of creative designs. As our language shapes our thinking, designing in CAD imparts unique characteristics to our creations.

Throughout three years of teaching, I find it beneficial for students to engage in the entire process, placing equal emphasis on both virtual design and physical production. The course aims to develop design sensibilities and enhance understanding of material properties. Students are encouraged to be mindful of physical constraints while remaining open to exploring possibilities beyond the boundaries of reality.

I believe that it is valuable for students to explore the possibilities in CNC machining and grasp the strengths and the weakness of both machining and hand-building processes in glassmaking. I will happily continue the journey with them on this learning path.

Top: Engraving Tests. Engraved on float glass. Produced by Brianna Wong. Photographed by Jin Won Han. 2023. 4 x 4 x 1/8”. Bottom: Wavy Vases. 3D models.

Variations generated from the original on the left. 2023.

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LECMO

Building with What is Already Around: Advanced Sheet Glass Construction

By David King For the lecture portion of this lecmo, I showed the work of artists who have inspired my own creative choices, artists who I see as having similar creative impulses, and works that I have discovered more recently which are relevant to the subject of this lecmo. All of these choices were made in an effort to provide context for my work, but also to celebrate the use of recycled industrial glass in contemporary sculpture.

The artists I introduced included: Larry Bell, Walead Beshty, Tony Cragg, Song Dong, Tara Donovan, Morgan Gilbreath, Hans Haacke, David Hammons, Charlotte Hughes-Martin, Maya Lin, Marcel Mariën, Aric Snee, Therman Statom, and Nari Ward.

Upon reflecting after the presentation there is another artist I would have included: Mario Merz. I recommend looking at all of these artists. They all make great work.

The demo portion was my best attempt to squeeze in as much useful information on how I use silicone glue and sheet glass to make my current body of work. To give you a quick overview, I use both float glass and hand-blown sheet glass in my process. I cut the glass using the traditional glass-cutting techniques of the stained glass or fusing processes. I do minimal cold working using a diamond hand pad or belt sander to quickly take the sharpness off the cut edge. I use blue tape to fully assemble the form; this step assures that the pieces all fit together properly before gluing.

I use GE 100% Clear Silicone II, which is low in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and apparently sticks to more materials than GE Silicone I. I only use silicone to adhere to glass and already set silicone. I like silicone because it is flexible, has a relatively quick set time, it’s clear- ish, non-toxic-ish, impermanent, readily available, and clean-up is mechanical with a razor blade and requires no additional chemicals.

David King, “Sanguine (48 Ivanhoe)” 2020, glass, 12” x 58” x 7”.

got right to the construction and gluing. One quick note about the cutting here though, I typically tape the sheet glass down to the cutting surface with blue tape and also put a strip of blue tape on the glass under the cutting straight edge. I find these two efforts eliminate the possibility of the glass shifting or the cutting edge sliding when you are trying to make an accurate cut. As I continued through the process of building the box, my advice was broken into nine separate “key takeaways”: • It will take as long as it will take. Cut additional pieces of glass as they need to be cut. Those of us familiar with cutting glass know that making small adjustments to the same piece is futile.

Another, more efficient way to say this is that you should plan lots of “do overs”. And over, and over and over, as needed.

I have a couple tricks for sneaking the silicone into the seams of the object while it is being held together with tape. I use the tape like a hinge to hold one side in place while I shift the glass, expose small gaps, apply the silicone to those gaps, push the silicone further into the gaps when necessary with a soapy finger, and then carefully shift the glass back into place. Delicacy, care, and patience are of the utmost importance when using these techniques to glue your project together.

• Sand all the edges before you glue. It is a pain to deconstruct a form to sand pieces but it is also a pain to find you went through the process of sanding to later realize that that piece needs to be recut anyway. Sanding the edges, as in the sharp corners of the edge of the glass (think handpad at 45° to flat glass), before gluing lets you later remove the glue with a razor blade and not risk chipping the glass or needlessly dulling the razor blade while also preventing many unnecessary cuts to your fingers.

The example project for the demo is one I suggest students new to this type of construction start: a glass box. The attendees of my lecmo were quite helpful in identifying what aspects of the process they were most interested in learning about. It was a glass savvy crowd so I breezed past the glass cutting demo and

• Tape every piece of glass together first and label the orientation or placement of each piece. It can be easy to get pieces out of order, turned around, or lost during more complicated constructions.

• Before final assembly, clean the glass three times.

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David King, “CMYK” 2022, blown glass, plastic, 21” x 8” x 21”.

David King, “Echo (grape)” blown glass, plastic, 8” x 4.5” x 4.5”.

• Squeeze out the old glue from the nozzle before applying to your project. Replace the cap right away. Keeping your glue tidy will hedge off frustrations with the material.

If you want it to be right, take your time and plan to be slowed down by having to do some aspects of the process again and again until it is right.

• Do not try to wipe the glue while it’s wet. Make a mess, let it cure, cut and scrape it away later. Learn to be neater with the application as you gain more experience with the glue. Never wipe the wet glue!

• Proper lighting will allow you to see what you are doing. Seeing what you are doing is helpful. This is in reference to the clean up stage. Once all the glue is cured there will be a significant amount of glue on the outside of the project. I use new, clean, sharp razor blades to cut away excess and then scrap the residue off the glass surface. The takeaway is important because if you do this activity in subpar lighting, there is good chance you will miss some residue. You have to be able to see it to clean it. I also recommend changing out for fresh blades frequently as a sharp tool will make a major difference in getting rid of all the unwanted silicone residue.

• You can touch the wet glue if you have soapy water on your finger. This takeaway is closely related to the previous one. I keep about two ounces of water with a dash of dish soap in it nearby and if I need to touch the glue, I will lightly dip my finger in this soapy water first. It is a little finicky, but with practice, you’ll be moving that glue all around with ease and no mess.

• Don’t try to do too much at once. Respect the cure time. Be patient. My complex constructions take months to complete.

I could do them faster but they would lose quality. There are only so many patient moments for this kind of studio work in a day, a week, a month. I think a lot about efficiency and that is because I choose creative activities that are not at all efficient.

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Thanks to GAS for accepting my proposal to lecmo on this topic and to everyone who attended the event in Detroit. If you have specific questions about the process outlined here, or need advice for your gluing project, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at king.davidjohn@gmail.com.

THE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

LECMO

Analog Art Goes Digital And Back Again: 3-D Model to Glass Sculpture

By James Labold This lecmo covered various ways of taking digital scans of objects and transforming them into glass sculpture, offering affordable entryways to digital explorations for artists, surveying low or no-cost modeling software and desktop 3-D printing options. I explained my own process of utilizing free software to remix open source scans of historic sculptures and designing them for 3-D printing. The presentation culminated in demonstration of a lost-PLA hot blow mold.

In 20 years of working with glass, my processes have varied from hot sculpting to kiln casting, but they have always been undeniably analog and hands-on.

While I had been curious about digital fabrication technology for years, it took the COVID-19 pandemic to put me in front of a computer long enough to learn the basics.

In March 2020, I was stuck at home spending far too much time online, and I began exploring 3-D printing in earnest. The technology became reasonably affordable and I had time to learn something new, soI bought a printer.

Once the COVID-19 restrictions eased and I could return to a glass shop, I explored taking my digital models from 3-D print to finished glass sculptures.

Getting Started, Software and Hardware To start utilizing digital fabrication in creating glass works you will need to become familiar with some type of modeling software and some type of 3-D printer. If you work at a university, you may have institutional access to these machines and programs. For everyone else, maker spaces, fab labs, and even some public libraries are possible points

of access. In the end, I opted to just purchase a cheap printer and became familiar with the process through my own machine.

flexible rubber-like filaments to resins that claim to emulate the properties of micro crystalline wax, there is much to explore beyond the basic materials.

For basic drafting skills I recommend TinkerCAD, which is designed for beginners and offers a good amount of educational material online. For sculpting and additional editing SculptGL is a straightforward browser-based platform for digital sculpting but offers little guidance. I personally utilize Meshmixer, another free program, for editing and combining digital objects as well as basic sculpting.

Workflow: Digital to lost wax/ digital to lost PLA

Many other programs offer a free version of their software under a non-commercial license for beginners. There are plenty of options available and a simple search for “best 3-D modeling program for beginners” will direct you to many of them.1 Choosing a printer: A large variety of manufacturers offer entry level 3-D printers for less than $500 USD. FDM (fused deposit modeling) is more common for consumer grade desktop 3-D printers, in which a filament material (typically plastic known as PLA) is pushed through a heated nozzle and deposited on a build plate in layers until a form is created. This is the type of printer I use for my lost-PLA castings and hot blow molds.

Resin printers utilize UV sensitive resin which is exposed to light in layers to build an object. The resulting prints tend to be smoother and have higher resolution. These printers are generally more expensive and smaller.

Both types of printers offer printing materials with different properties from

My workflow typically follows one of two paths from digital object to glass sculpture: either as a traditional lost wax process or as a lost PLA process.

Both techniques begin with sourcing 3-D scans from digital libraries like the Scan the World Initiative2 which contains digital scans of artworks from museums around the world, and the Smithsonian Institute’s 3-D Digitization Program which offers a selection of the Smithsonian’s objects for free3. There are many other resources for downloading existing readymade 3-D models of countless objects. Both Smithsonian and Scan the World contain works with public domain and Creative Commons CC0 licenses, but it is best to double check each specific work’s license information before incorporating it into your artworks.

I import these scans into Meshmixer for digital manipulations. This has been my primary tool for digital sculpting, although I occasionally utilize programs such as TinkerCAD and Blender. I print PLA filament on a Creality Ender 5 Pro that I have modified for improved print speed and quality.

Once I have a printed form, I address any imperfections in the print by sanding with 220 grit sandpaper. I seal the plastic with spray paint, and occasionally turn to wet sanding. Painting is not always needed but recommended if you intend to create a rubber mold of the object.

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Left: PLA 3D print of “Washington Repeater 1” sealed with spray paint and primer before investment in plaster silica.12”x5”x5” PLA, spray paint. Image: James Labold.

Right: “Washington Repeater 1” hot mold blown glass 15”x5”x5”, 2023. Image: James Labold.

For the lost wax workflow, I create a rubber mold of the print and then create a wax replica of the print. Any typical mold materials will do, as silicone or polyurethane rubbers should not interact with the PLA if the piece has been sealed with paint or shellac.

Once the rubber is complete, I create wax multiples of the print. Since casting a wax takes significantly less time than 3-D printing an object this may be a preferable route, especially if you plan to make multiple castings. Once the wax is prepared, it can go through a typical investment mold process just like any other lost wax casting.

Lost PLA and the hot blow mold We can also simply invest the PLA print directly into our refractory material. This saves time but it destroys the original print- luckily we have a digital copy of the original to print on demand in case of failure!

Once the PLA original is prepared, it is attached to a board suitable for mold making. I use a 50/50 mixture of pottery plaster and 200 mesh silica to create hand-built molds in layers, with alternating layers reinforced with fiberglass strand. Overall thickness should be at least 5 cm (2 inches) and no more than 8cm (3 inches).

Once the mold has cured for 24 hours, it is ready for burnout. The oven should

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be slightly open or have ventilation plugs opened. There should be adequate room ventilation as well. Arrange the mold with the open end facing down in the oven. Place some sand below the mold to catch the PLA as it melts.

Typical “Labold Mold” burnout to blow mold cycle: 2 hours to 200°F/100°C 1 Hour hold 2 hour ramp to 500°F/260°C 30 minute hold 6 hour ramp to 1050°F/565°C 1 hour hold minimum before filling mold At around 500°F/260°C the PLA will begin to run out of the mold. Burning will take place above 600°F and by 1000°F all PLA residues will have burnt out, leaving only some white ash.

If you are planning a lost PLA casting, the mold should be cooled, ash removed and then set up for your standard kilncasting procedures.

For the demo at CCS during the GAS conference, the mold was pre-fired before the conference and brought up to 1000�F overnight. The mold soaked for 4 hours before the demo. Aric Snee and Dennis Gardner were kind enough to assist me during the conference demonstration.

After gathering an appropriately sized bubble, the mold is removed from the oven by the assistants. The glass does not

need to be as hot as a traditional blow mold, thanks to the heat of the mold.

Once contact is made with the mold walls, the glass will absorb some heat from the mold and continue to move for quite a long time. Maintaining pressure on the bubble helps retain form and detail while the glass cools. Assistants should maintain the jack line and handle any torching for glass that is not within the mold. Once the glass has set up the entire mold goes into an annealer with the glass piece inside. After cooling the piece is divested and cleaned like any other casting, but with the benefit of a short annealing schedule and much less weight than a casting.

This is just one path for utilizing digital fabrication techniques in the creation of glass sculptures. The lost PLA method is direct and accessible to any glass artist with some basic understanding of traditional kiln casting processes and willingness to experiment with some digital tools. This process has served me as a gateway to digital explorations and as a bridge between contemporary emerging technologies and glass techniques that have been used for thousands of years.

1. Top 10: Best Free 3D Modeling Software for Beginners” Shawn Frey All3DP, accessed July 30, 2023 https:// all3dp.com/1/best-free-3d-modeling-software-forbeginners/ 2. (https://www.myminifactory.com/scantheworld/) 3. (https://3d.si.edu)

THE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

LECMO

Technology for Digital Design on Glass

By Steven Ciezki and Stephanie Moyerman Our lecmo focused on sharing our interdisciplinary engineering and glass techniques for creating circuits, digital patterns, and imagery on glass. We provided a generalized overview of both the modern technology laser cutters, laser etchers, die cutters, and sand blasters) and software design tools (Photoshop, Adobe Capture, Procreate, etc.) that we’ve used to transfer digital images and circuits onto the surface of glass. We provided an overview of cost-approachable, in-home options for creators hoping to leverage these processes as well as tips for success based on our experimentation and learnings. It was not our goal to go in depth into any particular technique, but rather to highlight the range of potential techniques the use of technology enables and to give an overview of our experiment successes and failures.

Our lecmo was broken into three main topics where we used our own art as examples to provide process overviews, design considerations, potential pitfalls, and known failures:

Circuit in Glass. 2021. Copper wire circuit on glass with inward facing surface mount LEDs. Green Light. 2021. Copper wire, LEDs, and conductive paint. 7 x 3.5 x 3.5”.

Circuits on Glass

of silver and gold leaf and failures in the hotshop with copper leaf and meshes.

Conductive and secure attachment of surface LEDs, for which we highlighted experiments and successes painting with electronic paints and silver pens. We also highlighted the use of clear coating and adhesives, like HXTAL, to ensure components remain affixed and functional. We focused on choosing the correct techniques to ensure the desired visual aesthetic.

Finally, we went through a range of available tools and resources that should enable anyone, even those with no electronics background, to experiment and succeed in using the same techniques and processes we did.

Imagery on Glass We provided an overview of our work using modern technology to create imagery on the surface of glass. We used our work to highlight a few broad topics: • We highlighted different techniques for creating stencils using low-cost die-cutting machines such as the Cricut and more expensive laser-cutting machines such as the Glowforge.

We briefly explained how each machine worked and where each was applicable based on factors such as cutting material, desired look and detail, and time. For example, we showed work pushing glass powders through posterboard stencils attached with tape to size 130 mesh screens. This creates graffiti-esque or layered imagery for fusing or powder roll-ups in the hot shop. In contrast, we showed how to cut contact paper stencils for attachment to the surface of glass for sandblasting and painting. We gave practical material considerations based on size, cost, and safety. For example, posterboard stencils can be cut with either technology based on desired look, whereas vinyl decals should only be cut with the die cutter due to laser combustion. For those who did not currently possess these

We focused this area specifically on our explorations in a range of techniques for integrating surface-mount LEDs. We provided a brief introduction to electronic circuits, LEDs, and surfacemount components to increase approachability, showing samples and videos of the 1-2 mm sized LEDs we’ve been using to create our “invisible” surface lighting. We introduced the two main challenges of the work: Creating beautiful conductive paths on the glass surface, for which we showed videos and samples of a range of hot and cold attach techniques, including blown and fused hot attachment of metal leaf, copper mesh, and copper wire and cold attach via gilding with metal leaf. We highlighted successes with hot attachment

Laser etched sandpipers. 2022. Laser etched sandpipers on an encalmo and kiln formed glass canvas. Meandering Paths. 2022. Acrylic paint on blown, laser etched, and kiln formed glass. 10 x 16 x 0.5”.

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Line drawing laser transfer. 2023. Line drawing laser transfer to fused sheet glass with fire on enamels. Poolside. 2023. Enamel on fused sheet glass. 6 x 11 x 0.5”.

tools, we provided access options for each in the range from direct purchase to memberships at free and low-cost public access spaces, maker spaces, and universities.

• We demonstrated how to laser etch directly onto sheet glass to achieve fine detail. There were two methods described.

The first used the laser to etch directly into the surface of the glass, which required a careful calibration of laser power and speed to ensure the proper depth and quality without cracking or damaging the glass surface. This provides fine detail that would not be possible by placing a stencil, but is time consuming based on the desired surface area to be etched. We also highlighted the use of tape as a stencil, applying wide blue tape directly to the surface of the glass, cutting it with the laser, peeling away parts of the cut resist, and sandblasting to carve areas more quickly. We showed how, in both cases, the glass imagery could be finished with paints and enamels.

• We highlighted additive processes that use the laser to thermally bond enamels and glass powders directly to the surface of sheet glass. The laser serves as a fast, local, and extremely small spot heat that can tack fuse a thin layer of sifted glass powder or enamel paint onto the surface. After washing away unfused areas, the result is a sort of “ghostly” image that, unlike surface paints, is 100% permanently embedded. We showed our techniques and samples for trials and calibrations to ensure laser settings were tuned for different colors and applications.

Software for Digital Design Finally, we walked the audience through the process of translating a hand-drawn image to an .svg file, which is required by the laser to translate images to smooth curves for printing. Using a scanned image of one of Steven’s hand-drawn line drawings, we walked through each step in Adobe Illustrator, highlighting the settings and options that provided us with the best quality results.

We also provided free and low-cost design software alternatives.

Top: Detroit Skyline. 2023. The culmination of our experiments. A hidden silver circuit on sheet glass lights up red and blue surface mount LEDs atop the tallest buildings. Detroit. 2023. Fused sheet glass, silver, electronic paint, acrylic, and LEDs. 4 x 10 x x 1”. Bottom: Thermal Bond Sketch of Park City. 2023. A thin layer of black enamel thermally bonded with a laser to the surface of sheet glass. Park City. 2023. Acrylic paint and thermally bonded enamel on fused sheet glass. 13 x 11 x 0.5”.

the design. It was then sandblasted, decorated with a circuit using silver ink and conductive paint, completed with surface mount LEDs that were hand attached atop the tallest buildings, and brushed with oil paints to complete the aesthetic. Small holes were drilled through the glass with a dremel and filled with conductive paint to invisibly “pull” the circuit to the back of the panel for attachment to a dimmer and wall power.

The session culminated with a single piece demonstrating all techniques, a glass wall-panel of the Detroit skyline. The design was created using a masking tape resist that was laser cut to form

For those interested, our presentation can be found at https://bit.ly/004mL. Our only goal is to share information and we hope that others continue to experiment with and progress this work. We had a wonderful interactive audience that generated many new ideas in questions and discussions, including hot attachment of copper leaf in oxygen-poor environments, experimenting with thicker foils instead of more traditional leaf, and using transparent conductive paints and sprays.

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THE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

LECMO

Machined Lines: Waterjet Cutting Glass and Other Materials

By Catie Newell

3-axis waterjet cutting metal as a component for the blown glass project Exhale, by Catie Newell and Wes McGee.

A waterjet machine is a common manufacturing tool that pumps water through a fine tip nozzle at pressures as high as 60,000 psi.

A vacuum created by the swift motion of water pulls fine-grain garnet, a stone, into the mixture. The combination of the speed of the water and the hardness of the abrasive cuts through hard and soft materials that range from metals to stone to foam, including multi-material composites, and even more delicate materials such as glass.

Given the intense force of the water and abrasive mix, the waterjet cuts by subtracting away the material that is in its path. The machine-calculated speed and movement is based on the thickness and hardiness of the material it is cutting. With the right settings, a waterjet can be controlled to cut entirely or partially through a material. The void that is left by the aggressive stream is called the kerf of the cut. The thickness of the kerf is determined by the nozzle opening, the time the machine is focusing on any one area of material, and the control of the stream of water. All waterjet machines can move in the x and y direction of the surface (left and right), following 2-D cut paths. Machines range in their ability to also cut by moving in the z-axis (up or down) direction as 3-D paths, and even tilting the stream at different angles of approach, as seen in five-axis machines.

Safety is of course the primary concern. The machine is more than capable of causing major injuries through cutting, loud noises, and splashing or spraying material. It is of critical importance to always wear proper safety gear and to remain at a distance from a machine that is running.

Lines being cut in flat glass for Long Range, by Catie Newell, Zackery Belanger, and Wes McGee

Glass Specifically Cutting in the middle of the sheet, cutting complex paths, or controlling cuts on thick slabs of glass are some of the many ways a waterjet can be used to create forms and cuts or openings that are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to do by hand.

Most materials use the full powered high-pressure setting. When the jet is initially started, it is boring down into the material until it gets all the way through it. Then it moves sideways within the material to complete the cuts. The length of the entire stream along the material thickness is eroding that material away very quickly. Notably, the very first blast from the nozzle is just water until there is a vacuum force built up that can mix in the garnet.

For most materials, this momentary water blast is not an issue.

However, since glass is brittle, this initial pierce into a material creates a great force from above that could chip or break the glass. Glass therefore is often first cut with a low-pressure setting

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Detail of Long Range, a glass acoustic system designed by Catie Newell, Zackery Belanger, and Wes McGee that uses a waterjet to cut lines and forms that are slumped in a kiln, glass and metal, 2021. 35 x 9 x 2’.

and vacuum assist. The vacuum assist brings garnet into the nozzle first, so it immediately mixes with a water stream that is at or around 10,000 psi. The low-pressure setting is used to pierce a small hole within the glass at the start of each cut path within the project. The machine is then switched to high-pressure. Each cut path starts from within a low-pressure hole eliminating the direct pressure from above via a high-pressure stream. The lowerpressure step can be skipped if the water and abrasive stream is started off the edge of the glass and then moves towards the glass, already cutting it on edge with no need for the first boring down into the glass. Because of the garnet, the edge of a finished cut is like a rough polish, falling in between 80 and 220 grit based on the machine settings.

Communicating to a Waterjet Most waterjet machines operate with their own proprietary software. This software consists of two functions; one that translates computer-aided design drawings into a tool path that the machine will follow, and another that calculates the run time and sequence of the machine based on the qualities of the material and what needs to be cut. This software only needs to be learned if you’re operating the machine yourself.. However, it is important to note that any design should also take into consideration the locations and sizes for things such as clamping or weighing down a material, the size of parts that could fall into the machine after they are cut, and what the machine will read as the interior or exterior of each part.

Top: Avialae, a work created by slumping flat sheets of glass that have been pre cut by a waterjet to create specific forms with tight corners and openings for kiln furniture and final suspension. Avialae, Catie Newell, Wes McGee and Aaron Willette, 2015. 14 x 4 x 4. Glass and wire. Bottom: Detail of the production process for Very Small Spaces, Catie Newell, 2018. A five-axis waterjet is used to create complete and tilted linework in thick slabs of glass.

within the slumping process. For Long Range, an acoustic glass system, numerous small slits were cut into the glass with an auxetic pattern. This pattern allowed the surface of the material to unwind as it sagged in the downward direction. For both kilnbased projects, a waterjet was also used to cut metal forms used in the fabrication of the kiln furniture and slumping supports. In Exhale, metal forms are cut with the waterjet to create shapes for glassblowing. For Very Small Spaces, a five-axis waterjet is used to cut into a large thickness of glass to create intricate forms.

The waterjet is a powerful tool, literally and conceptually, for working either directly or indirectly with glass and its processes to create various forms, techniques and expressions.

Glass Projects Within the glass world, there are countless ways to use the waterjet. In my projects Specimen and Long Range, a waterjet has been used to cut a glass pane prior to slumping it in a kiln. In Specimen, the waterjet allowed for repeated and unique panes to be cut, each with interior holes used to create attachment points

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THE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

LECMO

GLASS STROKES: From Sand to Bangles

By Harsh Vardhan Nowlakha I built a glassblowing studio in India as there were few such studios available, although industrial glassmaking has been prevalent for a long time. Through the process of setting up the studio and sourcing raw glass, I met the old glass world of India which has existed for centuries as a unique microcosm. What I started noticing, specifically amongst the bangle makers, were the same trappings of technique and approach that I had learned in the traditional style of glassmaking at college. As I started spending more and more time with these bangle makers to source colored glass for myself, I felt the desire to work with them and make a film and put a spotlight on their craftsmanship and hard work. These artisans live a humble life and have been working with glass out of these earthen furnaces for generations. I began to feel the need to take this functional, or otherwise wearable, piece of jewelry and pay tribute to the magnitude of the process of making bangles through a short documentary.

A bangle is a rigid, ring-shaped bracelet. Traditionally, a bangle is designed as a closed circle without a clasp closure.

Bangles hold great significance in Indian culture and are considered an essential part of a woman’s adornment, known as solah shringar, which translates to “sixteen traditional adornments.” They are deeply rooted in tradition and carry symbolic meaning. It is customary for brides to wear special bridal bangles made of glass, as they symbolize suhaag, representing the eternal life and well-being of their husbands. This sentiment is often expressed through the phrase “sada suhagan raho,” meaning “May you always remain blessed as a married woman.” Bangles are considered auspicious and are believed to bring good fortune and prosperity. Having bangles on a woman’s wrists is believed to attract blessings, and breaking a bangle is seen as unfortunate and ominous.

All pictures are from the documentary ‘Glass Strokes’ that was shown at the GAS Conference in Detroit 2023 and photographed by Harsh Vardhan Nowlakha. Batch mixing in bangle factory, Oct 2022.

The glass bangle factories serve as vital economic engines, particularly in rural areas. They provide employment opportunities to thousands of skilled artisans, empowering local communities and supporting livelihoods. The craft also fosters entrepreneurship, as many artisans establish their own workshops and cottage industries. The factories serve as hubs of creativity and productivity, showcasing their mastery and artistic flair.

The bangle makers of Northern India, play a critical role in preserving this age-old craft.

Crafting a single glass bangle requires the coordinated efforts of more than a dozen skilled workers, ensuring meticulous precision and care in every piece. The process begins at the glass furnace, the central hub of the workshop, where artisans melt silica sand, soda, and lime, along with various chemicals at intense temperatures. The furnace reaches scorching temperatures of up to 1300° C (2372° F). To recycle the glass, the cullet is melted with the chemical mixture in the furnace. Different colors of glass are achieved by adding heavy metals and discarded bangles of the desired color to the earthen furnace. Under intense heat, the glass mixture transforms into a molten, viscous state. With steady hands, artisans gather a small amount of molten glass on the edge of a long metal rod, skillfully shaping it into a cylindrical form while controlling its consistency. Time is crucial, as the molten glass begins to solidify within minutes.

The process continues by adding more molten glass to increase the volume, with artisans repeatedly reheating and reshaping the glass to achieve a cylindrical or tubular mass of solid glass ready to be stretched. This process is similar to the Venetian technique of pulling murrine and cane. Layering molten glass of different colors creates various patterns on the inside of the bangle. Colored glass rods are used to create intricate designs within the glass, visible in the cross-section which is also similar to the cross section of a murrine. The application of white lines in the middle of the glass resembles zanfirico or a ballontini pull.

Once the glass is ready on the rod, shaped as desired, it is spiraled onto a spinning solid metal rod using a motor, forming a glass slinky. The diameter of the rod determines the

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Clockwise, from top left: Right Alim left Salim, colour and weight of the bangles being checked, Oct 2022. Cullet area in the back of the bangle factory, Oct 2022. Varun, separating each bangle from the glass slinky using a diamond tool, Oct 2022. Harsh Nowlakha holding the bangle fusing up to the light to see the interwoven patterns, June 2023, glass, 48” x 6” x 0.2”.

size of the bangle. After achieving the desired shape and design, the lengthy rolls are carefully collected and placed on a cooling rack. The cooling process ensures durability and prevents warping or cracking. The glass slinky then moves to the next step, where each spiral is swiftly and precisely cut into individual bangles using a diamond tool. As a result, a stack of individual bangles is obtained. Once separated, the bangles are individually joined back together using a small flame in the homes of the craftspeople.

One dot is singular but when they are together it forms a line. I create glass strokes, each made from multiple single bangles fused together forming a stroke made of multiple single dots which is a single bangle in this case. This stroke is an example in which many of these strokes will get fused together for an architectural panel. In this fused glass piece, I sought to celebrate the versatility and expressive potential of the human hand, as well as the cultural and fashionable significance of glass bangles in the modern day by exploring the relationship between the hand and the medium of glass. It represents a harmonious fusion of the themes of human hand strokes and glass bangles.

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Through the careful layering and fusing of multiple bangles, a sense of depth and dimensionality is achieved, imbuing the piece with a feeling of vitality and movement. The use of a diverse range of colors and textures serves to enhance the visuals, while also conveying the emotion and intention behind each glass stroke.

The significance of glass bangles goes beyond the cultural traditions.

References: “Glass Strokes” YouTube, uploaded by JaH Studios https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-xKbEeqt-g&t=25s

THE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

LECMO

Flame to Furnace to Lathe

By Sally Prasch In this lecmo, I discussed my history of combining lampworking, scientific glassblowing, and furnace glass techniques.

Although the furnace glass world now accepts lampworking on the hot shop floor, I wondered when the glassblowing lathe would be used more regularly in the hot shop. Why lug pieces from the bench to the reheating furnace only to have detail lost in the heat? Why not just chuck it up in the glassblowing lathe, finish with fine detail, and never enter the reheating furnace?

I dedicated this lecmo to Silvia Vigiletti, who motivated me to stick with glass even in hard times. She was instrumental in getting the Glass Art Society organized, financially sound, and available to young students. Silvia was also very involved in Michigan Glass Month and helped put Michigan on the map as a glass art center. Silvia was an inspiration for all women in glass.

I started working in glass in 1970 with Lloyd Moore, a scientific and artistic glassblower. I worked with Lloyd from junior high through high school. He trained me to work a piece in soft glass first and then repeat it in borosilicate. We mixed our own color, fumed, and enameled glass. He gave me all the skills I still use today. He shared freely everything he knew and never gave me any indication that it was different to be a woman in glass, or that lampworking was lesser than furnace glass.

In college and workshops, I started training in furnace glass. This is where I learned that not only was it hard to be a woman in glass, but as a lampworker, I was never taken seriously. I think all the male glassblowers in the 70s thought women were there to be groupies; to watch macho men make glass in smoky studios.

Thank God Silvia Vigiletti and Audrey Handler were the first people you would see entering the early GAS conferences;

Sylvia Vigiletti.

Sally Prasch Vase, lamp and furnace workd glass, 1976,.

they welcomed everyone. In exchange for helping out a bit, they would let young students in for free, give us advice and much-needed confidence.

often the case wherever I set up. At that time, lampworking was looked down on by other glassmakers. I had one professor tell me to stop putting lampworking with hot glass because it cheapened the work.

Now look where we are now with so many torches in the hot shop!

I continued to take classes at the university and workshops at smaller schools. Every place I would go, I would drag along my oxygen-propane torch and try my best to set it up on the hot shop floor. In the 1970s, there was only an occasional Mapp Gas torch on the floor–and no fluffy torches. At one of the early classes I took at Pilchuck, Flora Mace and Joey Kirkpatrick were putting stringers on cylinders with a Mapp Gas torch. In my head, I questioned, “Why are they using that torch?” I asked if I could set up my gas oxygen torch, and they had to have a meeting in the main office to discuss such a thing. I kind of understood, I was just some teenager.

They finally gave in and let me set up a torch. Everyone had me make things to pick up on the marver or place onto their glass with a torch. However, no one would sit down at the torch; no one wanted to be associated with lampworking. This was

Some of you may think I am crazy talking about how lampworking was looked down on. Here is an example. In 1976, I took a class with Billy Bernstein. Before this, I only blew marbles and light bulbs with window and bottle glass. He took us to the Corning Museum of Glass, where they had a dragon-stem goblet on display. It had its own case and was front and center, just outside where the library once was. It was used on letterhead as a logo. I had a discussion with the class, I said it was lampworked, but I was a kid, and no one believed me. In 1978, Helmut Ricke wrote an article discovering it was lampworked, created at Muller Studio in Hamburg. Corning removed the goblet as a logo, and you can now find the goblet on a lower shelf in the study area. This action

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Sally Prasch, My Mother’s $600 Vase, 1978. (It cost $600 to send me to Pilchuck and I brought back this.)

George Kennaard, Sally Prasch and Dominique Caissie working on the glassblowng lathe, Salem Glass Education Center. Photo by Kristin Deady.

gave me a strong message that lampworking was not held to the same standards as furnace glass; nevertheless, I continued to combine my lampwork with furnace glass.

Grass, there is a fiber optic holding the caterpillar in the center; it wiggles at the slightest vibration. At the time we made this, I was working with a group of physics researchers on gravitational waves. For their experiments, I hung large chunks of pure silica from a strand of fiber optics in a vacuum chamber. I was working with this group when they first found gravitational waves. It changed my world.

I met George Kennard in 1996, and we have worked together ever since then.

Over the years, we have taught a class called Flame to Furnace at Penland School of Crafts, Pilchuck Glass School, Pittsburgh Glass Center, and Salem Glass Education Center. Our students combine blown glass with lampworked elements. A few schools allowed us to roll the lathe out into the hot glass area.

When we work together, George goes along with what I want to do but makes things a bit larger than I intend. One day George and I were walking through the Corning Museum of Glass, and I asked him what collaborations he wanted to create. He said, “Let’s do something with a swan.” That’s something most lampworkers do not want to make, but it was fun.

On the piece we created, you see a swan at the top that is ring sealed (a scientific glassblowing technique) into the lid. It also supports a glass chain holding a glass golden egg. There is also a cane-drawn swan on the front.

Scientific glassblowing has always influenced my artwork; I really look at scientific glassblowing and lampworking as the same thing. In my piece, Caterpillar in the

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My goal was to have three-dimensional delicate glass flowers covering the outside of a vase. If I were to do this by placing them on a blown piece and warming it in the reheating furnace, by the time I placed the last flower, the first one would be deformed or even melted. Using a glassblowing lathe as a holder and Bunsen burners under the piece to keep it warm, I can continue to work without melting the flowers. I never have to go back into the reheating furnace. The lathe will roll the glass evenly at any speed I like.

different categories of glass together.

Lampworking, furnace, scientific, fusing, casting, neon, and more are melding into one category of glass. I feel it is also the time to use tools from the different categories of glass. I hope to see more lathe work in the future.

I want to thank George Kennard and my demo collaborators Marc VandenBurg, Dominique Caissie, and Dave Zimmerman.

During the pandemic, George and I could not work together, so we created things separately. In our work, Drifting, the lampworked water and flower are not attached hot, so they can be lifted out. I named this Drifting because that is what we were doing, drifting. The overwhelming loss of so many affected us all.

Now, I feel different types of glassworking are more accepted, and it is time to bring

George Kennard and Sally Prasch, Golden Egg, lamp and furnace worked glass, 2016.

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LECMO

Photography…But Make It Glass

By Kaitlin Santoro the invention of glass plate collodion in the late 1840s, which had the details of the daguerreotype and the reproducibility of the calotype. These collodions involved coating glass plates with light-sensitive materials, capturing photographs in cameras, and completing the development process before the coating dried.

Consequently, photographers had to carry portable darkrooms for outdoor photography, an endeavor that could be cumbersome and costly. Fortunately, the subsequent creation of dry plate collodions alleviated these challenges, but the negatives remained fragile and heavy to transport. The reign of glass negatives persisted until the advent of flexible film by Eastman Kodak in 1885.

Even today, these historical glass-based photographic techniques find utility, often being taught in educational institutions and community darkrooms.

Interweaving Photography into Glass This is an example of laser-etched glass, broken, and then inked with Color Line Screen before fusing with frit. Kaitlin Santoro, Every weekend they went to Orchard Beach, float glass, enamel, frit, 2023. 11 x 14”.

Glass and photography have an intimate relationship dating back to photography’s invention in the 1800s. This lecmo covered glass’ role in the invention of photography, ways photography uses glass, ways to incorporate photography with glass, the pros and cons for each process, and a demonstration on the laser cutter.

History Originally utilized as a drawing tool, the camera obscura, which paved the way for the modern camera, played a crucial role in necessitating the development of precise lenses. During the 1700s, printmakers engaged in trials, applying silver nitrate coatings onto metal plates placed inside camera obscuras. Although successful in capturing images, they struggled with image fading until the late 1820s, when the first photograph was made using a pewter plate. In 1839, the emergence of daguerreotypes brought about a transformative shift in portraiture. This innovation made portraiture accessible to the middle and lower socioeconomic classes for the first time. To safeguard these delicate daguerreotypes, they were encased in glass and protective covers, becoming cherished personal keepsakes that accompanied individuals on their journeys or served as memorabilia after their passing.

Daguerreotypes boasted exceptional detail but lacked reproducibility. Around the same time the calotype, a negative process, was invented in England. The original calotype process utilized paper negatives, which were delicate and fragile and often produced a softer image due to the paper fibers. A breakthrough came with

Various techniques enable the incorporation of photography onto glass, each offering distinct creative avenues:

Screenprinting This process can be done using enamels, frit, or regular printing ink, offering a diverse color palette. When working with enamels, a person can either hand mix the enamels for a custom touch or opt for the Color Line Silk Screen Paste enamel. Another avenue is powder printing, which involves using a fine frit and a wider mess screen. This allows for a textured surface. Since both enamels and frit need to be fired, further manipulation in the kiln can happen after printing. This stands in contrast to traditional printmaking ink, which would require an additional protective coating to remain permanent. Given the inherent characteristics of screenprinting, it’s essential to work with halftone or contrast-rich images to achieve the desired visual impact on the glass medium.

This is slumped glass that has been coated with liquid photo emulsion and then printed in a darkroom. Kaitlin Santoro, Before Church, float glass, liquid photo emulsion, 2021. 8 x 10”.

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Kaitlin Santoro, We used to sit by the fence, float glass, enamel, 2022. 16 x 20”.

Rayzist This method involves exposing a photo resist film to a positive, adhering it to a glass surface, and sandblasting. For optimal outcomes, this process is most effective when employed with halftone or high-contrast images. Rayzist allows for imagery to be added to 3-D surfaces.

Transfers There are multiple ways to transfer photographic prints onto glass; this presentation focused on two of those processes. One approach involves using acetone with laser prints. This is an easy and affordable option that does not require any special equipment. Another option is a Polaroid emulsion lift. This technique involves immersing a Polaroid in hot water until the top layer lifts, then gently floating it onto a glass piece, after the print dries, it should be sealed so the emulsion does not peel off.

Decals

Kaitlin Santoro, We played in the tide pools, float glass, enamel, frit, 2022. 11 x 14”.

onto the surface. This process is long lasting but can be expensive and hard to find. The use of an inkjet receptive coating is needed when using an inkjet printer. This substance prepares the glass surface, enhancing its capacity to securely hold the ink and resulting in a well-defined image transfer.

Liquid Emulsion

This can be an easy process to fire an image onto any glass surface. One option involves purchasing ceramic decals online, which not only provides a wide array of colors but also ensures consistent results. However, this route may impose limitations on the imagery due to predefined designs. Alternatively, you can opt to create your own decals using a laser printer. This approach empowers you to use your own images, allowing for more personalized designs. It is important to note that this method results in a rust-colored finish upon firing.

Liquid emulsion has the remarkable ability to transform any surface it coats into a light-sensitive medium similar to a traditional silver-gelatin print. To ensure successful application on glass, a preliminary gelatin coating is required before applying the emulsion. Once the emulsion layer dries, images can be printed onto the glass in a manner akin to traditional darkroom processes.

Additionally, this technique extends to the creation of cyanotypes, following similar steps. A notable advantage of cyanotypes is that they can be exposed outdoors without necessitating the confines of a darkroom environment.

Inkjet and UV Printing

Fractured Family

Inkjet and UV printing both produce full range images like traditional digital prints. With a UV printer, the glass is coated and then run through a printer. As it prints, the ink is cured directly

During this part of the presentation, I introduced my project Fractured Family, which revolves around the use of liquid emulsion in conjunction with slumped and manipulated glass. Through this

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project, I’ve used the inherent imperfections of the process to establish a poignant connection with the way we remember and experience memories.

Laser Etching Laser cutters offer a means to etch the surface of glass intricately. With accurate settings, these machines can reveal the subtle tonal nuances of images without necessitating a halftone. The laser forms tiny fissures on the glass surface, producing intricate marks. Given the permanent nature of this process, the resulting prints can be slumped or rolled up in the hotshop. The etched regions not only cast shadows when light passes through the glass but serve multiple purposes such as containing ink for vitreograph printing or holding enamel to intensify contrast or introduce color. Moreover, lasers can also etch glass coated with enamel, removing the coating to form the image. This approach results in crisper images compared to filling etched areas with enamel. It’s worth noting that laser cutters should exclusively be used for glass etching, while a waterjet cutter is necessary for cutting.

Laser Technology Laser cutters come in a range of sizes and price points, with prices starting around $2000. The Glowforge is a compact tabletop option tailored for smaller spaces, while brands like Universal offer larger models better suited for bigger projects and work areas.

When working with glass, it’s crucial to choose a laser cutter with an enclosed design to prevent the dispersal of silica. Beyond glass, lasers can also cut materials like wood and specific metals, which can be harnessed for hanging and installation. A laser cutter is a fantastic choice for those seeking to work with imagery but lacking access to a full glass studio or facing mobility limitations.

This is an example of glass that was pre-covered with enamel and was laser etched to remove the details of the image. Kaitlin Santoro, Test print for The sun reflected off the water, float glass, enamel, 2022. 11 x 14”.

A crucial factor in successful laser etching, regardless of the machine used, lies in file preparation. Starting with high resolution files at 300 dots per inch, use raster images (.jpg format) for etching, and vector images (.svg format) for both cutting and etching jobs. During image preparation for the laser, enhancing contrast and selectively refining intricate details is essential. In cases where enamel-coated glass is employed rather than clear glass, inverting the image is necessary to ensure the proper areas are removed. This alteration requires multiple passes to eliminate the fired enamel.

Through this lecmo, my hope was for participants to grasp the intricate link and historical significance shared by glass and photography. I wanted them to gain insights into diverse imagebased techniques, discover the processes that could seamlessly integrate into their own practice, and introduce the laser cutter as an approachable tool for image creation.

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LECMO

Glass 3-D Printing for Studio Glass Research and Education

By Dr. Jeffrey Sarmiento Approaches from engineering and Studio Glass have been combined with the goal of finding new material structures and novel crafted objects through additive manufacturing in glass.

3-D printing is an emerging technology that is rapidly changing the field of craft. Beyond its associations with nostalgic revival of manual labour and quotidian domestic handicraft, craft practitioners maintain and develop skilled making, incorporating contemporary tools and evolving approaches to traditional materials. This technological turn has resulted in new forms and making methods for creative expressions, design objects, and the possibility of democratised making. At the apex of the craft discipline Studio Glass, technical excellence and creative expression meet.

Recent research in glass art has centred on creative development of digital manufacturing techniques. Expanded vocabularies of visual qualities have resulted from the incorporation of waterjet cutting into stained glass practice, computerbased image-making into 2-D and 2 1/2-D screenprinted and sandblasted imagery in kiln-formed glass, and 3-D printing in cast glass to realise previously ‘unmakeable’ forms. Despite the digital innovation, what has not been replaced are traditional analogue making techniques and the associated manufacturing constraints required to translate digitally derived form into a resulting object in glass. To turn a 3-D model into cast glass, a 3-D print is created in plastic and realised through the gravitybased lost wax kiln casting, a process largely unchanged since its invention thousands of years ago. Intermediary materials such as silicone, wax, plaster and other refractories are used in a sequence of reversals between positive and negative, each process with a loss of fidelity to the original form. Moreover, in the glass art sector, there is an increasing demand for makers who can realise digitally derived designs and utilise machinefabricated forming processes.

Dr Erin Dickson (designer) Goblet Variations, 3-D printed glass, 2023. 19 x 9 x 7 cm each. Photo credit: Jeffrey Sarmiento.

How can glass 3-D printing expand the vocabulary of visual effects in creative glass practice?

3-D printing approaches are now being developed in the direct creation of glass objects. Examples include Markus Kayser’s Solar Sinter, a CNC-driven Fresnel lens that harnesses sunlight to melt layers of desert sand into glass vessels. At MIT Mediated Matter, molten glass is ladled from a furnace into a modified 3-D printer and extruded into a heated chamber. To date, the most accessible approach to 3-D printing glass has been developed in Australia. The Maple 3-D printer uses cold glass rods as filament to print a digitally generated form directly into a 3-D glass object, bypassing steps in the casting process.

The innovation of the 3-D printer and the objective of research into glass 3-D printing is the ability to change the geometry of the glass. The development of form finding is a key part of the research—in engineering terms this might involve the consultation of glassmaking experts to realise forms to solve material “problems.” This new tool to create glass forms expands the geometries in which the glass can be made, which can be combined with already existing techniques of glassmaking to extend creative possibilities. So far, the research is at a foundational level—whereas tool profiles have been established by the machine’s developers for what constitutes a successful print, glass artists reach beyond the benchmarking forms with their own criteria and motivations.

We have been experimenting with standard tests to harness its capabilities. For example, layer height tests establish levels of refinement and begin to suggest what a printed glass object might offer in transparent and optical surfaces, whether through the reduction of texture or through caustic effects resulting from illumination of thicker deposits. Digitally-derived forms reach for

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How can glass 3-D printing encourage sustainable models for glass practice?

Equally significant in this project is the fact that no new glass would need to be purchased. Waste glass can be repurposed using a mechanised version of the widely used vitreograph technique of pulling glass stringers through a hole in a heated elevated kiln.

Recycled material can be extruded at low cost into a uniform, easily stored glass rod. All making processes in Studio Glass create unusable offcuts which are suitable to produce filament.

This nearly inexhaustible supply includes furnace scrap, coloured sheet, and bottle glasses. Because the filament for the printer is derived from existing offcuts, it is possible to achieve 3-D prints that are compatible with the base glass. Both the prints and filament can be integrated into kiln and hot glass practices.

Top: Glass Workshop ANU, Hexagonal Cups, 3-D printed glass, 2023. 5 x 2.5 x 2.5 cm each. Photo credit: Jeffrey Sarmiento. (Left to right) scrap Bullseye glass, amber Orora wine bottle glass, green Orora wine bottle glass. Bottom: Glass Workshop ANU, Layer Height Samples (.25 – 1.5 mm), 3-D printed glass, 2023. 5 x 5 x 4 cm. Photo credit: Jeffrey Sarmiento.

Glass 3-D printing provides a relatively low energy means for creating a myriad of visual effects for glassmakers. Borrowing from the makerspace approach, it is possible to consider how digital fabrication in glass can be made more accessible to a wider set of users. Because of its small footprint, minimal energy usage, and a decreased need for safety requirements, artists, designers (and makers outside of the creative industries) with digital modelling and fabrication skills can use the Maple 3-D printer as a point of entry into making glass for the first time, especially in classrooms and other contexts where access to a furnace or traditional glass art infrastructure might not exist.

the limits of the build capacity of the printer and have resulted in what could be considered otherwise unmakeable. Prints based on 3-D scans of a person’s head provide a demonstration of the level of detail and fidelity to the original model.

Another motivation has been to replicate known forms, offering comparative models in glass and their potential function. One form we have been testing is inspired by the Venetian hexagonal drinking glass. The 3-D printer can reproduce the form, but it remains difficult to achieve water tightness using this method of fused deposition modelling (FDM). This is because this printer runs most efficiently using a single wall construction, leaving tiny gaps between layers. The glass filament does not cool as quickly as its plastic counterpart in conventional FDM printing. Moreover, the sharp angle from the flat base is prone to separation from the spiralised deposit of glass forming the cup shape. Post-processing, including refiring the print through low temperature kiln forming, might provide a solution to this problem. The blown glass original begins as a solid mass and is inflated into a bubble which is already watertight. Glass 3-D printing will not replace blown glass, but can be used in combination with established glassblowing processes.

Glass Workshop ANU, 3-D printing glass using a Maple 3 printer. Photo credit: Jeffrey Sarmiento.

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Neve Foxcroft (designer) Flowerpot Redesign, Rhino 3-D Drawing. The angle of flow of waste glass from a filament pull has been used to model a new crucible for slip casting.

Neve Foxcroft (designer) Flowerpot Redesign, Rhino 3-D Render. The angle of flow of waste glass from a filament pull has been used to model a new crucible for slip casting.

How might Studio Glass approaches influence the development of 3-D printing in glass?

proposing sustainable models for glass practice, and increasing accessibility to glassmaking through digital fabrication.

This does not mean that Studio Glass does not play a role in the development of 3-D printing. In fact, glassmakers can encourage best practices through their hand skills, tacit knowledge, and workflows. For example, the Maple 3-D printer integrates a kiln as its heated build chamber with a print bed fabricated from kiln shelf. It is designed to print single objects which remain inside the kiln for annealing, resulting in either one or very few objects made in a working day. However, a glass artist might attempt to produce multiple objects, necessitating the transfer of the 3-D printed glass from the printer into an annealer. Using methods of handling with heat-resistant gloves or tongs and reliable kiln wash methods, the 3-D print stays attached to the print bed whilst printing, but is safely released when the print is complete. Craft approaches can be used within this 3-D printing process through optimising the recycling of glass waste. Because the waste glass is heated at a relatively low temperature in a flowerpot during the filament making process, the flat base of the pot creates dead spots where the glass gathers but does not flow without creating an undesirable tubing effect in the filament. The Glass Workshop has been testing a custom slip-cast ceramic funnel which encourages flow and reduces waste. Finally, an engineer researching the filament making process is measuring heat dispersion in furnace cane-pulling processes to develop larger scale printing. Some of these approaches are being considered in the ongoing development of the Maple 3-D printer.

This research project has been supported by the ANU Major Equipment Committee who are primary funders, the School of Art and Design at the Australian National University, Dr. Erin Dickson (Honorary Lecturer), Catherine Newton (Technical Officer), Neve Foxcroft (intern), Mackinley Shaw (PhD Student), Prof Nick Birbilis (former Dean of engineering at the ANU and owner of Maple Glass Printing), and the ANU Makerspace.

From these perspectives, synergies can be found in the development of innovative form, incorporation of contemporary technologies, and pushing forward possibilities of sustainable practice in glass. Through the development of glass 3-D printing, we are working collaboratively in support of research excellence,

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LECMO

Bolts, Nuts: The Dirty Details of Glass and Mixed-Media Assemblage

By Zac Weinberg In this presentation, I focused on what I have perceived as an often-overlooked aspect of glassmaking: the assemblage strategies one may need to employ when connecting glass to itself or other materials. In this realm, the annealed glass object is merely the beginning of the journey to a finished artwork. Largely drawing from the trials and tribulations of my own practice, my intent was to inform/inspire the audience to the methods out there for connecting one thing to another.

In preparation for this lecture, I emailed a series of questions to a number of artists who specialize in this field. At first intending to keep things strictly in the realm of practical, how-to info, it became apparent that the more metaphysical aspects of these processes would need to be addressed. When materials are combined, they bring to the connection their own set of material properties, histories, and social associations. As a result, there are compatibility issues that range from minor variances that can be mediated by a third material to bonds that end up in irreparable fractures. In short, the combination of glass with other materials should be a symbiotic relationship that enables each material to transcend its own limitations to facilitate a broader range of applications. The lenses positioned within a wooden shaft permitted Galileo to explore the heavens; the glass insulation covering the Apollo 11 capsule protected the astronauts returning to earth.

The Brass Tacks In the beginning, there were mechanical connections. These bonds are the linkage of materials, similar or dissimilar, via physical forces such as friction, compression, gravity, etc. Over the years these bonds have taken many forms: paper clips, rivets, mortise and tenon joints, clever knots, bungee cords, zip ties, twist ties, rubber bands, dovetails, nails, zippers, and Velcro to name a few. For our purposes, I focused on the most versatile and adaptable of all: the screw. Composed of an inclined plane coiled around a central shaft, the screw enables a strong, highly customizable bond that is both removable and reusable. Wood screws, however, are out when it comes to glass. This leaves their sibling, machine screws, the non-tapered, precisely-threaded version that functions through collaboration with a version of itself in negative, be this a nut or a threaded hole. In these situations, a hole is drilled through the glass and the fixtures do the work from either side. As anyone with more than ten minutes experience working with glass will know, excess force applied in a small area will inevitably lead to broken glass/hearts. That the pressure can be adjusted makes these connectors ideal for glass as they can be tightened by hand to a tension that both holds everything in place and does not over-stress the glass. I maintain that no metal hardware should rest directly on the glass, instead being cushioned by a softer material such as rubber, leather or plastic. In my work, I make extensive use of nylon nuts and bolts, neoprene washers, as well as 2mm silicone rubber sheet, which can be cut to create custom gaskets for the hardware in question:

Various Positions, 2022. Blown, cold worked glass, found lamp, 1/12 scale chandelier, electrical components, stainless steel, brass and nylon hardware. 72 x33 x 29cm. Photo by Rodrigues Goncalves.

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As a final thought, I bring up this wonderful sentiment from a true maestro of glass assemblage, Mark Zirpel:

• Gap filling or not–whether the glue relies on perfectly flat surfaces, or whether it would cure in spaces of variable widths.

My dear colleague Amie McNeel and I have discussed at length the intricacies and challenge of physically connecting one object to another. More often than not the two objects are not intended to be connected to each other. We have independently and jointly invented methods of physically connecting the unconnected. Amie is an expert welder (among many other skills). If possible she would prefer to weld most things together. I am a fastener person. Perhaps this is the result of a fear of commitment, or, it allows the connection to easily be disconnected and re-considered.

• Set time/cure time–the distinction must be made, “set” is when glue stops moving, “cure” is when the bond has reached its maximum strength.

...But, the hole in the glass There are many opinions out there on this subject, here’s mine: for holes less than 7mm in diameter I go with a solid grinding bit in a Dremel tool. My ride-or-die-desert-island solution is a flame-shaped .20” tip, 140 grit sintered bit from His Glassworks.

With this, you can drill a beautiful 5mm hole in a relatively short amount of time. The straight walls of the bit come in again, should the hole need to be widened or reshaped. In the lecture, I touched on the two varieties of diamond grinding bit: electroplated and sintered; the former a coating applied to a metal substrate, the later a series of diamonds bonded within a matrix of bronze.

Chemical Bonding This is a pretentious way to say gluing, and I credit the unpretentious Adam Holtzinger with introducing me to the phrase. It’s akin to your bougie snack label listing “evaporated cane juice” rather than the despised sweetener that-shall-not-be-named. In this emerging, highly contentious field, opinions run rampant, and as opposed to the overt, physical presence of a mechanical fastener, there is always an element of faith when using glues with glass.

When one considers the amount of offerings on the market it is easy to be intimidated. I narrowed down the selection to what I believe is a compendium of glues that would fit the bill for any glass bonding situation that could arise. These are UV-curing glue (namely Bohle 760), HXTAL, Loctite E30-CL, PC-7/PC-11 and silicone.

When selecting an adhesive there are factors to consider: • Color–which can range from crystal clear to opaque and muddy gray.

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• Flexibility–this can be a major issue when bonding materials with dissimilar coefficients of expansion, especially if these are in areas with variable temperatures (e.g. outside).

Make it your duty to read every bit of literature on any adhesive you are considering. This research pays for itself quickly.

Now let’s talk about preparation. First off: flatness. As a good rule of thumb, glass should be at least at a 600-grit finish before gluing. This serves two purposes: 1) Glues that are not gap-filling (UV) are often intended for gluing float glass, so getting as close to polished perfection is essential. 2) The 600-grit ground surface completely disappears when glued with a clear adhesive such as UV, E30-CL or HXTAL. Don’t skip cleaning your glass. As bonding operations typically follow coldworking, there could be glass dust, cerium, etc. that need cleaning off your glass. For the very dirty, you can begin with dish soap and water, just like your parents taught you. For general purpose cleaning, I use a solution mixed 1:1:1 of 99.9 % isopropyl alcohol, distilled vinegar and distilled water. To ensure the glass is completely devoid of foreign matter before sticking it to something else, a final wipe-down with 99.9% isopropyl alcohol is the last step, and is about as close as one will ever get to knowing true cleanliness. For our purposes, other solvents and cleaners (denatured alcohol, acetone, vodka...) should be avoided. Do not use Windex for anything unless the piece is completely finished and needs “sprucing up.”

A note on surface preparation: always consider what surface the glue will come in contact with first. Many metal components are plated, and thus the glue will adhere to the microscopically-thin coating, rather than the metal itself. The same applies to mirror backing and painted surfaces.

Finally I will address one common fallacy about using adhesives in glassmaking: that they are a sad, half-assed attempt at making a connection that should have been done in the hot shop or in a kiln.

While this can certainly be true (I’ve seen many examples), the rule for all gluing is to achieve something you could not otherwise achieve. You can rest assured the 18th-century Venetians would have loved HXTAL. I would like to sincerely thank the following masters of assembly for their time and opinions. In alphabetical order: Æesa Björk Simone Fezer Richard Harned David King Rob Lewis Gayle Matthias

Andy Paiko Colin Rennie Anjali Srinivasan Cate Watkinson Mark Zirpel

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LECMO

Intersections of Craft and Code: Algorithmic Art in Flameworked Graal

By Mark Wolcott This article illuminates the fascinating journey of exploring and utilizing algorithmic patterns within an unusual canvas–flameworked glass. I’d originally begun exploring these methods of pattern generation in my computer graphics work, and eventually realized how I could incorporate this into my flameworking practice. By blending the precision and logic of computational algorithms with the fluidity and unpredictability of molten glass, I’d discovered a whole new arena of flameworking to explore. This article charts the progression of this unique integration, exploring the transformational journey from pixels to glass, ultimately demonstrating that the bridge between the digital and physical art world is not only feasible but also extraordinarily compelling.

Once I began focusing specifically on doing graal work in my flameworking practice, I realized that producing the imagery for the sections was almost as large of an undertaking as the glassblowing itself. In the beginning, I spent a lot of time trying to adapt my patterns to the specific size of each section, but eventually realized that doing the inverse of this would be more logical.

In my other work, I had been exploring a lot of different ways to generate images procedurally, and then it clicked that this would be the most efficient way to create patterns for my flameworked graal sections. Working in a procedural manner allowed me to create patterns that could be fitted to any size without having to warp the image in undesirable ways. That is probably one of the biggest advantages of working in this manner, as you can create a pattern that can then be fitted to any size or resolution whilst retaining the originally intended proportions. Another big draw for me was the ability to generate infinite variations of a pattern, meaning I could make every section a unique version of a pattern I’ve designed, adding to the value of the pieces by making them all one-of-a-kind.

to generate a black and white mask, which I then use to develop a stencil which is then placed on the glass before sandblasting.

There is quite a wide variety of different software you can use to do this type of work, but I will be focusing on Substance Designer and Processing. Substance Designer is a node-based software for generating 2-D textures, and used primarily in 3-D computer graphics. Yet it works extremely well for our purposes as it has a very in-depth toolkit for generating different types of patterns. In simplest terms, the software allows you to create different types of geometry such as squares and circles, from which you can then tile, rotate, and scale in different manners to generate patterns.

For my presentation I showed a set-up I’ve adapted to make a truchet-style pattern, and then another which uses an algorithm called “reaction diffusion” that allows you to make patterns from an input image of your choosing. For our purposes, we only need

Currently my typical process is that I begin by selecting the glass colors I would like to use (a palette which is unfortunately quite limited in boro) and then begin exploring patterns that I think might work well with the color palette I have chosen. From there, I will go about flameworking the section, and once that is completed I can easily have the program generate the chosen pattern to the exact height and width needed for the section.

From here I will develop the vinyl stencil and then apply that to the glass section, which will then be sandblasted. After sandblasting, the sections go through a rigorous cleaning process, as one of the biggest challenges I’ve found in going from cold working back into the flame is making sure there is no debris from the cold working process on the glass. From here, there are a myriad of

A flameworked graal section using a “truchet” style pattern.

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different directions to go, but I have explored leaving the sections as is, assembling them into a flameworked piece, and also sleeving them under an additional layer of clear.

The other software I’ve used for generating this type of pattern is called Processing, and it is actually quite integral to my craft as it’s how I began my explorations in this world of procedural generating patterns. Processing is essentially a coding language and graphics environment that allows you to create different types of visual works through script. If you have previous experience with coding, you will be at an advantage here, but even if you don’t, it’s a great program for learning for beginners. For many artists, this has been an entry point into the world of creative coding, and within the Processing community, there is an incredible array of resources for learning, many of them geared towards those with a visual arts background who may be less familiar with coding. I would highly recommend checking it out for anyone who has ever been curious about exploring those niche but thought of themselves as not a “technical” person.

A flameworked graal section using the reaction diffusion algorithm.

An example of the image texture generated by the program before it’s made into a stencil to be applied on the glass.

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PANELS

2023 Saxe Emerging Artist Awardees Geoffrey Bowton, Scout Cartagena, and Hoseok Youn after their panel at the conference.

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SAXE EMERGING ARTIST

Geoffrey Bowton

Geoffrey Bowton, Lost Components - Boots, pâte de verre, 2022. 15 x 14 x 11”.

A few years ago, when creating my first series of pâte de verre, I started dumping out my duffel bags and emptying out the “tuff boxes” of the remaining gear I kept, in hopes of connecting with some object; to possibly remind me of something important, to evoke feelings and awaken memories. Each time I came across something, I became interested in learning more about the feelings that were surfacing. What did each object mean to me? What is this object telling me? The more I continued to exploit the objects, the more I grew in understanding about the war, the people who served in it, and those who were directly affected by it. While I was spending time converting military objects to glass, I started to think about old memories that I kept locked away and never thought of accessing or sharing later in life. As a combat veteran, my memories had felt scrambled; however, when making this series of work, I felt grounded in the process and confident this gave me a better understanding of my time on deployments.

In my studio practice, I am using objects to recall deployment memories and one day, I discovered the Von Restorff Effect: it asks the viewer to displace a familiar object to an unfamiliar content in order to internationally trigger the recall of memory when that out-of-place object is seen again. I am taking the military boot that is most familiar to the viewer, re-contextualizing it into glass, and viewing it inside of a dark and ominous photography studio, gallery, or museum. This action alone became the most successful thing

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when discussing my work, it becomes easier for people to let their guard down, open up, and talk about a military story when relating to a familiar object.

I believe that my work is shifting into a new season of exploration and discovery, ready to expand and promote social change about stigmas, identity, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and suicide. I see myself transitioning into new areas of American Contemporary Craft, working, and serving as a historical timekeeper, crafting modern-day relics and telling stories of American War History—to discuss military service, transition to civilian life, and connecting to mental health. I am pushing the boundaries within myself and digging further into the mental trenches of war history, to become a culture bearer expressing the need for change—eager to address critical issues in the military community and create meaningful work using the creative practices of pâte de verre.

Augmenting his earlier career methods of metal fabrication and military service, Geoffrey R. Bowton informs his current studio practice by applying the investigation and illustration of his ideas. These skills, combined with creative moldmaking and pâte de verre casting, transform old dusty gear into visual landscapes of the soldier’s life. Geoffrey uses mixed media and the power of craft to supply insight, support, and representation of the military-veteran community.

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SAXE EMERGING ARTIST

Scout Cartagena

SAXE EMERGING ARTIST

Hoseok Youn

Scout Cartagena, Nothing But The Blood, flameworked borosilicate glass, tree stump, and leaves, 2022. Photo credit: Sam Fritsch. Dimensions unkown.

In my early 20s, I was diagnosed with a rare auto-immune disorder that interrupted my life and made me a stranger to my own body.

With each year, I lose parts of my memory and mobility, increasing the urgency to create work that’s tangible in the face of this.

For only a few years I have used the physicality of glass, installation, and other sculptural mediums to communicate this crisis of identity, and to help me remember what I’m afraid I will lose with time. My work reflects the constant struggle of my identity as a queer, Afro-Latinx, and non-able-bodied person through things like hot blowing bell jars that capture physical manifestations of mental illness, kiln casting locks of hair, and using printmaking to warp photographic documentation of the past. With my work, I hope to communicate a narrative for non-able-bodied people of color (POC) that will start action and talk of hope, resilience, and representation with able-bodied, non-Black communities.

Scout Cartagena was born in Maryland but lived abroad for many years, distorting what they called “Home” growing up. Throughout their work, Scout is inspired by medieval art and punk. Scout later experimented with sculpture after one glass class at Tyler School of Art and used it to make heirlooms that described themes of memory, being Afro-Latinx, and being disabled. Scout was selected as an Emerging Artist in Residence at Pilchuck (2022) and the Michelle Ortiz Fellowship (2021) and was nominated for the Windgate-Lamar Fellowship (2020). Scout lives in Philadelphia with their partner, usually taking pictures of their pets sleeping.

Hoseok Youn, Buster, blown and cold assembled glass, 2021. 12 x 7 x 20”.

My body of work is a series of figurative glass toys that depict fantastical creatures with weapons, armor, and organic forms based on characters from pop culture, constructed with Venetian traditional stemware components. This series of work is the reinterpretation of the relationship between the young generation and their fantasies of wealth and success. I am drawn to Venetian glass because of its quality, elaborate decorations, and mastery.

These forms rely on thorough craftsmanship with intricate designs to mimic our generation’s desire to fulfill their fantasies of selffulfillment, admiration, respect, and attention through luxury and consumption. For myself, toys have been the major materialistic consumption for my own desire and happiness. Toys and their heroic or villainous appearance speak to the childlike image of the young generation, reflecting their possessiveness and obsession with the fantasy of idealized life. Ultimately, this body of work is a critique of the young generation’s conspicuous materialism, decoratively fragile identities, and competition for wealth.

Hoseok Youn is a South Korean glass artist and educator specializing in glassblowing. He was born and raised in Seoul. Youn earned a B.F.A. degree in glass and ceramic at Namseoul University, Cheon Ahn, Korea and a M.F.A. degree in glass at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Illinois. Hoseok is a full-time glassblowing instructor and lead glassblower at Belger Arts Center, Missouri. His work has been exhibited broadly and internationally.

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Creating Space for Artists to Thrive Moderator: Michelle Plucinsky. Panelists: Grace Serra, April Wagner, and Shannon White

In this intimate and informative panel discussion, two full-time glass artists, an architect, and a gallery collections administrator came together to talk about some challenges and wins artists may face along their profitable career.

Questions were addressed such as “what are some challenges you’ve has as you’ve built your career?”, “how can we shift the term ‘starving artist’ from the purchaser’s viewpoint to make a good living selling glass art and sculpture?”, and “what are the best practices and tips on how to do this?”

The discussion was led by moderator April Wagner, a professional glass artist in Michigan. She offered some leading questions, suggesting to the audience some tools they might need to be a successful artist on many professional levels.

Starting with Grace, the questions began with, “How would an artist get in front of a curator or gallery director like yourself?”

Grace replied, “if you’re in this world of the arts, you need to know people who are on boards, you need to meet people who are involved with organizations, or those working on exhibitions throughout your region. Go to their website, find a contact person, and then you reach out to them directly via email.”

Shannon also chimed in with some other methods, “I would say when it comes to networking, donating pieces can help. April did this and a lot of individuals were very inspired by the piece she donated. They then got together and commissioned her to do a piece for another institution in the cultural center. That donation piece got her in front of a certain type of audience, her particular target market.”

“If you were going to go after a proposal, in a healthcare system for example, you have a really wide range of audiences there who will notice your work,” Shannon explained. “There will be people who are coming to visit a patient–someone’s spouse may be having heart surgery, somebody broke their leg, etc. But you also have a lot of physicians and high-net-worth individuals who are practicing there, visiting there, and also who are conferencing there; those people can also be potential donors or buyers. And then you also have the sort of corporate level that may see your work and reach out to you as well.”

Michelle mentioned that for her company, while working on larger sculptures for hospitals can be fun and challenging, they can often take months to materialize, have delays or super fast turnarounds, and sometimes the mental stress created during the process can be very difficult to manage. She commented: “When we started our company, we had two branches of work: larger-

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The panelists discussed creating space for artists to thrive during their panel.

scale sculpture works and the tabletop products sold in galleries.

The larger scale public works are definitely something interesting to do because the work is exciting, takes careful planning, disciplined budgeting, and patience as the job comes together.”

“However, for me raising a family in those early years, it was very stressful working with this style of work flow. I often felt the creative process was tied to rules and regulations that altered my ideas and this didn’t always feel right. Plus the timeline for installations (often occurring when the institution was closed to the public, late at night) was difficult to navigate finding childcare for extended hours until properly installed. I wanted to find a better and more consistent way to work and create a living for myself and my family. This ultimately caused us to switch gears to a less stressful and more profitable model that we still use today.”

The next subject was that of branding yourself as an artist AND a business owner. April mentioned that being a professional business owner is an essential ingredient in being a successful and profitable artist. “The idea is that your brand is everything from how you look, to how your studio looks, to how you display your work, where you display your work, and who your partners are.

It’s this wholehearted way of approaching being an artist. In my career, I have been really fortunate to have a number of mentors and sponsors who have helped me to recognize that. I went to art school, and most days, I’m thinking like a glassblower creating art.

Then when I’m out in public, I’m a business owner, I’m the representative of my brand, showing up authentically and representing my brand in the best way possible.”

Grace agreed and shared some of her experiences of working with artists in professional contracting projects. Branding and

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appearance is essential to a project working out successfully.

Oftentimes she found herself in the position between the artists and contractors. “When I was working in arts and healthcare, people had this perception of artists as not being able to execute professionally the work for the project. Not showing up prepared for meetings, being late to meetings, or missing deadlines were common themes that are very easy to fix.”

“I often became the go-between for artists and clients, explaining that artists work a bit differently, they will execute the project, and it will be done correctly and on time, just maybe slightly differently than a traditional builder might do things. This instills confidence in the buyers and speaks to the professionalism of the artists hired to execute the work. I think it’s really important for artists to be professional, because in my world of arts and healthcare, the directors didn’t want to deal with or have time to deal with unprofessional artists who couldn’t deliver. I think when you’re good, responsible, and professional, it changes the perception of what working with artists can be.”

“We also need to talk about education, how we’re not just artists, we also have to educate the public about what we do and how it’s done,” explained April. “In my role as a studio owner, when we engage people to come in and watch us, it’s so they can experience how difficult it is. We know we make it really look easy when we’re doing it, but it’s 2000 degrees, it’s moving, and it’s difficult.

It’s all these different hand tools and techniques that make it work in precise ways at exact times. It’s years of training, many trials and tribulations, and constantly making immediate decisions every moment of the process.” She explained further, “I’ve found over the years that I’ve also had to tell people, this is why the work is so expensive. This color is rare and made with gold, the furnaces break down regularly and need repair, assistants don’t show up to work and because glassblowing is a community experience, if they don’t show, you don’t get to work that day. These are some of the hurdles, or challenges, you will face over the years in wanting to grow your business.”

The discussion was wrapped up with some audience questions and a summary with some best practices moving forward. In essence, we are all business owners, self-employed, and not just talented glass artists. There are many important questions for every artist to consider as they take their journey down the arts path as a profession. Questions like: Who do you want to spend your time with? And, who is your end user? You might say, “I enjoy working with galleries and alone in my studio to produce a body of work.”

Or, “I want to be around fun people, creating public sculptures that everyone can enjoy.” Or, “I want to do wholesale orders in my non-public facing studio.” There are many versions of the correct way to work.

The choices are endless and there is no singular path to take. All roads lead to prosperity and creativity if you let them!

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European Opportunities for Glass Artists Moderator: Mary Savig, Panelists: Marzena Krzemińska Baluch, Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk, Andy Paiko, and Marek Vaselý This panel convened to spotlight and discuss a spectrum of opportunities in Europe for artists working with glass. The panel comprised: Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk, head of the Glasmuseum Hentrich, Düsseldorf, Germany Marzena Krzemińska Baluch, dean of the Ceramic and Glass Department and international coordinator, The Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art & Design, Wrocław, Poland Andy Paiko, Project Autonoma resident artist, Murano, Italy Marek Vaselý, founder of The Prague Gallery of Czech Glass and the Libenský Award, Prague, Czech Republic Mary Savig, Lloyd Herman curator of craft, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Our shared goals were to promote programs, deepen international connections in the field, and consider some of the challenges.

Opportunities abound in Europe for artists working with glass.

Panelists discussed how their programs have advanced the field of glass, and also how they might continue to address gaps in representation to better sustain international artists from historicallymarginalized countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Along similar lines, panelists outlined long-term challenges of securing financial and government support, the ongoing energy crisis and looming climate catastrophes, and managing trenchant cultural attitudes. Despite these challenges, panelists remain optimistic about the evolution of contemporary glass and the diversity of conceptual and technical framework, orienting the field in bold new directions. We invite our colleagues in glass to widely share the following opportunities:

The Libenský Award The Libenský Award is an international competition for emerging glass artists. The award is open to recent graduates of bachelor’s and master’s programs who used glass in their final student work.

The Libenský was established in 2009 to support recent graduates at a critical moment in their professional development, sustaining their exploration of glass and helping them enter the commercial market.

The award was named in honor of Stanislav Libenský, widely considered the most outstanding Czech glass artist and educator. His works created in collaboration with Jaroslava Brychtová are exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide. Beyond his own career, he taught at the Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague. He was a director and pedagogue at the School

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Andy Paiko, Project Autonoma Resident Artist, Murano, Italy.

of Applied Arts for Glassmaking in Železný Brod, where he lived and worked for most of his life.

The competition also includes an international exhibition of finalists to showcase diverse methods and expressions of glass. Past iterations of the exhibition featured many excellent works by 445 artists from around 41 countries and 74 universities. All information regarding the award is available at www.libenskyaward.org.

Jutta Cuny-Franz Memorial Award The quest of finding “true” works of art in the field of glass is the challenging task of the Jutta Cuny-Franz Foundation. Every two years, it grants the Jutta Cuny-Franz Memorial Award, which is endowed with €10,000, two Talent Awards–each endowed with €1,500, and a number of honorary diplomas, to young artists of outstanding promise who use glass as a major component of their works.

The Foundation was established by Ruth-Maria Franz in Vienna, Austria, in 1983. She did this in memory of her daughter, Jutta Cuny, who had died following a car accident in the same year.

Jutta Cuny (1940–1983) started her artistic exploration relatively late in her life with a series of apprenticeships in Paris, Epinal, and Vienna. During a sculpture seminar given by the Italian sculptor Francesco Somaini (1926–2005) in 1974, Cuny discovered her passion for sculptural work. From Somaini, she learned a sandblasting technique that she applied on glass for the first time in 1976. Jutta Cuny’s artistic career did not start with a basic training in glassmaking; it rather developed towards glass and glass gradually became the focus of her work because it was the required material to implement her artistic vision.

In 1994, the Foundation was moved to Düsseldorf, Germany, and since then has been managed by the Glasmuseum Hentrich, the

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2023 Jutta Cuny-Franz Memorial Award winner Lena von Goedeke​, Exposition I-III, Uranglas, iPads, Drohnenvideo, Stative, 2021.

Glass department, at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art & Design.

glass collection of the Kunstpalast. In the summer of 2024, the next open, international call will be made for the Jutta CunyFranz Award of 2025. Artists who wish to participate have to fill in an online form and submit digital images. All information regarding the application will be available at kunstpalast.de/cuny.

field: there are modern designers, classic craftspeople, sociallyengaged artists, and researchers operating on the border of art and science. The direction of development of each doctoral student is determined individually in cooperation with the supervisor and students are encouraged to pursue all creative approaches in the broad field of visual arts. At the same time, the Doctoral School offers theoretical and methodological support that prepares them to plan and create research projects, to present their achievements professionally, and to write research-based texts.

Doctoral School at the The Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design The Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design is already 77 years old. The program today strives to maintain balance between tradition and modernity across all five departments: Painting, Sculpture and Art Mediation, Interior Architecture, Design and Stage Design, Graphics and Media Art, and Ceramics and Glass.

The Doctoral School comprises doctoral studies in art (practical PhD), which has been conducted at the Academy for more than ten years. In 2018, significant changes in the Polish higher education law enabled universities to create doctoral schools with more flexibility. One of the key changes was to provide every doctoral student with a substantial monthly scholarship, allowing the students to focus on their doctoral projects.

The Doctoral School is open to candidates from all over the world and instruction is conducted in English. So far, the program has included students from Austria, Brazil, China, Greece, Great Britain, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, and of course, Poland. The program remains the largest doctoral school in Polish art academies: eight PhD students graduated in 2023, and 23 more doctoral students are still studying (on three years of education or six semesters).

Just like the entire Academy, the Doctoral School may also be characterized by keeping a balance between respect for tradition and classical workshops and also experimentation with new technologies and theoretical reflection. Many doctoral students are very active in the international artistic communities and their creative pursuits represent the diversity of the international

Last year, the Academy, as the only art academy in Poland and Europe, received Substantial Equivalency by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), which is an accrediting organization for art schools in the United States. This means that the doctoral degrees are now recognized as equivalent to some of the world’s best art and design degrees. In 2021, the Academy received significant funding from the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange for the internationalization of the Doctoral School.

This project includes extra scholarships and internships for doctoral students, invitations of visiting professors, lecturers, and reviewers from abroad, training courses for doctoral students and Academy staff, and also study visits to foreign partner institutions.

Admission information is available atasp.wroc.pl/en.

2022 Stanislav Libenský Award First Prize winner, Renate Zeimule, Vanishing

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Green + Sustainability Panel Moderator: Brian Frus, Panelists: Tyler Gordon, Min Haeng Kang, and Salime Harp Cruces, The annual Green + Sustainability Panel explores sustainable practices for the glass arts. Panelists each bring unique expertise and experience to the discussion. In Detroit, four panelists presented to a full room of curious glass artists. Brian Frus detailed how to save money by running a vegetable-oil–fueled studio. Tyler Gordon spoke about converting discarded window glass into 96 COE compatible cullet for glassblowing. Salime Harp Cruces showed us possibilities including: use of recycled glass, vegetable-oil burners, anaerobic digestion to generate methane gas as a fuel source, solar focusing to generate electrical power, and explorations into the usefulness of byproducts.

Min Haeng Kang talked about utilizing recycled glass in her artistic practice, and embracing devitrification as an aesthetic opportunity in contemporary glassmaking. The following text offers more details recapping each presenter’s focus.

Brian Frus, Waterfall Arts | info@waterfallarts.org Bio-fuel glassblowing was just a novel idea until we started doing it ourselves. Waterfall Arts in Belfast, Maine is currently the only public-access glassblowing studio in the United States running all glory holes 100% on vegetable oil. Brian Frus presented details about the system, including best practices and some important cost calculations. The bottom line is that a vegetable-oil system pays for itself in under one year of would-be fuel costs for propane or natural gas. The infrastructure is simple: basically a large plastic 275 gallon IBC Tote for oil storage, an oil pump, some oil filters sized 600, 200, and 100 micron, compressed air, supply lines, and a specialized oil burner from Organic Combustion Systems). Waterfall Arts partners with local restaurants who gladly donate waste oil to become creative fuel for the glassblowers. Each vegetable-oil burner consumes about one gallon of oil per hour. Because the oil holds about 35% more BTU than propane, there are no problems getting HOT for glassblowing, and the oil is much safer than gas (no hazardous fumes and no possibility of explosion). “We realized the dream of greener glassblowing, forged new community partnerships, and found substantial cost savings in the process,” said Frus. The presentation was all about sharing what it really takes to build and run a bio-fuel studio. This information was presented with hopes that other studios will gain confidence to make the change to a more affordable and sustainable glassblowing future. Email info@waterfallarts.org for more information.

properties that is compatible with 96 COE colors. Window glass or float glass has become the focus of Tyler’s experiments because there is an already established recycling stream for bottle glass. While it takes effort to build partnerships, once you connect with willing regional glass companies, there is a sustainable volume of material available. The bottom line is Gordon’s recycled glass costs about $0.65 per pound (plus labor) to get studio-ready material. The recycled “clear” glass does retain a subtle blue-green tone. By weight, his current process uses 73% post-consumer glass mixed with 27% of added chemicals to help it melt the way we need. The required infrastructure includes: a glass supplier, a glass crusher, dry storage for chemicals, a small cement mixer, and personal protective equipment for dealing with raw ingredients. The specific formula of chemicals Tyler uses to flux, stabilize, de-color, and balance the recycled material uses no lithium, borax, or fluorine. A free document with all the details is available at https://bit.ly/3QEVFmI.

Salime Harp Cruces, Studio Xaquixe

Old glass can be transformed for use in the glassblowing studio thanks to research being done by Tyler Gordon at Pilchuck Glass School. His experiments have yielded glass with good working

Studio Xaquixe is a leader in green and sustainable research for the glass industry. Joining the panel from Oaxaca, Mexico, Salime Harp Cruces toured us through their facility and discussed their research and the impacts it has on glass production and the local community. The work that Salime and her partner, Christian Thornton, are doing is so rich that their presentation showcased a multitude of possibilities for reducing our carbon footprint, utilizing alternative energy sources, recycling materials, and advancing green/sustainable practices in glass. As Frus and Gordon respectively spoke about vegetable-oil burners and recycled glass for blowing, Studio Xaquixe is doing those things and more. Because they are operating in a different environment, their oil-recycling infrastructure requires a water separator (unnecessary in most US locations), and they are using waste bottle glass instead of float glass (using only ~10% added chemicals by weight). Additionally, they are using anaerobic digestion to generate methane gas that fuels their furnaces. This process blends compost, water, and electricity in a biodigester unit that outputs methane. Sustainable inputs include rainwater collection for water and solar technologies for electricity.

Various types of solar arrays include sun-tracking panels, which are parabolic mirrors that focus the sun to multi-junction solar cell concentrations and that energize steam powered microturbines to produce electricity. The vegetable matter they use for compost is a byproduct of mezcal production– yeah, their glass studio also makes mezcal–and byproducts of one system feed the other in a beautiful symbiotic relationship. They have community projects that empower people to work, recycle, and

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Tyler Gordon, Pilchuck Glass School

create. Their labs host open training and educational outreach, and their programs are supported by a bevy of sponsor organizations. Email EnviroGlass@gmail.com for more information.

Min Haeng Kang Creative practices involving recycled glass materials are the focus of Min Haeng Kang’s artwork. She discussed her artistic practice and showed her current body of work. Min advocates for seeing “flaws” in glass, particularly devitrification (a crystalline structure that may form in glass at particular temperatures, giving a milky non-shiny appearance that is “un-glasslike”), as aesthetic opportunities for creative expression. Her organic forms are created by fusing and casting recycled glass. She may use bottles, window glass, or other collected glass that she processes to layout designs or fit into custom molds. As the material is heated, she allows the surfaces of each glass piece to devitrify, trapping a milky opaque surface into place between pieces as they all fuse together. After firing, she may grind away the surface to reveal an internal pattern of devitrification. The design and pattern she lays into each fusing becomes showcased in the final work. Her organic forms host intricate patterns that conjure thoughts of otherworldly formations, things seen under microscopes, geodes, or exotic life found in the deepest parts of our oceans. Her approach exemplifies the behavior of an artist making compelling work while employing earth-friendly techniques in glass. Email MinHaengK@gmail.com for more information.

All the panelists are passionate about their research and ready to share their expertise with anyone curious to learn more. If you are engaged in sustainable studio practices, experimenting with new green methods, have fresh ideas you wonder if anyone is working on, and/or just want to be a part of conversations on this topic, please reach out to let us know.

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Combatting Imposter Syndrome in the Glass Field Moderator: Kayla Cantu, Panelists: Scout Cartagena, Ying Chiun Lee, and Hoseok Youn,

Kayla Cantu, Suck It In: Study No. 1, kiln cast glass, honey, fat, 2019. 10” x 12” x 2.5”. Photo Credit: Courtesy of the artist.

How can the glass community produce a sense of belonging while working with a privileged material that is traditionally non-inclusive? In what ways can we create a space to utilize our differences in life circumstances as tools for understanding rather than isolation? What do you think it means to be an artist while simultaneously trying to understand what it means to be a human existing in the world? Moderator Kayla Cantu posed these broad questions to emerging artists and panelists Scout Cartagena, Hoseok Youn, and Ying Chiun Lee. Through in-depth conversation, drawing from personal background, and expressing vulnerability, these emerging artists revealed ways they are carving paths for themselves in the glass field while combating feelings of imposter syndrome.

Scout Cartagena, Que Linda, kiln cast glass, wooden desk, etched glass, plants, legal paper, 2018. Varying dimensions. Photo Credit: Sam Fritch.

Scout Cartagena graduated with her BFA in 2022 from Temple University: Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Cartagena’s multimedia work explores themes of memory, connection, and their identity as a queer, AfroLatinx, non-able-bodied person. In their early 20s, Scout was diagnosed with a rare auto-immune disorder which she openly

speaks towards within her practice. “With each year, I lose parts of my memory and mobility, increasing the urgency to create work that’s tangible. In the face of this, I have used the physicality of glass, installation, and other sculptural media to communicate this crisis of identity and to help me remember what I’m afraid I will lose. My work reflects the constant struggle of my identity as queer, Afro-Latinx, and non-able-bodied…With this work, I hope to communicate a narrative for non-able-bodied people of color (POC) that will start talking of hope, resilience, and representation with able-bodied, non-black communities.” Scout was selected as an Emerging Artist-in-Residence for Pilchuck Glass School in 2022. Additionally, she was named as a Saxe Emerging Artist at this year’s conference in Detroit. Scout will be pursuing her graduate degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the fall of 2023.

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Scout Cartagena

Hoseok Youn, Buster, blown glass, cold assembled, 2021. 12” x 7” x 20”. Photo Credit: Courtesy of the artist.

Ying Chiun Lee, Character I, glass, 2022, 15” x 5” x 3”. Photo Credit: Jacob Polcyn-Evans.

Hoseok Youn

Ying Chin Lee

While drawing inspiration from childhood comics and senses of play, South Korean artist Hoseok Youn reconsiders uses of traditional Venetian glassblowing techniques while depicting narratives with his characters. When speaking towards his practice, he says, “My work explores the correlation of the young generation’s materialism and success in contemporary society. I speak of human commodification, dystopia, identity, and contradictions of consumerism through figurative sculpture, installation, photography, and mixed media. The current generation defines happiness and success as abundant life. They consume the luxuries and materials as rewarding and conspicuous consumption for the desire of self-fulfillment, admiration, respect, and attention. For me, toys have been the major materialistic consumption for my own desire and happiness. I am inspired by my toy collection. I believe that toys and their heroic or villainous appearance simultaneously speaks of the childlike image of the young generation.

Furthermore, it reflects their possessiveness and obsession with the fantasy of their ideal life.”

Ying Chin Lee graduated with her BA in 2017 from Shih Chen University in Taipei, Taiwan and her MFA in glass from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2021. She states, “My practice explores ideas surrounding the erotic through glassworking processes, video, photography, and installation. Inspired by Audre Lorde’s essay, Uses of the Erotic, I take that which I have been taught to be ashamed of as an ongoing source of inspiration. My practice questions traditional definitions of identity by paralleling glass properties to ideas surrounding gender and sexual fluidity. By utilizing the allure of light and notions of voyeurism, my work explores that both identity and materials have the potential to be queer. Utilizing the concept of fluidity both in life and art practice, and by pulling from personal experience, my work aims to permeate the strict binarisms of sexual and racial politics.” She has received residencies at The Glass Factory in BodaGlasbruk, Sweden, Pilchuck Glass School as a 2022 Emerging Artist-inResidence, and at Penland School of Craft. Her work has been exhibited globally at the Shanghai Museum of Glass, the Delaware Contemporary, and through North Lands Creative: Glass Meet the Future Film Festival.

Youn earned his BFA in glass and ceramics from Namseoul University in Cheon Ahn, Korea. He moved to the United States to further his glass education and graduated with his MFA in glass from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2021. He currently resides in Kansas City, Missouri where he is a glassblowing instructor at Belger Arts Center.

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Imposter Syndrome It’s easy to doubt yourself and think, “Am I even doing this right? Why am I here?” It was clear throughout the conversation produced by panel members that there’s a strong desire to create a sense of community for everyone in the glass field, especially amongst emerging artists. While each panelist is an accomplished artist and educator, everyone spoke towards individual ways in which they continuously address imposter syndrome. One central idea surrounding this was how they define their own markers for success. While success can be viewed by how many lines you have on a CV, panelists discussed other markers of success like receiving residencies, winning grants, being recognized for awards, and arguably the most important concept, reflecting on personal growth within one’s practice and craftsmanship.

Having artists and mentors to look towards for inspiration and advice is fitting within its own right while also acknowledging the people we look up to were once new at this as well. They too had to make their own pathways for success. With this idea in mind, it was addressed in the discussion that there is no official rule book for succeeding this field. This being something to chew over, every artist (emerging, mid-career, or established) had/has their own avenues they take to reach their individual goals. Success is not defined by comparing oneself to others’ accomplishments in the field, but rather how we grow as creative individuals over time: reflecting on where we once were and where we currently are, serving to predict where we’re going.

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Legal Matters for Glass Artists Moderator: Martha Zackin, Panelists: Atreya Mathur and Laura Winston This panel brought together three legal experts with experience in art-related matters, including trademarks, copyright, and contracts. This article is based on US law considerations, is for informational and educational purposes only, and is not intended to serve as legal advice.

is experienced in the trademark registration process.

There are several ways to monitor your trademark to make sure others aren’t using it. For example, you can: • Set up an alert system such as Google Alert

Trademarks

• Consider using a trademark monitoring service

A trademark is an indicator of the source of goods or services. It can be a word or logo, like the Amazon, Apple or Starbucks logo.

• Consult with a lawyer if you find someone is using your trademark

Trademarks can also be sounds, colors, or other factors; the scent of Play-Doh is a registered trademark! Having a distinctive trademark is a great way to stand out and develop goodwill in your brand.

In the United States, if you are using a name, logo, etc. to sell goods or services, you have trademark rights in it, even your personal name can be a trademark. Use the ™ symbol when using your trademark and try to use it as an adjective: an example of this is “BandAid Bandages”, where “Band-Aid” is an adjective that goes with the noun “Bandages”. This helps your trademark keep its significance as a brand and avoids the trademark becoming generic.

“Escalator” and “aspirin” were at one time trademarks, but they were used so frequently as nouns that they lost their trademark significance and are now just ordinary words.

It is a great idea to register your trademark in countries where you are selling your items. In the United States, a trademark registration gives you many benefits, including nationwide rights, presumption of validity, and easier enforcement against infringers. Some glass-related registered trademarks include KuglerColors (Reg. No. 1,812,959) and Hollywood Hot Glass (Reg. No. 5,594,539).

It’s advisable to work with a lawyer who

Someone could intentionally rip off your brand, or innocently use the same (or similar) trademark. Here’s what you can do: • Make sure you were using the trademark first. If you accuse someone of trademark infringement, and they were actually the first user, they can turn around and make the same accusation.

• Working with a lawyer, you can send a “cease and desist letter”; this often results in a settlement without going to court.

Copyright In the case of artwork, copyright is the legal right to reproduce the artwork.

If you create an artwork, you own the copyright in it from the moment it is produced. If you are hired to make work, the copyright may be owned by the hiring party.

Not every work of art is protected under copyright. For example, “Useful articles” such as cups, plates and bowls do not get copyright protection. However, if they have copyrightable elements that can be separated out from the articles, the elements may be protected by copyright.

In the US, even though you own the copyright from the moment you create your work, you cannot enforce these rights unless you have a copyright registration. Other countries do not require

These vases are probably not subject to copyright protection.

(or in some cases even allow for) copyright registration. You can learn more and register your copyrights at the US Copyright Office website, copyright.gov.

Fair Use Fair use is the right to use a copyrighted work under certain conditions without permission of the copyright owner.1 This concept aims to prevent an overly strict enforcement of copyright laws that could hinder creativity. It allows individuals to utilize and expand upon works in a manner that doesn’t deprive previous copyright owners of their rights.

Fair use is an affirmative defense against claims of copyright infringement, meaning that the accused party bears the responsibility of proving that their use qualifies as fair use.2 It is now established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act that using a work “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching” does not constitute copyright infringement.3 To assess what qualifies as fair use, the law instructs us to consider the following factors4:

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1. The purpose and character of the use.

2. The nature of the copyrighted work itself.

3. The amount and significance of the portion used in relation to the entire copyrighted work.

4. The potential impact of the use on the market value or market demand for the copyrighted work.

There is a misconception that using a work or a portion of it is permissible as long as acknowledgement is provided, such as citing a photographer’s name when using their photo. However, this belief is incorrect. While acknowledging the source may be a factor in determining fair use, it doesn’t provide protection against a copyright infringement claim. In fact, in certain situations like advertisements, acknowledgments can even lead to additional legal claims, like violations of the right of publicity.5 When uncertain about the rights to use or acknowledge a source, it is advisable to seek permission from the copyright owner.6 In situations where the court is faced with challenging decisions regarding fair use, a prominently displayed disclaimer could potentially have a positive impact on how the court views your use.

Social Media Considerations and Copyright When an individual uploads their creative work to social media platforms, they maintain ownership of that work.

However, using these platforms means the user must accept the terms of agreement. Within these agreements, there typically exists a clause wherein the user enters into a licensing agreement that grants the platform the right to utilize their work as they deem appropriate.7 Social media platforms often utilize user-generated content for advertising purposes. Despite retaining ownership 92

of the content, the licensing agreement restricts the user’s control over its usage.

As a result, users are generally unable to pursue legal action for copyright infringement due to the terms outlined in the licensing agreement. Despite entering into licensing agreements with social media platforms, these agreements don’t extend to individual interactions between users; unauthorized use of someone’s photo or work by others would constitute a violation of copyright.

Artist Contracts: Importance and Red Flags Contracts establish legally enforceable agreements between parties, clarify legal issues, and bring a sense of professionalism to any arrangement. While contracts can be verbal, written contracts signed by all parties involved are preferable. Any instance where a party refuses to enter into a written agreement should raise concerns and prompt questioning as to why the other party would refuse the agreement.

In many cases, the lack of knowledge or a belief that contracts are too formal may be the reason behind a refusal to sign an agreement. This provides an opportunity for artists to have prepared contracts; a consistent personal policy regarding contracts protects your interests.

Red Flags in a Contract Transfer of rights: Any licensing agreement should address the transfer and assignment of rights. Assignment refers to the complete transfer of ownership, while a license grants the right to use the artwork. When art is assigned, the assignee essentially assumes ownership.

It is strongly advised to retain ownership of copyrights unless there is a deliberate business plan to sell the rights outright.

Once rights are transferred, reclaiming them becomes impossible, even for future endeavors. In a contract, replacing

“TRANSFER OF RIGHTS” to “GRANT OF RIGHTS” would be beneficial.

Long terms: Contracts with long terms, such as ten years, are deemed impractical. A typical licensing contract typically spans one or two years. If both parties have a positive working relationship, renewing the contract is always an option.

Worldwide: Some companies may seek worldwide licensing rights, but it is rare for a company to sell products in every country.

Using “worldwide” should be reserved for exceptional cases like Coca-Cola. It is advisable to request the client to provide a list of countries where they currently sell their products and replace the term “worldwide” with specific territories to allow the artist to pursue similar deals in other territories without restriction.

Exclusivity: There is no guarantee that the licensee will effectively sell the artist’s products, which could result in lost income while the artist is barred from pursuing other agreements. Under US bankruptcy law, an exclusive agreement is considered an “asset” of the bankrupt company.8 If the licensee goes bankrupt and ceases payment, the artist remains bound by the exclusive agreement and cannot pursue collaborations with other companies.

1. Copyright and Fair Use. Office of the General Counsel. https://ogc.harvard.edu/pages/copyright-andfair-use.

2. Office, U.S. Copyright. U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index. https://www.copyright.gov/fairuse/#:~:text=Section%20107%20of%20the%20 Copyright,may%20qualify%20as%20fair%20use.

3. 17 U.S.C. § 107 4. Ibid 5. Stim, Rich. 2021. Measuring Fair Use: The Four Factors.

Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center. 25. November. https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/fourfactors/.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. Assets Included in the Bankruptcy Estate - Explained.

The Business Professor, LLC. https://thebusinessprofessor. com/122296-law-transactions-amp-risk-managementcommercial-law-contract-payments-security-interestsamp-bankruptcy/what-assets-or-included-in-thebankruptcy-estate.

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Small Business Considerations Moderator: Lynn Read, Panelists: Jen Fuller, Kelly Howard, and Sibelle Yuksek During our panel, we discussed our experiences as successful small business owners in the glass industry, shared insights on how we built our businesses from scratch, and answered questions about navigating common challenges. Below is a selection of questions we answered.

How did you navigate building your glass business from scratch, and what milestones or strategies contributed to your success?

Jen discussed balancing art and business with Lynn, Sibelle, and Kelly. They suggested artists should allocate time for creativity, prioritize tasks and take breaks to refocus, and carve out time to connect with their craft. Jen concluded that understanding personal rhythms, setting clear boundaries, and remembering passion is crucial.

Where and how do you sell your work?

Kelly: I show in two Oregon coast galleries—one across the street from our 8,000-square-foot hot shop. However, we were not able to sell glass from there until 2013. We decided to keep both galleries when we could finally sell from the studio. I also sell my work in a few other galleries and online, but most of my sales come from people visiting me.

Sibelle: I primarily sell my products through direct Instagram messages or email sales for custom commissions. I also have an online store where I make products as ordered. I occasionally participate in trade shows, and small group shows at smoke shops. While I offer joint holders and jewelry, reproducing more significant pieces is daunting.

Lynn: My business model started as a traditional wholesale business, but over time, it has evolved to include private lessons, traveling to teach, and design-

Kelly Howard, Lotus, 2023.

Lynn Read, Scripot #2, #3.

ing for department stores and furniture stores. I enjoy the variety of projects, from low-end to high-end production, and I met many of my clients through friends in the industry.

What’s your favorite revenue stream? What has worked for you, and what has not?

Jen: I do public art commissions, private sales, fabrication work, and work through galleries.

How many people are on your team right now?

Lynn: There are currently two people who work four days a week. I am taking some time off this summer, and my team has teaching opportunities. This year, after the pandemic and all the stress, I needed time to renew my creative energy, so I went to Pilchuck. My assistant, Matt Abadi, is teaching a class at UrbanGlass.

Jes Glas is working in Oaxaca and is also doing a bunch of pop-up shows.

Jen: I work as an independent artist and I will often collaborate with other artists.

Kelly: I have a team of 28 people on the books.

Sibelle: I work solo and do some collaborations.

Kelly: I prefer making art and displaying it in galleries without dealing with inventory, pricing, or shipping.

Sibelle: I enjoy being trusted to create complex sculptures with an unlimited budget.

Jen: I use public art and gallery sales to make money. I network with group galleries to create small production lines from larger bodies of work. This helps me get big projects and build temporary exhibits that can be sold in portions. I’ve developed a collectible product line that I sell through institutions and social media.

Grant cycles can help you gain experience and work your way up. It’s important to find your niche market and build an audience Lynn: I’m still determining my favorite aspect of artmaking, but I enjoy making non-production pieces.

How do you price your work?

Lynn: Pricing is complicated and varies.

There are many factors to consider, including profit margin and past sales.

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been made 500 times. Instead of selling 150 objects in one to two hours, I sold 500 in ten hours. Learning to say no to these requests is a hard lesson.

You need to value yourself and the honest cost it takes to make work.

Sibelle: I am learning to value my work more by calculating the time spent on custom work, photography, and social media. It helps me determine the appropriate price for my goods.

Are the people purchasing your work primarily galleries offering contracts to display your art, or are there other buyers?

Lynn: [to Sibelle] Could you provide more details on the two categories you mentioned? Creating and marketing the work are distinct activities.

Sibelle: I factor in photo taking time when calculating my hourly rate.

Then, Kelly and Sibelle discussed pricing strategies for their artwork, acknowledging the difficulty in determining the value of their work compared to others.

Kelly shared her experience of starting with intuitive pricing and adjusting as her career developed.

Jen: It is easier to price your work correctly when you value your time and skills. As artists, we often must remember to factor in travel and marketing when pricing our work. However, it’s crucial to find the fair

Sibelle Yuksek, Motoko.

market value and add the value of your name in the industry to determine the appropriate pricing. Consider yourself your gallery and factor in design fees and other costs. Materials should bill at cost plus 20%; the final retail price should be twice the line item deduction. Determining pricing for unique projects can be challenging, but ensuring you’re selling yourself well is vital.

How do you handle clients asking for a discount? Is it more common now?

Lynn: Sometimes you have to say no. It’s essential to be comfortable with that.

If you’re agreeing to something, it may be significant. But, if you’re honest and direct, it’s best to say sorry; we don’t offer that programming or discounts. People who ask for deals don’t need them, while young people who buy my work inspire me and receive extra gifts.

Kelly: Our pricing includes a built-in 10% discount. If asked, we only offer the gallery collector discount, as some staff have offered it prematurely. It’s essential to draw the line and not discount items unnecessarily, as buyers can sense desperation.

Jen Fuller, Paper Plane.

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Jen: People sometimes ask for minor changes to a product. Saying no is tough.

It’s rare for me to say no to a discount, but occasionally customers will request changes to a product that has already

Sibelle: There is an exciting trend in the smoking industry where artists may sell their work to a shop at wholesale price for a show. The shop then takes care of the artist and keeps any unsold work to sell.

This happened for my first solo show and it was a great opportunity. Knowing this is possible, I’m less likely to consign my work and prefer participating in group shows where I can retrieve my work afterwards.

Kelly: I have never received additional payment from galleries beyond what sells. They will only buy in bulk if they purchase a small production item. One of the biggest challenges of having my work in multiple galleries is that I could have $50,000 worth of work spread out but still only receive small checks. Most of my customers are collectors or tourists visiting the Oregon coast, which results in direct sales.

Lynn: Upon reflection, museums have different options for obtaining art. Some may purchase it after a show, while others may receive funding to create exhibits. I am not aware of anyone who has been funded this way, but it is possible.

Jen: I receive funding in advance for my public artwork through a mix of organizations. Some provide a rental fee for the work I display for a year or two and then retrieve. Others fund me to create experiential design pieces for specific environments. I also make outright sales. It’s common for public organizations to request free work in exchange for exposure, but as an emerging artist, I demand fees for my work.

Glass Art Society Panel Discussion “ Small Business Considerations,” 2023, Detroit: youtube.com/watch?v=2gdvm4ig2E4

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Studio Glass History in Detroit Moderator: Nolan Young At the 2023 Glass Art Society conference, I embarked on documenting the history of studio glass in Detroit. As a second-generation glassblower who grew up in a glass shop in downtown Detroit, I felt compelled to uncover and document this history. More than ever, our city is changing. Spaces and places that hold so much history are being demolished in the name of forward progress. But what happened to the people who built what we now know of Detroit? Who faced the bad, the ugly, and built something from nothing? With a clear focus on the history of studio glass, I tracked these people down.

Contributors to this project were Herb Babcock, Albert Young, John Vanamerongen, Robert Sestok, Janet Kelman, Richard Ritter, Gil and Joyce Johnson, Kevin Scanlan, Ferdinand Hampson, John Fitzpatrick, Bob Vigiletti, and Maxwell Davis.

All of whom helped me endlessly in documenting and uncovering around 60 years of history.

Everything starts with the arrival of Gilbert Johnson from Chicago to teach industrial design at Birmingham Groves High School sometime in the early 1960s. During this time, Johnson was pursuing a Master’s degree from Wayne State University, and his thesis was about building a glass shop, even though he had never worked with glass before this point.

In our phone conversation, he jokingly alluded to the fact that he later realized he got nothing right. Shortly after, he was offered a job doing fabrication for the industrial design students at the Society of Arts and Crafts (now the College for Creative Studies) in Detroit and left teaching in Birmingham. In 1966, Johnson found out about a glassblowing class at the Toledo Museum of Art hosted by Dominick Labino, which he attended. The following year in 1967, Gil was given a budget of $500 to teach an experimental glass class where Gil and a group of students would build a glass shop in the kitchen of an old mansion on campus. Those original students were Sylvia Vigiletti, John Vanamerongen, Chuck Wright, Kevin Scanlan, Bob Bartlett, Karnig Dabanian, Fred Budeneer, Art and Sandy Wenk–all students went on to open their own shops. The glass shop at the school was completed at the end of the semester that year.

Gil taught at the college until his departure for North Carolina in 1971, where he currently lives today. Shortly after, Herb Babcock, who had recently graduated from Cranbrook, took over the glass program and ran it until his retirement in 2015.

Herb has been a vital member of the Detroit glass community and is an internationally-renowned sculptor with permanent work in Detroit’s city center, Campus Martius, which showcases his work with cast glass and steel fabrication among other collections and installations.

Blowing glass in the 1970s in Detroit.

Glass artist Richard Ritter was an advertising professor at the Society of Arts and Crafts and took Gil’s glass class while teaching at the school. In 1969, Richard built a glass shop at the Birmingham-Bloomfield Art Center (BBAC) in suburban Detroit. Richard was pivotal in reaching out to others working in glass. With connections to glass artist Joel Philip Myers, who at the time was a designer at Blenko Glass in West Virginia, he had buckets of Blenko cullet shipped to BBAC so that Richard and his students could start working. Ritter’s then father-in-law was an executive at General Motors, and when he found out Richard was building a glass studio, he sent a GM engineer to design and build Richard’s glass furnace, which had the floor “float to the top’’. Richard’s connections with the craft world brought interest to the new studio glass world in Detroit by hosting shows, juried by Harvey Littleton and funded by the BBAC. Richard left Detroit for North Carolina in 1972, leaving the BBAC glass shop vacant until 1982 when Albert Young and Stuart Shulman took over the studio. They moved it to neighboring Pontiac to create Michigan Hot Glass Workshop, which continues to operate to this day in downtown Detroit.

In 1971, a group of Gil Johnson’s students from the Society of Arts and Crafts created the first independent glass shop in Detroit’s famed Cass Corridor which was named Poultry Glassworks. Original members of this studio were John Vanamerongen, Karnig Dabanian, Kevin Scanlan, Chuck Wright, and Berkeley White. The corridor was a very important place for Detroit’s art scene at the time, and from

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Glass Studio at Societyof Arts and Crafts, 1968.

Poultry Glassworks.

the late 60s through the 70s, Detroit experienced its own renaissance, later called the Cass Corridor Art Movement. The corridor was considered the red light district of the city and the creatives who occupied this neighborhood represented the gritty atmosphere that surrounded them. Poultry Glassworks was in the heart of the corridor, located at the corner of Willis and Third St. in an old poultry store. John Vanamerongen, who contributed many of the photographs and oral history for this article, spoke a lot of the education that everyone had there. Being across the street from the Willis Show Bar and Anderson’s Gardens, after blowing glass they would sit outside and watch the “pimps and girls” walk by while filling the furnaces. This was Detroit and the corridor in particular at the time.

Poultry was known for using silver-veiled glass which is a glass that includes silver nitrate in the formula. Vanamerongen stated that many of the early Detroit glass artists were more interested in the interior of the glass, rather than the exterior. Silver-veiled glass was the perfect vehicle to express that notion.

Royal Oak, Michigan where both made their work and offered classes and studio space to fellow artists. Sylvia was also a founding member of GAS, and with her knowledge of working in the corporate world, paved the way to make GAS a non-profit organization.

A pioneer of glass and the Glass Art Society (GAS) was Sylvia Vigiletti. She heavily used silver-veiled glass to make beautiful, intimate glass objects, heavily occupying the notion of the interior space of the glass. Sylvia was a part of the original cohort of students that studied with Gil Johnson at the Society of Arts and Crafts. Her husband, Bob Vigiletti, was the head of the photography department at the college. At the time, spouses of faculty could take classes and Sylvia took full advantage of that. Sylvia and fellow glass artist Janet Kelman built their own glass shop in

This article really cannot illuminate the full scope of studio glass history in Detroit. Starting with Gil Johnson and really highlighting those who laid the foundation for what we are doing is the true directive of this ongoing project. I’d like to thank Robert Sestok, Herb Babcock, Albert Young, Maxwell Davis, Ferdinand Hampson, and John Fitzpatrick for participating in the panel discussion at the Detroit Glass Art Society conference. Vital contributions from John Vanamerongen, Richard Ritter, Gil and Joyce Johnson, Kevin Scalan, Janet Kelman, and Bob Vigiletti made this project a reality.

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Famed Cass Corridor artist Robert Sestok had his start in the craft world as a ceramics major at Arts and Crafts. He took a class at the college with Gil Johnson and then found himself heading to Stanwood, Washington to participate in the first year of the Pilchuck Glass School run by Dale Chihuly. Sestok and Chihuly drove back to Rhode Island where Chihuly was teaching at the time. After spending time out east with Chihuly, Sestok returned to Detroit to form his own glass shop in the corridor.

The shop was short-lived as Sestok shifted his focus to the fine art world and began painting and sculpting among the legendary cohort of Cass Corridor artists. Sestok continues to live and work in Detroit and was a vital resource of information about the early days.

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Demystifying the Process; Your Guide to Proposal Writing Moderator: Nadine Saylor, Panelists: Cheryl Derricotte, Therman Statom, and Norwood Viviano Our panel began a discussion that dissected the application process for grants, residencies, and public art opportunities for glass artists. We opened the conversation by asking the attendees how many applications they submit a year to create relatedness amongst the attendees. Some of the questions that we answered pertained to where artists can search for grants, residencies, and calls for exhibitions, and to how to get started with public art.

Setting Goals The panelists agreed that the application process is very timeconsuming, so goal setting at the onset is a must. If the artist’s primary focus is to garner grant support to fund new work, then they shouldn’t spend time on residency applications.

Conversely, if the primary focus is to generate the space and time to germinate new ideas, residency applications should go to the forefront. Having clear goals will guide your search for opportunities and streamline your proposal-writing efforts in line with your career goals.

Application Process In the proposal writing process, you will be asked to submit a proposal of your thoughts and ideas, an artist statement, a CV, and your images. What goes into a winning proposal? Pay strict attention to word and character counts. If it is a residency application, what will you be doing in your residency? Keep this concise and limited to one or two ideas so that the jury can see that you are focused.

Find out how you can get the jury to relate to you. Share as much personal information in your opening paragraph as you are comfortable with. Cheryl said, “I always start with name, age, race, gender, current city, and hometown to give jurors a chance to connect.” Be as detailed as possible about which processes you’ll use and include a budget to show the jury you’ve thought through your proposal.

When applying for a residency, time will pass between the application deadline and the actual residency so your project ideas may change by the time you get there. Norwood said, “There is the project that you write versus the project that you do.” You can never identify exactly what you will be thinking in a new environment. He elaborated, “The residency that you are attending will impact your work in a way that you can never anticipate.”

Public art applications usually happen in two stages. Initially, you send a Letter of Interest (LOI) that outlines why you want the project and would be a good fit. This letter is accompanied by five

to ten images, weighted toward prior public art projects you have realized. It is common for the image sheet to include the client’s name and the budget for any prior public artworks.

If you are invited to the final round for a public artwork, this is when you will develop a full proposal of your idea, including drawings that place your artwork within the project site. A budget for your proposal, including any specialized consultants like fabricators or structural engineers, will be included with the final proposal. This stage of the process comes with an honorarium to acknowledge the time you will spend crafting the proposal. Norwood asked about drawings for public art proposals. Cheryl said that when she makes it to the final round, she has an architectural consultant make her drawings–especially if the client is a developer.

There are some calls for public art that request a proposal upfront.

Cheryl is not a fan of these calls and is super selective about ones she applies for in this category. She asks herself: Is the project located in a geography where she really wants to have a sculpture?

Can she get away with sketches versus architectural renderings?

For the most part, Cheryl would say that nine out of ten of the public art proposals she puts in are LOI first; once every so often she sends a proposal out the gate.

Building the Muscle Just like anything else, writing applications is a learned process.

It takes a lot of practice to build a winning application. Cheryl’s suggestion was to apply for 12 a year (average one per month), to start. Therman said he is not averse to hiring consultants; government proposals–especially federal – are notoriously onerous!

Friends and allies can help you by providing feedback on your draft applications.

Finding Opportunities Therman spoke about using both Guidestar as well as the news to find opportunities! Guidestar provides a window into what foundations are funding, as well as what grant sources nonprofits received. Ask yourself, “Am I seeing funding for studio work? Am I seeing funding that is mission aligned with projects I want to do?” For example, Therman does a lot of work with kids facing challenges and makes sure the funding he pursues is aligned with his goals.

Reading the news with an eye for artistic opportunities is one of Statom’s favorite “guerilla tactics.” Steve Wynn is building a huge new hotel complex? Clearly he will need some art! Call his office or ask one of your funders or collectors to connect you.

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Complaints about a vacant property or land in a neighborhood not being maintained? Sounds like a great location for a sculpture!

Find out who owns the property and partner with the city on art solutions as they don’t want blight or bad press. Therman also works with corporations to acquire donated materials for projects, especially when they involve youth.

Derricotte shared other resources to find opportunities: For Grants and/or Exhibitions: Candid (Formerly the Foundation Center) and the New York Foundation for the Arts For Domestic Residencies: Artist Communities Alliance For International Residencies: Res Arts, Rivet, and TransArtists For Public Art: Public Artist Your local arts commission, CAFÉ,org, New York Foundation for the Arts, and GAS are also good resources. Nadine highlighted that early career artists should search locally for opportunities since that is the easiest place to find success.

Norwood also spoke to the nuance of family. If you have a family, make sure you seek opportunities that welcome partners and children, or negotiate time away with your partner before you seek out an opportunity.

Documents to Apply Opportunities for grants, residencies, shows, and public art all have a consistent set of documents you will pull from to apply.

It is good practice to have these documents on hand so that you can be at the ready. In order to have a robust proposal writing practice, make a commitment to keep your documents updated: • Artist Statement • Resume or CV, including an exhibition and publication record • Professional Photography (.jpegs of five to ten current artworks)

Nadine Saylor, Cheryl Derricotte, Therman Statom, and Norwood Viviano shared tips and tricks for proposal writing during their panel

In Conclusion It is most important to be true to yourself and your artwork; it will be recognized. Have a good set of proposal documents and images at the ready so it becomes your baseline. We all get rejection letters, so it is best practice not to get discouraged. It is tough to stay optimistic, but usually there are just a lot of people applying for the same opportunity. Dust yourself off and apply next year as there could be a different jury that relates more to you.

One of the things that Nadine does is to keep a calendar with recurring deadlines so that she can be reminded when deadlines are on the horizon.

If the life of an artist was easy, everyone would be doing it. In the meantime, all you can do is build your network, keep your head up, and keep reaching for the stars. Best of luck with your applications!

• Video of Your Work (if applicable, three to five min clip) • List of references (at least three; include the name, title, email, phone for each reference)

Mindset is Everything It is important to not get discouraged by rejection: everyone gets the same rejection letter. The average person will get approximately one acceptance for every ten opportunities they apply for, so that is why you build the muscle of applying for a wide range of opportunities annually. Cheryl likes to use a few tools to help her stay focused on her goals: • Make a Mantra (How you talk to yourself matters) • Notes from the Universe (Receive inspiring emails) https://www.tut.com/notes-from-the-universe/ The panel agreed that having a support network is crucial to proposal writing success.

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Christopher Day combined metal and hot glass during his demo on the Corning Museum of Glass Mobile Hot Shop.

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D E M O N S T R AT I O N

Trick Glasses: Devious Drinking Devices

By Marc Barreda and Kitty Laméris Trick glasses stimulate togetherness, provide entertainment and, of course, eventually great drunkenness. It is precisely their playful character that makes them each a technical tour de force, the pinnacle of what glassblowers could make at the time.

During the GAS conference in Amsterdam in 2002 Marc Barreda saw his first Renaissance trick glass, one of the ‘puzzle glasses’. He was taken by the complexity of the glass and was astonished to find such an intriguing glass that not only he had never seen before, but seemed to be totally unknown to the world outside a small group of glass collectors and experts. At that very moment, he decided that he wanted to get this phenomenon known worldwide in one way or another. This was the foundation of the trick glass project. Ten years later, he asked Kitty to join forces because she shared this passion.

Practical Archaeology To find out how these glasses functioned Marc made replicas of over thirty of them. He tried to only use tools and techniques befitting Renaissance style glassmaking. This has led to some groundbreaking new insights not only about possible techniques and production procedures but also about how trick glasses were used.

At the end of the sixteenth century artful and ingenious glasses designed for various drinking games began to appear around Europe: trick glasses. During the conference, Marc demonstrated the making of four of these glasses, while Kitty put them into their historical context.

The original Renaissance trick glasses are extremely fragile. Only a few of them survived the drinking parties of the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Because these glasses are so rare and delicate, one would never dare to use them anymore in this day and age. However, a lot has been philosophized and written about their use. With the replicas that Marc made we could finally check these hypotheses by trying them out ourselves, which led to some surprising discoveries.2

These glasses can be divided into six categories:

The Horn

1. Drinkuyts (literally ‘drink outs’ in Dutch), glasses without a foot that have to be emptied before they can be put down 2. Puzzles, glasses that require their user to figure out how to drink from them 3. Simulacra, glasses in the shape of objects, animals, or people 4. Passglasses, glasses marked with horizontal lines known as ‘passen’ or measuring bands, for a game that challenged participants to drink exactly to the next ‘pas’ 5. Sounding glasses, glasses that create music or naughty sounds 6. Trompe l´oeil glasses, glasses that trick the eye.1

A good example is what we discovered regarding glasses in the shape of a drinking horn. This is one of the few glasses of which many are still around in collections all over the world. Some of the horns have been signed with a diamond point by the people that owned them or that drank from them, not seldom in combination with a motto and a date next to it. This revealed that these horns were used in the second half of the sixteenth century and that their use may have been a secret sign to show one’s loyalty to the family of Orange, the leaders of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish.3

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Doran Schmall drinks from a horn, Practical Archaeology. Photo: Marije Kuiper

Marc Barreda attaches a three claw punty to the opening of a cone that eventually will become the horn, Glasblazerij Leerdam (NL), Photo: Ben Deiman.

Because of its shape, the horn is a typical drinkuyt: once filled it cannot be put down until it is emptied. This alone makes it a trick glass. But testing out the remake led to a somewhat surprising revelation: at a certain point the remaining wine splashed out of the horn all at once, surprising its user with a shower of wine. It worked like a drinking boot: as the glass empties, the air reaches the top of the point and pushes the remaining drink in one last gulp in your face and over your clothes.

Three Claw or Disc Punty When studying these glasses one notices that there is no punty where you would suspect it: on top of the finial at the point of the horn, whereas at the opening, there is always some damage. Until now, this damage was considered to be wear caused by standing upside down, like chips often seen on feet of antique glasses. But during the practical research, Marc realized that these cracks might be production related. The horn was first puntied on the point, subsequently it was transferred onto a second punty: a three-fingered ‘claw’ punty or a disc punty. This way, the horn could be decorated with bands, the finial on the point that covers the punty, and be bent after heating. When Marc tried these techniques, it appeared that both these types of punty did leave marks similar to the ones seen on the Renaissance pieces.4

Siphons Some of the most intriguing glasses are the ones with a siphon in the bowl: wine thieves. These glasses belong to the Puzzle group. When presented with a glass like this, the drinker will not immediately understand how to drink from it. It is not possible to reach the rim with your lips, because of the tube sticking out of the glass. After looking at the glass carefully, one will find that the solution rests with one of the three points that emerge from the hollow stem. Two of these are closed, but the third will eventually bring you the delicious red wine you have been longing for. When you suck at the right spout, the wine will start to go up in the siphon, a bent tube that is open on one end. The moment it passes the highest point, gravity tears it down the other half of the siphon, through the hollow stem into the spout.

Finally, the liquid reaches the mouth of the thirsty drinker, who then is confronted with a new problem: the stream of wine will not stop! At that moment, the drinker will have to make an important decision: do I want to get totally drunk or totally wet?!

The glassblower is confronted with several interesting challenges which have to be carried out very carefully to make a fountain that functions properly. To make a spout, an assistant takes a small gather on a very thin metal stick. This is pushed through

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Wine Thief, 17th century, private collection. Photo: Ferry Herrebrugh.

Little Deceiver (double walled glass) filled with wine, Practical Archaeology. Photo: Pieter van den Boogert.

the wall of the hollow stem and then carefully pulled out, thus making the hollow spout. Only one of the three spouts made this way is afterwards opened.5

court had its own glasshouses, where glass à la façon de Venise was blown. The link between the two glasshouses may have been the famous priest, alchemist and glassblower Antonio Neri (15761614), who was one of the first to write about the techniques of making glass. He worked in Florence and was invited by a fellow alchemist to come and stay in Antwerp, who happened to live adjacent to the Antwerp glasshouse. Perhaps the reason they started making these ingenious glasses there is that we find it in a painting by Adriaen van Utrecht depicting an alchemist with a table full of glass. In between other glasses a table fountain proudly stands.7

To make the siphon and to attach it, two assistants are necessary.

A hollow tube is bent into the shape of the siphon. The siphon is then transferred to a punty at the highest point of the bow by one assistant. The other assistant gathers a small bit of glass and brings it to the first, who trails it around the underside of the tube. It is then brought to the master and attached to the inside of the bowl, to make a connection with the stem. If this is not done carefully, the opening will be sealed. 6 Glasses with siphons were probably first made in Antwerp. The few remaining examples all have several features reminiscent of the Antwerp production. Strangely enough several designs of these fountains have a Florentine connection. Here the Medici

A siphon glass was the type of glass that Marc first saw in the Netherlands during the GAS conference. It was an honor and a great joy to show the making of it 20 years later at GAS 2023 in Detroit together with the making of a horn, a gloglo (a sounding glass) and a little deceiver (a trompe l’oeil glass).

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Marc Barreda making a Gloglo, Glasbazerij Leerdam (NL). Photo: Ben Deiman 1. Kitty Laméris and Marc Barreda, Trick Glasses, Devious Drinking Devices. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Nai010 Publishers, 2023. 10-11.

2. Ibid, 30.

3. Ibid, 58-60.

4. Ibid, 64-65.

5. Ibid, 48.

6. Ibid, 49 and 150-153.

7. Ibid, 22-24, 97

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Goddess Energy of Cyprus!

By Theo Brooks My goal with my demonstration at the conference was to educate attendees about Cyprus and its history, and to start conversations and connections among other Cypriot artists working in glass. I felt that the GAS conference was a great platform for this, as it is the only “global” glass society. Due to the political and economical environment in Cyprus since the 1950s, the Greek Cypriot diaspora led to communities settling in different countries around the world.1 Therefore, this seemed like a good way to reach Cypriots in our glass community. In the demonstration, the team and I reimagined a specific ancient Cypriot artifact from the Bronze Age. The Cypriot artifact that was the focus for the demonstration is known as the “Bird-Faced Goddess”2 or “Kourotrophos”.3 Besides a few amphorae at the Detroit Institute of Arts, this is the closest physical ancient Cypriot object to Detroit, housed in the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. It is thought that the statuettes were representations of the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, the goddess of war and sexual love. Ishtar was worshiped throughout the Middle East, which later heavily influenced the Greek goddess Aphrodite. The goddess figurines also embodied broad concepts of fertility. They served as both idols to be worshiped in household shrines and as intimate charms caressed in the hand to bring good luck and safety during childbirth. The figurines were often found in tombs and graves, all over the island, linking them with the afterlife. They were symbolic affirmation of fertility and sexuality, which was a powerful antidote to the realities of infant mortality and death in childbirth during this time.4

KM 94586. Bird-faced figure, ceramic, 1900-1625 BC. Cyprus. Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan.

Another reason for selecting this artifact for my demonstration was the story of how it ended up in the midwestern United States from the easternmost island in the Mediterranean Sea. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds one of the largest collections of Cypriot artifacts outside of Cyprus, taken by Luigi Cesnola– the first director of the Met. According to his reports, he excavated 118 sites in Cyprus, amassing 35,000 archeological artifacts. These objects were later, and are still known, as the “Cesnola Collection”. The Cesnola Collection was then purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and where some of the artifacts still reside. After his death, some of the Cesnola Collection was dispersed to leading museums around the world, as well as several major American universities, such as Harvard, Stanford and the University of Michigan. I find this situation conflicting. On one hand, many more people are exposed to these artifacts and the history of Cyprus through the museum, and were safely away from the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. On the other hand, these objects were removed from their home-

land and moved across the world, where Cypriot people cannot interact with them and see these culturally significant objects.5 This split opinion of mine is a result of my multicultural heritage of being both British and Cypriot. I have always felt a displacement from my Cypriot heritage growing up in London, England. By reimagining and celebrating these objects in the hot shop, I am able to discover parts of my heritage from which I had been removed. The more I discuss my feelings of displacement and not feeling as connected or accepted with other Cypriots or people of multicultural backgrounds, the more I see these commonalities amongst displaced people. In this time where the search for cultural identity is ongoing, I hope the topics of this demonstration can add a valuable perspective to this ongoing conversation. Glassmaking was prevalent in Cyprus during the Roman and Byzantine periods, and prior to that the focus of creating on the island leant towards ceramics and metalworking.6 However, since that time, there has not been a furnace

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working community on the island. This has given me the opportGlassmaking was prevalent in Cyprus during the Roman and unity to be inspired by the ancient objects from my heritage and translate them into the medium of hot glass which hasn’t yet been done. The sculpting techniques we used to create the piece are fairly contemporary, such as using the oxygen-propane torches to spot heat and create textures and details. We were lucky enough to use a well equipped hot shop to create this piece. The sculpture was created with the skilled help of current students, alumni, and professors from Bowling Green State University including Hannah Bowlus, Alyssa Ratke and Tim Spurchise, as well as people associated with the Tyler School of Art and Architecture and the College of Creative Studies Katie Receveur and Anna Johnson.

Since the conference, the process of connecting Cypriot glass artists has begun. Andrea Charalambides and myself have created an Instagram account (@cypriot_glass_artists ), which has started to bring together a small number of Cypriot glassmakers from all over the world. The aim eventually is to work collaboratively through group residencies and exhibitions to continue the growth and promotion of Cypriot art, and for people with this unique heritage to be able to come together and share our culture and ideas through the medium of glass.

1. The diaspora: the hidden assets of Cyprus,” CyprusMail, Paul Lambis, 22 January 2022, https:// cyprus-mail.com/2022/01/23/the-diaspora-the-hidden-assets-of-cyprus/.

2. Kelsey Museum of Archeology, University of Michigan, “female figurine fragment; Ceramic; Paint”. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/k/kelsey/x0000.09.4586/0000_09_4586p01.tif. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed July 31, 2023.

3. Stephanie Lynn Budin, Images of Woman and Child from the Bronze Age: Reconsidering Fertility, Maternity, and Gender in the Ancient World. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 221; Nancy Serwint, “Women and the Art of Ancient Cyprus,” Women in Antiquity. New York, NY: Routledge, 2016. 815-846.

4. Sexuality, Fertility and Abundance, Kelsey Museum of Archeology, University of Michigan, permanent collection; Barnes Takeout: Art Talk on Cypriot “Bird Face” Goddess Figurine, Barnes Foundation, Carl Walsh, The Barnes Collection, Unidentified artist.

“Bird-Face” Goddess, Room 16 North Wall, c. 1450–1200 BCE. A31. https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=I7tWTmNB1EA 5. Cesnola: Man and Legend, Kelsey Museum of Archeology, University of Michigan, permanent collection; Antoine Hermary and Joan R. Mertens, The Cesnola collection of Cypriot art: stone sculpture. New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014; “Met Goes to the Closet, Gets Out Its Skeletons And Tells the Stories”, New York Times, Karl E Meyer, 15 April 2000, https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/15/arts/ met-goes-to-the-closet-gets-out-its skeletons-and-tells-the-stories.html; ’Assessing Cyprus’s stolen past’, ‘ Taking stock of our stolen past’, Eliginism, Constantine Markides, 14 August 2006, http://www.elginism.com/similar-cases/assessing-cypruss-stolen-past/ 20060814/507/; “The Met Museum’s Scholarly Looter”, Tomas O’Dwyer, 3 Quarks Daily, Science Arts Philosophy Politics Literature, 21 January 2019, https://3quarksdaily. com/3quarksdaily/2019/01/the met-museums-scholarly-looter.html 6. Christopher S. Lightfoot, The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art, Ancient Glass. PrintOn-Demand Edition Distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven and London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 3rd Volume, 2017. 11-90; Catherine Hess, Linda Komaroff, and George Saliba, The Arts of Fire, Islamic Influences on Glass and Ceramics of the Italian Renaissance.

Theo Brooks and Tim Spurchise sculpting the form. Photo credit: Mike Berger.

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To Hold…The Body as Tool

By Lauren Kalman

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

The body of work To Hold uses plaster castings of my body to hug or hold blown glass vessels. Distorting the vessel form and imprinting it with the body. Through holding the glass objects, the work toys with the gendered expectation of the feminine nurturer, but the result of the embrace upends that stereotype through the destructive distortion of the same vessel. This work centers on the use of my female body as a tool to communicate on an affective or corporeal level and to complicate gendered expectations for my body.

To Hold… was produced in May 2022 with gaffers Darin Denison and Ross Delano at a residency at the Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass with the process demonstrated at the 2023 Glass Art Society Conference.

Process To produce the plaster castings, I had my full body molded in segments at Independent Casting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. These segments were planned so that they could be cast into parts that could be used in concert to articulate the movement of the body’s joints (Fig. 1, 2). To these parts, I added steel handles so that the castings could be maneuvered in the hot shop while keeping hands away from hot glass. (Fig. 3, 4).

I had expected that the process of making would be secondary to the completed objects.

But I had learned through making this work that the process of distorting a recognizable vessel form provided an additional context to the work. Through the novelty of the glass vessel imprinted with the body, these objects called upon their process of making, which resulted in the process being an integral part of the content of the work. Because it is common knowledge that you cannot hold molten glass against skin without severe burns, there is curiosity about how the works were made. This curiosity connects to tactile understanding of the material, in knowing that the body, if it were to hold hot

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glass, would be burned. Therefore, the performance of process came to the front of mind when viewing the objects.

Feeling Through Glass The residency resulted in approximately 40 blown-glass vessels. Using selected blown forms, I produced performance images of the objects being held. Glass is familiar to the body because it is common in domestic objects used to maintain the body, such as the drinking glass. In this way, viewing the glass can evoke a familiar sensory response, an understanding of the coolness of the material against the skin and how it warms with touch.

The transparency of the glass came to emphasize the empty space between the body parts in a way the opaque objects I had constructed in my previous research had not (Fig. 5, 6). It also provided an opportunity to see through the form to the body. When not held by the body, looking through the glass allows the viewer to see the imprinted body as a

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Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

positive form, while looking at the surface of the glass obscures the form of the body, as it is a negative indentation (Fig. 7, 8). Experiencing the vessels as discrete objects and using the vessels in performances in relation to the body highlighted the absence and presence of the human figure. In this way I was attempting to capitalize on an embodied feeling of loss and desire. Loss is conveyed through the empty space held by the vessel that, when photographed, embraced my body. A loss is also literally imprinted on the surface of the glass as the negative spaces of the body.

to my female body. In my work To Hold…, the embodied response and the female body are centered as essential communicative tools that resist privileging masculinist constructions of the unemotional cerebral over the corporal and emotive feminine.

The work also calls upon the affective responses of love and desire. “Affect” has etymological roots in the Latin affectus, and references both mental and emotional states or reactions, as well as physical ones.1 In affect, there is a double feeling: “feeling” as the sensation of touch and corporeality, and “feeling” as an emotional drive. Affect is a swell in the body, a combination of sensation and emotion. I find a love relationship might be a good metaphor for To Hold…, holding something or someone so close, desiring it to be yours so much that you both smother it and imprint yourself on it, permanently morphing its identity.

Gendered Performance of Nurturing and Destruction

My performing body becomes a significant tool in communicating with the viewer’s body. The use of my nude female body in the production of the objects and performance of the images connects to notions of affective desire. The body is depicted as nude in both the imprints on the vessels and in the images, with breasts, buttocks, and crotch visible. These erotic zones can also speak to erotic desire, while the vessels speak to loss. The readability of female anatomy turned out to be significant in this regard.

The use of my female body was also significant in relation to the employment of affect and feeling as a tactic in this research. As Susan Best discusses in her text Visualizing Feeling: Affect and the Feminine Avant-Garde, the feminine has been understood in terms of the bodily and, by extension, the emotional, whereas the masculine body has been framed in terms of the cerebral.2 My use of the female body reinforces this historic connection between the feminine body and feeling, but also uses it as a critical tool and a feminist reframing of historic gender bias. Best states that “this feminist gesture is about reclaiming and reworking these terms in order to think about women differently … ” it also can be posed “as a disruption to received masculinist accounts of value”.3 My employment of affective response and bodily sensory response is visually linked

Through craft processes and performance actions, my objects give form to an idea of my female body as both generative and destructive, one of the many contradictions the combination of performance and craft brings to my work. In To Hold … , the resulting works employs bodies through the careful crafting of the vessels. This manifestation of performance in craft takes decades years to master, and is a slow, durational and nurturing form of performance, recalling what curator Namita Gupta Wiggers identified as “the latent performance potential of a crafted object.” When the performance of craft is refined, it erases itself through the omission of imperfections that might signal the hand. This aspect of the formation of the craft object sets craft performance apart from other lineages of performance art or action art, in which skill is deemphasized, or actions

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Figure 8

are ephemeral and dematerialized. Care, as Wigger highlights, is central to the performance of craft.

But the distortion of the glass vessels as they are held against my body in the performances undermines this performance of care. My performing body is a misbehaving body. It behaves with the glass objects in ways that are not polite or expected. This contrast complicates historical constructions of the female body as nurturing, culturally controlled and a sanitized ideal, instead presenting it as a particular, complex and forceful agent that has the ability to both create and destroy. The use of my female body in performance to undermine historic constructions of femininity is a way that I hope my work complicates constructions of gender and expectations for my body.

1. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), s.v.

“Affect.” Accessed April 28, 2021. https://www-oed-com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/view/Entry /3321?rskey=icG2ta&result=1#eid 2. Susan Best, Visualizing Feeling: Affect and the Feminine Avant-Garde (London: I. B. Tauris, 2014), 4 3. Susan Best, Visualizing Feeling: Affect and the Feminine Avant-Garde (London: I. B. Tauris, 2014), 4 4. Namita Gupta Wiggers, “Craft Performs”. in Hand + Made: The Performative Impulse in Art and Craft, ed. Valerie Cassel Oliver (Houston, TX: Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2010).

5. Paul Schimmel, Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979; Exhibition Catalogue (Los Angeles, CA: The Museum of Contemporary Art, 1998), 18.

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3-D Printing Waste Glass: The Fusion of Traditional and Modern Glassmaking

By Dylan Vlahopoulos 3-D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is a process that converts a digital design into a physical object, by adding material in a layer-by-layer process. While advancements in materials fabrication and research have progressed with the advent of computers, glass fabrication has remained relatively unchanged. Enter Maple Glass Printing, a company that has harnessed cutting-edge technology to make 3-D printing with glass a reality.

At the heart of Maple Glass Printing’s process lies the VitriGlass machine, an innovative system designed to recycle and create the feedstock required for glass 3-D printing. By inputting waste glass, cullet, or powder, the Vitri-Glass produces glass filament, also known as cane. Its motorised capabilities offer precise control over pulling speed, allowing users to achieve the ideal thickness for their specific applications. Whether generating delicate stringers, robust glass rods or even tubes, this flexibility opens up a world of possibilities.

At the conference, Maple Glass Printing unveiled their most advanced glass 3-D printer to date, the Maple 3. During an engaging demonstration, the audience was introduced to the technology, provided with insights into its operation, and educated on the myriad of benefits it offers to the world of glass art and science.

Figure 1: ‘Ribbon Spiral Vase’ Glass 3-D Print, before taking into the hotshot to use as a stem - Design by TripleGWorkshop, 2023. Photo: Dylan Vlahopoulos.

Figure 2: The Glass 3-D Printing process. 2023. Photo: Alex Lowes.

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In a captivating display of creativity and craftsmanship, a unique goblet was brought to life through the seamless fusion of 3-D printing with traditional glassblowing techniques. Comprising four intricately-designed 3-D-printed components, including two handles, a stem, and a dolphin centrepiece, this goblet epitomised the harmonious convergence of past and present glass artistry.

The inspiration behind the goblet’s dolphin centrepiece draws from the rich heritage of Venetian gobletmaking. Imbuing this classic motif with modern flair, the intricate gyroid infill pattern adorning the dolphin exemplifies contemporary aesthetics, perfectly balanced against the transparency of the hand blown vessel.

Each element of the goblet showcases the marriage of artistic vision and technological prowess. The spiralized, multi-colored 3-D printed stem exudes elegance and fluidity, while the handles exhibit a captivating weave-textured design, accentuating the beauty of each 3-D printed component in harmony with the transparent vessel.

Maple Glass Printing’s advancements in 3-D printing with glass have opened up new horizons for the glass art world. By combining technological innovation with traditional artistry, the possibilities for creating unique glass masterpieces have expanded exponentially. As we journey further into this exciting realm, the intersection of 3-D printing and glass promises an extraordinary future of creativity, beauty and innovation.

This hot shop demonstration was a collaboration; ideated by Jeffrey Sarmiento, gaffered by Yazmin Dababneh, assisted by Anna Johnson, Ethan Crawford and Elena Esposito.

Maple Glass Printing team: Darren Feenstra, Nick Birbilis, Tony Koutsonikolas, Dylan Vlahopoulos and Danielle Simone Colón.

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Figure 3: The Goblet created at this hot shop demonstration, combining 3-D printed glass and blown glass. 2023. Photo: Dylan Vlahopoulos.

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Abnormalities and Absurdities: Sculpting Hybrid Animals

By Charlyn Reynolds When I was designing my demonstration piece, I kept the studio that I was assigned to in mind. I was elated to work on the Corning Museum of Glass stage because I knew that there would be a camera view inside of the glory hole! When I am creating a new hybrid animal, many inspirations help me create: travels, pets, animal encounters, documentaries, and fun factual stories.

I imagined an animal that would be heavily patterned in order to read it from the audience. I did multiple sketches of new hybrid animals and decided to tackle a difficult “zebra” as my pattern for this demo!

An hour and a half flies in “sculpting” time so I decided to pre-make parts in order to execute the perfect Zebra pattern.

I received glass studio time as a donation from the Benzaiten Center for Creative Arts to pre-make my parts. As a processbased artist, I thoroughly enjoyed working on the head and body blanks, layering different glass powders to create the desired effect.

Charlyn Reynolds, 2023

My speciality is creating colorful fantastical creatures out of glass. These creatures are my own mythological hybrids that I have created by seamlessly blending one animal into another to create a unique beast that has never been seen before. For this demonstration, I chose to bring to life my first Zebra-Bat. I use glass, which is a molten material that stretches and moves like that of an animal’s skin, to bring these creatures to life while hot.

Animals can be dangerous, they can sting and bite; one might not want to get too close to a vampire bat, just like you cannot get too close to molten glass. Once cooled, the creatures are literally frozen, allowing viewers to get up close and appreciate the intricate details of my creations.

The inspiration behind my work traces back to the absurdity of my childhood. Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, I had a magical grotto behind my house housing exotic pets, while my bedroom was adorned with Tweety Birds from floor to ceiling.

As an animal enthusiast and visual learner, I immersed myself in animal encyclopedia books and developed a fascination with birds.

Collecting numerous Tweety Birds comforted and captivated me.

Front left to right: Michelle Pennington, Charlyn Reynolds, Celia Garland, Chris Rochelle. Back row left to right: Mike daPonte, George Kennard, Jack Gramann, Steven Ciezki. After Charlyn’s demonstration on the CMoG stage.

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my viewers, encouraging them to ponder where such creatures might live, what they would eat, and whether they possess special abilities.

Before the demonstration began, the Corning Museum of Glass crew pre-heated the parts to ensure a smooth process. My skilled assistants, Michelle Pennington and Mike daPonte, played pivotal roles in helping bring my creation to life. As the artwork grew in scale and complexity, my long-time friends Jack Gramann and Steven Ciezki joined in, forming a magical team that contributed to the success of this demonstration. I could not have made this artwork without the help of these talented artists!

Thank you to Fine Art Handcrafted Lighting for supporting my trip to GAS. Thank-you to the Benzaiten Center for Creative Arts for the studio time and assistants that helped me make the parts. Thank-you to everyone helping on the CMoG stage during my ambitious demonstration: Steven Ciezki, Mike daPonte, Celia Garland, Jack Gramann, George Kennard, Michelle Pennington, and Chris Rochelle.

Mike daPonte holding the pipe while Charlyn sculpts the Zebra-Bat GAS Detroit 2023 on the CMoG stage.

The head looked like a black horse with a strange nose and ears at first. That is how sculpting works: it looks so weird and wrong for a long time. Since glassmaking is such a public art form, the initial stages of sculpting lead to strange looks from anyone watching.

Nevertheless, I trust the process, knowing that it will eventually come together harmoniously.

I took my head and body blanks and used my favorite sandblasting resist- puffy fabric paint. Yes, I could use buttercut… I don’t like the process of buttercut–it’s just not my thing. I don’t like using an Xacto knife, cutting the stripes, and placing them on. I also don’t like how clean the stripes would look. I use puffy fabric paint because I like the feel of freely painting on the stripes. In the crease areas between the ears and the mohawk, I can just blob in the paint to cover everything. I love that! It holds up relatively well in a sandblaster as long as the pressure is not too high!

Occasionally the abrasive material will blast through the edges of the painted lines and I like the organic and natural feel that it gives the powder and the overall pattern.

My artworks are heavily detailed and this Zebra-Bat was exactly that. This is what makes my hybrid animals so unique and gives them believability. My artwork requires a sense of disbelief in order to access it. I aim to evoke a sense of childlike wonder in

Charlyn Reynolds sculptes the wing of her Zebra-Bat during her demonstration at GAS Detroit 2023 on the CMoG stage.

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The Creative Potential of Materials

By Alejandra Toribio

The Potential of the Material There is a direct relationship between the way the material is presented and the techniques that can be applied to it during its treatment. The techniques an artist can use vary based on what form the glass is in; the way you work with powder, plates, or is all different. Each of these presentations will mark a different beginning in the way in which we can approach it. Powdered glass or thicker frits, for example, allow everything from dusting it to transforming it into a paste and modeling it in a similar way to how clay is worked. With the glass threads, on the other hand, I will obtain very different results than with the powdered glass.

Threads can be grouped, folded over a candle flame, or even formed into waves. This demonstrates that when glass mimics the conditions of other materials, I can use its techniques, adapting them to work in a similar way.

The Potential of the Technique The techniques that are applied to any material have their own potential. When I questioned how to use techniques from a different material on glass, I found an infinite number of possibilities by varying different steps in the process. This way of approaching work is what sometimes leads me to find new results. William Morris wrote, referring to the Arts and Crafts Movement, “The specific limitations of the materials must become a joy and not an impediment, the designer, therefore, must know perfectly the specific process of his creations.”1 Top: MULTICOLORED BOWL (2012.) Technique: Cold rolled, Float glass and Enamel. Photo, Juan Pablo Castrillón. Bottom: MULTICOLORED BOWL, detail.

Technique: Cold rolled. Photo, Juan Pablo Castrillón.

Prior Enamel: Experimental Technique This technique originates from finding other applications for common products like acrylic varnish. This material is commonly

Working with glass helped me discover the creative potential of this material and of many other materials as well. Themes like materiality and creativity, which seem far from each other, are actually deeply related. This article focuses on this relationship to analyze the positive results it had in my processes.

Understanding the properties of materials and their creative potential is essential when you work with them and you look for new results. Glass, like any other element, has its own characteristics, a DNA that will show us how it can be manipulated and how far its limits reach. This connection that we establish with it, will allow us to take advantage of its main properties such as transparency, its relationship with light, and the state changes it can undergo at varying temperatures. These topics will give us guidelines on how to work it and many alternatives to investigate.

ROLLED UP (2013.) Technique: Cold rolled, Float glass and Enamel. Photo, Alejandra Toribio.

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used in small amounts as a fixative for enamel on glass. If the varnish is used in higher quantities, it allows for cutting of the already enameled glass without the need to fire it in the kiln. This new possibility is an experimental technique that I have been developing for several years, which has evolved in new directions and has generated new techniques. “The Prior Enamel” consists of two basic steps that each have their own potential variations: • Enameling: Techniques applied during enameling like flat color, gradient, veining, sgraffito, or scratching will have different effects after the glass is cut.

The different patterns and way these patterns are arranged will cause a great variety of optical effects.

• Cutting: The way you cut the glass and how you regroup these shapes will also affect the final result.

Finding a new use for a common product allowed me to work with float or window glass like a commercially enameled glass.

In some Latin American countries, Argentina in particular, sometimes it is difficult to access imported products such as colored glass or other similar products.

Much of my work is characterized by tack fusing the piece to create volume by layering it in different positions. The transparency of the material allows me to see through its mass, which is impossible with other materials. With the Prior Enamel technique, a variety of geometric effects are achieved; using the technique flat or working with edged glass, continues to surprise me with the results.

Adapted Technique Working with other materials like plastic and paper also brought more dimension to my work and helped me see solutions to problems from other perspectives and adapt their techniques to glass. I want to highlight how I frame this process as a way

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Technique: Cold rolled-process, Float glass and Enamel. Photo, Alejandra Toribio.

Technique: Prior Enamel, process, Float glass and Enamel. Photo, Alejandra Toribio.

to learn and to evolve my work. Working with glass teaches us to be more patient while waiting for long periods of time and, above all, to learn from mistakes. In the process, we know that something may go wrong and it’s no longer important to have a perfect piece because that bad experience can improve our next attempts. This way of approaching the subject means that every detail, even the most insignificant, can be relevant. Adjusting the different variables with the techniques, equipment, and materials can be very useful in terms of investigating and optimizing procedures.

maintaining the correct cut lines and being able to partially move the glass after it’s cut. The material organized in this way can be manipulated by “folding” it to place it in a more free way, which makes it easier to work with curved glass shapes.

Cold Rolled: Experimental Technique

The appearance of new ways of working with glass derives from walking away from known paths and getting into labyrinths that sometimes have no way out. Creativity is not the product of the enlightenment of a select few, but a daily exercise of thinking we all can engage in.

1. Translated from Spanish; Javier Alfonso Lopez, MOVIMIENTO ARTS & CRAFTS. TEXTILES E INTERIORES. Madrid: Edimat Libros, 1999. 34.

“Cold Rolled” is another experimental technique that derives from Prior Enameling, and is part of the process of associating ideas. In this process, I encountered a new way to explore the qualities of plastic tape. This material is typically used to hold glass ready to go into the kiln, but I also use it to hold glass marked for cutting,

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FILMS

Lucio Bubacco in Murano, as shown in the documentary THE FLAME

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FILM

THE FLAME - The Art and the History of Lampworking

By Emanuel Toffolo

Elia Toffolo demonstrating at a traditional lampworking bench.

A few years ago, when my father wrote the books, Il Vetro a Lume - Lampworking together with Professor Sandro Zecchin, I was fascinated by the story of these glass artisans and artists who devoted themselves to lampworking. In the past, lampworking was not seen as important and renowned as furnaceworking. I too have been doing this job for more than 20 years on the island of Murano and I felt the impulse to tell this story, which is above all a story of sharing knowledge and is a job that was often handed down from father to son for countless generations.

In 2019, I wrote to Eric Goldschmidt, a friend of mine and an American glass artist who works at the Corning Museum of Glass, proposing that he participate, not only in writing, but also as a protagonist, in the making of a film that would tell the story of the lampworkers, of yesterday and today scattered around the world.

Together with him, Michele Back, and Caterina Toso, we decided to make three documentaries. Each chapter of the documentary focuses on a specific trip through different countries connected by artistic and technical influences throughout their histories; these countries have been chosen because they are key locations that have to be considered to fully understand many aspects of the evolution of lampworking. It is a complex and fascinating journey through a highly sophisticated glassworking art.

Eric Goldschmidt taking a barchin around the Venetian lagoon.

France and the Czech Republic, and in the third, he journeys to the United States and Japan. This first documentary tells the story of discovering the origins of lampworking glass, a technique which is still not well known but is used by thousands of people around the world.

In the first chapter that was shown at the GAS conference, Eric discovers Murano, Venice and its lagoon and in the second chapter, he embarks on a journey to more of Europe: Germany,

This technique is less known than furnace glassworking, it does not involve a team but only a person who works to realize unique objects by only using the flame and glass rods. Just one person in front of a table can realize with glass the ideas they have in mind.

This idea of intimacy is a constant during the entire documentary, accompanied by backlit photography, that brings the spectator

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Caesare Toffolo demonstrating lampworking in the documentary.

into the working flame. In the documentary, Eric Goldschmidt guides us through this journey of discovering more about lampworking. At the beginning, we follow him walking around the Corning Museum of Glass, talking with Dr. Katherine Larson, the curator of ancient glass, about the origins of lampworking.

Eric’s growing curiosity brings him to Murano, in the Venetian lagoon where he meets some of the most well-known lampworkers in the world. We watch him moving around Murano with the barchin (Venetian boat), we follow him through Venetian calli (narrow streets) as he meets with renowned glass masters and lampworking experts. He meets my father, Cesare Toffolo, Lucio Bubacco, Bruno “Gino” Amadi, Vittorio Costantini and Verilda de Polo. Amadi and Costantini convey their love for nature and for the Venetian lagoon in their works. Both started fishing from

Caesare Toffolo focusing on his craft in the documentary.

an early age, and living immersed in the lagoon fauna provided inspiration for both of their works. Lucio Bubacco instead focused more on human and anthropomorphic figures inspired above all

by Greek mythology. Verilda De Polo, on the other hand, started working in the studio of Guglielmo Brussa, a Murano lampworker, together with 24 other women. Once that experience ended, she and the others started working on their own, bringing their experience around the island and inspiring other Muranese to pursue this career.

The interview with Rosa Barovier Mentasti, Venetian glass historian, is accompanied by rare old videos, profound pictures and interesting private documentation that enriches the documentary. It also includes dramatic memories, like the story of Florino Toffolo and Luigi dal Moro, imprisoned by German soldiers and brought to Blechhammer and Auschwitz camps where they had both been assigned to scientific glass production, as it is told in the book Il Vetro a Lume - Lampworking: “It was both fate and their birthplace that brought the two men from Murano before a lampada da soffieria, lampworking equipment. They had been selected for the job and most certainly were not given the opportunity to choose for themselves. Over time both Toffolo and dal Moro perfected their technique, acquiring experience and mastery. Life in prison was slow and rather boring so for Toffolo, lampworking became a way to ‘escape’ the boredom and the sense of hopelessness caused by his imprisonment.”

This and other stories are present within the film and I hope they will be a source of inspiration for new flameworkers who begin to discover this splendid material that is glass.

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FILM

Creating with the Fourth State of Matter: Plasma Artists in the Studio

By Cary Rapaport

Making a flame-worked, hollow-sculpted star that will later be filled with plasma. Cary Rapaport, Lightning in a Star, flameworked yellow borosilicate glass, krypton gas, 2023. 15 x 15 x 9”.

An electrode has been added to the star sculpture and it is set up for oven-pumping and gas filling. A tubulation temporarily attaches the sculpture to a vacuum manifold so that it can be filled with krypton gas.

Cary Rapaport, Lightning in a Star, flameworked yellow borosilicate glass, krypton gas, 2023. 15 x 15 x 9”.

Year created: 2023.

Plasma star immediately after filling with krypton gas, lit with a high-voltage, high-frequency power supply which creates a bright white plasma inside the yellow glass sculpture. Cary Rapaport, Lightning in a Star, flameworked yellow borosilicate glass, krypton gas, 2023. 15 x 15 x 9”.

Creating with the Fourth State of Matter: Plasma Artists in the Studio was presented at the Detroit Film Theater for the 2023 GAS Conference. This film compilation highlights the making process of plasma light art—blown glass forms that are filled with electrified, illuminated noble gasses such as neon, krypton, and xenon. The fascinating properties of the fourth state of matter are utilized by artists in a myriad of creative ways, to produce light within glass that glows in a variety of colors, moves at different speeds, and forms surprising shapes, and can interact with touch. Works of plasma light art often inspire questions about how they were made, because of their unique synthesis of art, science, and technology. My aim in organizing this video project was to provide new insights, and to spark further curiosity, about this complex artistic process.

showcase a wide variety of studio practices, artistic visions, and technical expertise.

The PAA was formed in 2017 by over 30 plasma light artists, immediately following the opening of their first-of-its-kind group exhibition, “The Art of Plasma,” at the Museum of Neon Art (MONA) in Glendale, California. This exhibition led to discussions between MONA’s thendirector Kim Koga with artist co-curators, Ed Kirshner and Wayne Strattman, and subsequently with the entire group, about the past development and future aspirations of this evolving art medium. The PAA was formed, with the collective goal of strengthening the international community of plasma artists and enthusiasts and has grown to include over 100 members.

tural art medium; foster public awareness of this art form through exhibitions, conferences, and educational outreach; and support the exchange of information related to techniques and technologies essential to the advancement of the field.

As an artist and member of the Plasma Art Alliance (PAA), I collected 16 videos made by other PAA members that

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A small group of plasma light artists from around the globe has met monthly since 2017 to further develop and put into practice the PAA’s mission: to promote illuminated plasma in glass as a sculp-

Since joining the PAA in 2019, I have been involved in organizing several virtual exhibitions, of which Creating with the Fourth State of Matter: Plasma Artists in the Studio is the third. Illuminated plasma art—like most other kinds of glass art—is best appreciated in person, and arguably even more so due to its kinetic and interactive properties. One can touch the surface of a gas discharge lamp and influence the movement and brightness of the plasma light, sometimes even just by proximity to its electrical field. Plasma light in its many forms possesses a mesmerizing quality that can transform a physical space. But a growing interest in this art form also means that its makers, enthusiasts, and patrons around the globe are increasingly

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reliant on virtual means of sharing and exploring new developments. Video documentation can inspire new ways of seeing, understanding, and appreciating the dynamic art of plasma.

The compilation opens with works by Ed Kirshner, revealing surprising possibilities in both shape and color of plasma that can be achieved using different gas mixtures. Round, flat-sided glass vessels act as a lens through which to view the activity of the plasma within, which takes such varied forms as a flickering row of orange flames, wide green stripes of light that stretch from side to side while sprites of lightning flash between them, flower shapes that seem to dance with each other, and a rapidly undulating mass of glowing yellow streamers. “Chalice of Chaos,” a collaboration with Bernd Weinmayer, shows how the complex shape of a vessel can influence a plasma discharge itself to form unusual shapes, like fingers of light that rotate with remarkable precision around the rim of a double-walled chalice.

Wayne Strattman shows another example of plasma forming unusual shapes. Plasma light can be engineered to form a spiral that slowly rises within a 7-foot-tall glass tube—effects of high voltage, magnetic forces, thermal forces, and exactly the right gas pressure, all working together in careful balance. This effect is highly interactive in response to a magnet held near the glass.

Next, Tate McAluney builds a specialty power supply, demonstrating that plasma can even be fine-tuned to produce a toroid— a stable, glowing ring of light—inside a glass sphere.

Angelina Almukhametova presents a different approach to powering plasma, with a coil pickup used to detect electromagnetic signals emitted by a neon transformer. The transformer signals are then processed through guitar pedals, resulting in a bright plasma filament that can rapidly flash with an audible crackling sound. Tom Hardiment and Catriona Baille take the concept of plasma sound in an experimental direction: a synthesizer prototype produces unusual audio effects directly from a glow discharge inside an ordinary fluorescent tube.

While some focus on a specific aspect of plasma art or a special effect, others like Chris Burak show multiple parts of the process.

Percy Echols II provides further context and explanation, in a detailed overview of the making of “Inspire (Neon Citrus),” a sculpture made using furnace glassblowing and engraving techniques. Technical and aesthetic considerations involved in the final presentation of the lighted glass work are also addressed.

In my own video contribution, I also show a sequence of steps for creating a plasma-filled star sculpture from borosilicate glass.

Beginning with glassblowing and assembly of the star using a lathe and hand torch, I then apply powdered phosphor to the inside of the sculpture to add color, add an electrode, and finally fill with krypton gas that condenses into filaments of flickering light in each point of the star.

that connects a plasma vessel to the vacuum manifold. In contrast to oven pumping, Jeff Feigin talks about an alternative method of plasma filling a neon sculpture without having to bombard or oven-pump: using magnesium-ribbon gettering. This technique opens new possibilities for lighted sculptural work.

Mundy Hepburn’s large-scale sculptures and installations celebrate the alchemy of the plasma artist’s color palette. Different inert gasses have their own signature colors, which can change when they are mixed, and Hepburn’s custom-formulated colored glass adds another dimension to the appearance of the plasma light. Colored phosphors, which glow from the UV light produced by certain gasses, are also applied to the inner surface of the glass for even more subtle effects. Patrick Collentine demonstrates combining furnace glass work with traditional neon techniques.

Norman Moore’s video also focuses on the intersection of plasma sculpture with neon bending, and artists from Adept Neon Manufacturing show their plasma works and equipment set-up including a portable vacuum manifold cart.

Angela McHale utilizes scientific glass techniques to create hollow-sculpted and plasma-filled female figures. Amy Lemaire, instructor of the Plasma Design course at Salem Community College, shows her students’ works, demonstrating the growing interest in learning techniques of plasma art. These creative plasma sculpture designs also draw on a foundation of scientific glassblowing skill, highlighting the need for collaboration and sharing of resources between these different but related fields.

The video compilation concludes with a special tribute to the life and work of Bob Iannini, pioneer of neon and plasma electronics. Bob Iannini (April 20, 1938–April 3, 2023) leaves an important legacy. Bob founded his company, Information Unlimited, in 1974, and his catalog at www.amazing1.com shows his extensive creative talents developing science-based effects that have educated and tantalized millions of people. Bob held many patents and was a world-wide recognized physicist in ultrasonic and high voltage engineering. Among his many other products, he developed power supplies specifically for powering neon and plasma of all shapes and sizes. Bob’s devices helped light artists for nearly 50 years to power their creations and will also pave the way for continuing advancements in the field. The Plasma Art Alliance wants to honor Bob’s life’s work and his valuable contributions to the field of plasma illumination.

On behalf of the entire PAA, thank you to the Glass Art Society for the opportunity to introduce new developments in plasma light art to a wider audience. Following its first showing at the 2023 GAS Conference, Creating with the Fourth State of Matter: Plasma Artists in the Studio is now available to watch online at www.plasmaartalliance.com.

Harriet Schwarzrock illuminates the final step after ovenpumping and gas filling: carefully sealing off the small tubulation

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CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Eun Hyung Kim had her portfolio reviewed by Diane C. Wright.

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CONFERENCE PROGRAM WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7 EVENT: Kick Off Opening Remarks EVENT: Opening Night Demo + Willson Lecture and demonstration by Tiff Massey & gaffered by Hoseok Youn

THURSDAY, JUNE 8 HOT DEMO: Jason McDonald, Hot to Cold to Warm and Back Again FLAME DEMO: Alex Ubatuba, Large scale assembly with borosilicate glass FLAME DEMO: Rob Mickelsen LECMO: Sally Prasch and Mark VanderBurg, Flame to Furnace to Lathe PANEL: Kayla Cantu, Scout Cartagena, Hoseok Youn, and Ying Chiun Lee, Combatting Impostor Syndrome LECMO: Harsh Nowlakha, Glass Strokes LECMO: Catie Newell, Machined Lines: Waterjetting Glass HOT DEMO: Theo Brooks, Goddess Energy of Cyprus!

NEON DEMO: Kate Hush, Hush’s Hot Lines and Ladies

Attendees marveled at Tim Spurchise’s work in the GAS Member Exhibition

HOT DEMO: Kathryn Starrs, Tabitha Thierjung, Viviane Stroede, Marta Byrdziak, Sadhbh Mowlds, and Stephanie McCune, Iconic Yonic FLAME DEMO: Sibelle Yuksek, Fantastical Hollow Sculpting LECMO: Mark Wolcott, Algorithmic Art for Flameworked Graal

Deaunata Holman, and Lynquell Biggs from Firebird Community Arts, Brave not Broken: Finding Beauty in the Cracks FLAME DEMO: Charlene Foster, Chain Making HOT DEMO: Christopher Day, Chris Day Politely Shouts

EVENT: Student Meetup

LECMO: Francesco Langer, New Technologies New Approaches

FILM: THE FLAME- The Art and the History of Lampworking

FLAME DEMO: Earl Jr., Functional Fundamentals

PARTNERSHIP EVENT: Drinks x Design with Design Core Detroit

LITTLETON LECTURE: Herb Babcock, Detroit Campus Marius Sculptures

COLD DEMO: Ryan Tanner, Engraving by Hand: Past, Present, and Future Techniques

ACTIVITY: Goblet Grab and Fill your Cup

HOT DEMO: Steven Hagan, All Juice No Seeds: Assembling a Citrus Fruit

LECTURE: Jenna Efrein, Vivek Prakash, Ph.D., and Carolyn Delli-Santi, Glass, Marine Biology, and Physics

COLD DEMO: Zac Weinberg, Bolts, Nuts: The Dirty Details of Glass and MixedMedia Assemblage PANEL: Laura Winston, Martha Zackin, and Atreya Mathur, Legal Matters for Glass Artists LECTURE: Josefina Muñoz, Outside Your Realm: Exceptional Initiatives and Creators from South America and Africa

PANEL: April Wagner, Michelle Plucinsky, Shannon Easter White, Grace Serra, and Karen Delhay, Creating Space for Artists to Thrive LECMO: Jeffrey Sarmiento, Glass 3-D Printing HOT DEMO: Karen Reyes, Pearl Dick, N’Kosi Barber, Chiontea Thomas,

FRIDAY, JUNE 9 EVENT: Albert Young, A Return to the ‘70s - Working with Silver Veil Glass LECMO: Morgan Gilbreath, Experimental Kilnforming with Recycled Glass LECMO: Stephanie Moyerman and Steven Ciezki, Technology for Digital Design on Glass LECTURE: Mike Hatch, Black Glassworkers in Hand Blown Bottle Factories

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CONFERENCE PROGRAM PANEL: Mary Savig, Marzena Krzemińska-Blauch, Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk, Andy Paiko, and Marek Veselý, European Opportunities for Glass Artists

What’s Inside That Counts

EVENT: Portfolio Review

PARTNER EVENTS: Habatat Glass 51 Exhibition Grand Opening

FLAME DEMO: Lucie Kovarova, Murrine Cane Portrait of Aretha Franklin HOT DEMO: Bri Chesler and Minhi England, LiquidLush Collaboration LECMO: James Labold, Analog Art Goes Digital and Back Again: 3-D Models to Glass Sculpture LECTURE: Jin Won Han, Introduction to CNC Machining for Glassforming LECTURE: Lisa Naas, Forwarding Glass Education: My PhD Thesis is Post-Studio Glass HOT+FLAME DEMO: Albert Young and Lucio Bubacco, Ladle, Pipe, and Torch FILM: THE FLAME - The Art and the History of Lampworking FLAME DEMO: Jessica Tsai, Flameworking Lifeforms

PANEL: Nolan Young, John Vanamerongen, and Robert Sestok, Studio Glass History in Detroit

SATURDAY, JUNE 10 EVENT: Silent Auction FLAME DEMO: Ferran Collado, Borosilicate Textures in Design NEON DEMO: Neon Guild Takeover, Where Have All the Guilds Gone?

LECTURE: Stephen Paul Day, I look for the ground, heaven starts here LECMO: Joshua Kerley and Guy Marshall Brown, Modular Moulds for KilnGlass Utilising Digital Tools LECTURE: Laura Donefer, History of the Glass Fashion Show HOT DEMO: Charlyn Reynolds, Abnormalities and Absurdities: Sculpting Hybrid Animals PANEL: Nadine Saylor, Norwood Viviano, Cheryl Derricotte, and Therman Statom, Demystifying the Process: Your Guide to Proposal Writing

PANEL: Lynn Read, Kelly Howard, Sibylle Yuksek, and Jen Fuller, Small Business Considerations

FLAME DEMO: Jeff Heath, Boro murrine roll-ups

HOT DEMO: Abegael Uffelman, Moncies Franco, Izaiah Getahun, Jorge Sanchez, Jojo Olalde, Anna Lehner, Carla Christenson, Kaito Nishino, and Victoria Peña, Connecting Through Glass

LECMO: Kaitlin Santoro, Photography, but Make it Glass

HOT DEMO: Joe Hobbs, Illustrating Glass in the Hotshop

FILM: THE FLAME - The Art and the History of Lampworking

COLD DEMO: David King, Building with What is Already Around: Advanced Sheet Glass Construction

COLD DEMO: Alejandra Toribio, Designing Techniques with the Potential of the Material PANEL: Geoffrey Bowton, Scout Cartagena, and Hoseok Youn, Saxe Emerging Artists HOT DEMO: Lauren Kalman, Ross Delano, and Darin Denison, To Have or To Hold…Plaster Life Casts to Form Hot Glass LECTURE: Cooper O’Brien, The Polished Subject FILM: Creating with the Fourth State of Matter: Plasma Artists in the Studio NEON DEMO: Stephanie Lifshutz, The Subtle Intricacies of Neon Letters COLD DEMO: Adrienne DiSalvo, It’s

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All smiles from John Moran and Raven Skyriver as they demonstrate for a special pre-conference event at Axiom Glass.

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CONFERENCE PROGRAM LECTURE: Floor Kaspers, From Czechia to Mecca, Connecting communities through beads HOT DEMO: Andrew Madvin and Axiom Glass, Motor City Production Line FILM: Infinity Vessel HOT DEMO: Marc Barreda and Kitty Lamèris, Breaking the Ice with Glass: Jokes, Puzzles, and Mysteries LECMO: Fumio Adachi, Glass Art and Technology PANEL: Tyler Gordon, Brian Frus, Min Haeng Kang, and Salime Harp Cruces, Green + Sustainability Panel EVENT: Closing Night Party

SPECIAL EVENTS Firestarter: A Fundraising Event to Benefit the Glass Art Society Tuesday, June 6 | 6-8 pm | Atwater in the Park Brewery | Add-on at Registration GAS welcomed guests for an intimate evening kicking off our 2023 Annual Conference. Detroit glass artists including Philip Yamron, Andy Koupal and Matt Kolbrener, Brett Swanson and the 2023 Site Committee donated works to an auction that raised over $5,000 for GAS, while Eric Scott Baker wowed the crowd with phenomenal fire spinning entertainment.

Drinks x Design Thursday, June 8 | 5-8 pm | College for Creative Studies | Free and open to the public Detroit was the first US city to be named a UNESCO City of Design and attendees saw why at this collaborative event that brought together the GAS family and Design Core Detroit. Local Michigan creatives mingled, sipped, and

reveled in presentations, demonstrations, and tabling that showed off the very best of both GAS and Detroit.

Attendees enjoyed screenprinting their conference t-shirts, student presentations, a hot demonstration at the Corning Museum of Glass Mobile Hot Shop from Detroit artist Chris Schanck, hot demonstrations from Maple Glass Hot 3-D Glass Printing and Studio Form + Seek, and a lecture from David Schnuckel. A highlight for the evening was the annual Goblet Grab fundraiser for GAS.

GAS STUDENT EXHIBITION Evolution 2023: A Showcase of Emerging, International Talent Wednesday, June 7-Saturday, June 10 | GAS Market | Russell Industrial Center

GAS GREEN EXHIBITION Trace 2023: An Exploration of Sustainable Glass Art Wednesday, June 7-Saturday, June 10 | Online via glassart.org/trace-2023

Closing Night Party

OTHER EXHIBITIONS

Saturday, June 10 | 8:30pm-midnight | Axiom Glass at the Russell Industrial Center | Included with Pass No GAS conference is complete without coming together for a closing night party. From presenters and conference staff to attendees, friends, and glass family from all over the world, we celebrated being together in Detroit.

Thank you to Axiom Glass for generously lending us your space to host this memorable event.

Stop Making Sense Plus One

EXHIBITIONS Each year, we host free, public exhibitions in conjunction with our annual conference. Artwork for GAS exhibitions is accepted through applications that are reviewed by curated juries of professionals. From these submissions, a limited group of student and member artists are chosen to show their work at the conference.

GAS MEMBER EXHIBITION Connections 2023: Glass from Every Angle Wednesday, June 7–Saturday, June 10 | Axiom Glass | Russell Industrial Center

Curated by Kim Harty | Janice Charach Gallery | June 4 – July 12, 2023 Opening Reception: Sunday, June 11, 3-6pm Organized by Kim Harty, Stop Making Sense Plus One showcased contemporary craft in glass, ceramic, fibers, metals, and wood by artists in the Detroit Metro area. Artists from the 2022 iteration of Stop Making Senses were asked to invite a “plus one,” to circumvent the typical gatekeeping of artist selection and expand the diversity of artists, ideas, and approaches in the exhibition.

2023 CCS Glass Alumni Exhibition Curated by Brianna Barron and Lucy Olecheski | Center Gallery at the College for Creative Studies Gallery Hours 10am – 5pm, June 7–10, 2023 The 2023 CCS Glass Alumni Exhibition highlighted the work of CCS graduates working with glass as their primary medium. Local legends like April Wagner and Andrew Madvin exhibited alongside mid-career and emerging artists, showcasing the rich lineage of glass at CCS.

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CONFERENCE PROGRAM The Glass Collections at The Henry Ford Museum The Henry Ford houses a vast collection of glass objects numbering over 10,000 items. Ranging from early American to Studio Glass, these objects are on permanent display in two separate exhibits inside both The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village.

Glass 51 at Habatat Habatat Galleries Royal Oak | Grand Opening Friday June 9th at 8 pm Habatat Galleries hosted Glass 51 – the largest annual international glass art exhibition in the world. This exhibition featured over 400 artworks by artists from around the world.

Robert Mickelsen during his demonstration at Urban Pheasant.

Torched: Glass Pipes Flint Institute of Arts Harris-Burger Gallery | April 20 – October 1, 2023 Featuring glass pipes from some of the most renowned contemporary artists, this exhibition explored the creative possibilities of functional glass.

DuMouchelles

Axiom Glass- Past and Present

IM Weiss Gallery | Opening Reception: Saturday, June 10, 5 – 8pm | Gallery Hours: Thursday – Saturday, 11am – 6pm Play-Ability was an exhibition exploring moments of play through color harmony, material manipulation, and craft. In conversation with textiles by designer Jenna VanFleteren, we presented works

by Detroit-based glass artists, including Yazmin Dababneh, Kim Harty, Matt Kolbrener, Andy Koupal, Mike Mentz and Ryan Thompson. Through de-emphasizing color, each object becomes a specimen of the distinct process with which it was executed, encouraging contemplation of the craft of different modes of glassmaking.

Axiom Glass Royal Oak | June 3 – July 9 A showing of former and current Axiom Glass studio artists and employees.

BATCH Gallery Glass Academy BATCH Gallery is open to the public Thursday and Friday 4-7pm, and Saturday and Sunday 11am-4pm. During the day, visitors can observe from a distance, various art glass projects happening from private sculptures and awards to corporate fundraising projects and items for the studio gallery.

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Explore this auction house TuesdaySaturday 11 am – 5 pm, located close to the conference hotel.

Play-Ability

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GAS MARKET VENDORS The GAS Market (formerly Technical Display) gathers the best vendors, educational organizations, and more into one easily browsable marketplace. This event at the Russell Industrial Center was free and open to the public. Thank you to our GAS Market Sponsor, Chihuly Garden & Glass! *Designates Premium Booth *Booths 1 & 2

Booth 8

*Booths 13 & 14

His Glassworks, Inc. 2000 Riverside Drive, Suite 19 Asheville, NC 28804 (828) 254-2559 hisglassworks.com @hisglassworks mbolick@hisglassworks.com

Rath LLC 405 E Peach Ave Owensville, MO 65066 (860) 830-9579 rath-group.com kenneth.domann@rath-group.com

Hot Glass Color & Supply 2225 5th Ave Seattle, WA 98121 (206) 448-1199 hotglasscolor.com @hotglasscolorandsupply sales@hotglasscolor.com

Booth 3

ABR Imagery 3808 W Vernal Pike Bloomington, ID 47404 (812) 322-2539 abrimagery.com @abrimagery ross@abrprint.com

Glass Axis 610 W. Town St. Columbus, OH 43215 (614) 291-4250 Glassaxis.org @glassaxis melody@glassaxis.org *Booth 4 Oceanside Glass & Tile 5858 Edison Place Carlsbad, CA 92008 (760) 929-4000 glasstile.com @oceansideglasstile info@glasstile.com *Booths 5 & 6 Olympic Color Rods 1050 W Nickerson St, Suite A Seattle, WA 98119 glasscolor.com @olympiccolors lacey@glasscolor.com *Booth 7 Mobile Glassblowing Studios PO Box 1083 Americus, GA 31709 (229) 938-3296 mobileglassblowingstudios.com @mobileglassblowingstudios jwells.mgbs@gmail.com

Booth 9

Booth 10 Spruce Pine Batch PO Box 159 Spruce Pine, NC 28777 (828) 765-9876 sprucepinebatch.com sprucepinebatchco@gmail.com Booth 11 Tulsa Glassblowing School 7440 E 7th St Tulsa, OK 74112 (918) 582-4527 Tulsaglassblowing.org @tulsaglassblowingschool info@tulsaglassblowing.org *Booth 12 Cherrywoodpaddles.com 650 Church St Suite 120 Plymouth, MI 48170 (248) 845-8463 cherrywoodpaddles.com cherrywoodpaddles@gmail.com

Booth 15 D&L Art Glass Supply 1440 W. 52nd Ave. Denver, CO 80221 (303) 449-8737 dlartglass.com @dlartglass education@dlartglass.com Paul Wissmach Glass Co. 420 Stephens St Paden City, WV 26159 (304) 337-2253 @wissmach_glass Booth 16 Benzaiten Center for Creative Arts 1105 2nd Avenue South Lake Worth, FL 33460 (561) 315-1446 Benzaitencenter.org @benzaitencenter aholmes@benzaitencenter.org Booth 17 Englewood Arts 10901 East Winner Rd Independence, MO 64052 (913) 485-7207 englewoodarts.art @englewood.arts kmiller@englewoodarts.art

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*Booth 18 Jasen Johnsen 6371 Ershig Rd Bow, WA 98232 (360) 766-4198 willenbrinkjohnsen.com jasen@willenbrinkjohnsen.com *Booth 19 Bullseye Glass Co. 3722 SE 21st Ave Portland, OR 97202 (888) 220-3002 bullseyeglass.com @bullseyeglass andrebuenacosa@bullseyeglass.com Booth 20 Silica Burns Glass Mableton, GA 678-575-4479 silicaburns.com @arthurcnccreations Booth 21 BCmetalworking 20036 Naples St Ne East Bethel, MN 55011 (715) 222-2907 Bcmetalworking.com @bcmetalworking kenpo4791@gmail.com Booth 22

Glassybaby booth at GAS Market

*Booth 24 Wet Dog Glass, LLC 100C Russell Dr Star, NC 27356 (910) 428-4111 Wdg-us.com @wdg_us eddie@wetdogglass.com Booth 25 Studio Glass Batch 5200 Delmar Blvd St. Louis, MO 63108 (314) 396-2829 studioglassbatch.com @studioglassbatch info@studioglassbatch.com

The Studio at Corning 1 Museum Way Corning, NY 14830 (607) 438-5100 Home.cmog.org @corningmuseum

Booth 26

Booth 23

*Booths 27 & 28

Glassybaby 7102 180th Ave, A102 Redmond, WA 98052 (206) 538-2436 glassybaby.com hr@glassybaby.com

Steinert Industries 1507 Franklin Ave Kent, OH 44240 (330) 678-0028 steinertindustries.com

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The Toyama International Glass Exhibition 5-1 Nishicho Toyama City, Toyama 930-0062, Japan toyama-glass.jp @toyamaglassartmuseum

THE GLASS ART SOCIETY • 2023 JOURNAL

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Conference attendees eagerly picked their glass at the Goblet Grab in CCS.

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2023 CONFERENCE SUPPORTERS

GAS MARKET SPONSOR

EXCLUSIVE COLOR SPONSOR

DAY OF GLASS SPONSOR

STUDENT EXHIBITION SPONSORS\

FIRESTARTER EVENT SPONSOR

IN-KIND PRODUCT AND EQUIPMENT DONATIONS

VENUE PARTNERS

Michigan Hot Glass

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EXHIBITION JURORS

GLASS ART SOCIETY DONORS

Member Exhibition

Donors who made gifts of $50 or larger between October 1, 2022 and September 30, 2023.

Ferdinand Hampson Karlyn Sutherland Ruriko Tzchida

4Culture Arts

Glen Hardymon

Morton Silverman

Allan Jaworski

Goldray Industries Ltd.

Nadania Idriss

Student Exhibition

Allan Katz

Habatat Galleries

Olympic Color Rods

Eriko Kobayashi Andrea da Ponte Albert Young

Anna Dove

Heather McElwee

Paul Wissmach Glass Co.

Annabelle Javier

Herbert Babcock

Pinterest

April Wagner

Pringle Teetor

Green Exhibition

Barry Art Museum

Hot Glass Color & Supply

Katarzyna Krej Richard Mills Danielle Ruttenberg

Portfolio Reviewers Pearl Dick Jessica Jane Julius Andrew Madvin Susie J. Silbert Diane C. Wright

Berlin Glas, e.V. Carlson Family Charitable Gi Fund

James Nicholson Jean Tolfa-Hansen

Roger & Nancy MacPherson

Carol Cox Ruzkowski

Jeremiah Thompson

Sandra Christine

Case Island Glass LLC

Jerre Davidson

Silvia Levenson

Chad Kerr Cumin

Jessica Jane Julius

Chihuly Garden and Glass

John Fletcher

Strategic Staffing Solutions

Chris Rifkin City of Seattle Colleen Bicknese Crista Matteson Cynthia McIntyre Dan Hanlon Dana Smith David Helm Davira Taragin Dorothy Saxe

A full list of past award recipients, conferences, board members, and editors can be found on our website at glassart.org/about/history

Robert Vigiletti

Brian Havel

SAXE EMERGING ARTIST JURORS

PA S T AWA R D RECIPIENTS

Richard Ritter

Ilanit Shalev

Tanda Francis Mathieu Grodet Jessica Jane Julius Namita Wiggers Thank you to the Takako Sano, Becky Winship, and Eddie & Angela Bernard Scholarships whose contributions brought 10 students and non-students to the 2023 conference.

Ian Dawson

Eddie & Angela Bernard Elaine Sokoloff Elif Yalcinkaya Elizabeth Fish Ellie & Mark Lainer Eric Goldschmidt Erika Tada fanGLASStic Fumio Adachi FUNchitecture LLC Giuseppe ‘Joe’ Derdelakos Glass Academy

John Moran John Webster Jonathan Lewis Joy Lait Judith Schaechter Karen Wilson Karol Wight

Robin Levin

Tim Southward Vincent Tancredi Walmart Spark Fund for Charities Wayne Strattman Wet Dog Glass, LLC William Weisberger

Katherine Ginter Kayoko Adachi Keelin O’Leary Kristen Ferguson Lacey Dollahite Laura Donefer Leonardo Nagata Leslie Rowe-Israelson Martha Zackin Mary Schwartz Michael Saroka Michael Sennett Mickey Agney Mike Mentz Minna Koistinen Mollie Sikkema

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THE CONFERENCE IN PHOTOS

Attendees relaxed at the Closing Night Party at Axiom Glass.

GAS Board Member Lisa Zerkowitz introduced Morgan Gilbreath’s lecmo on kiln forming recycled glass.

Sally Prasch combined flameworking with furnace working during her lecmo.

The FOCI team (left to right: Victoria Peña, Jojo Olalde, Carla Christenson, Jorge Sanchez, Abegael Uffelman, Moncies Franco, Anna Lehner, Kaito Nishino, Izaiah Getahun).

Jeff Heath combined murrine rollup sections into a vessel at the torch.

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THE CONFERENCE IN PHOTOS

Past and present team members at Axiom Glass collaborated during their demo.

Jon Steinert posed with his booth in the GAS Market.

Jason Macdonald showed off his goblet-making skills during his demonstration at Axiom Glass.

Arthur Wilson showed off his new block, courtesy of Blockhead Tools.

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THE CONFERENCE IN PHOTOS

Dominique Larson, Paulette Sabato, Eva Goodman, Julie Thompson, and Purnima Patel welcomed attendees to the Silent Auction.

Attendees show off one of Iconic Yonic’s glass grenades at the Closing Night Party.

The Neon Guild demonstrated their skills and displayed their work at the conference

Jasen Johnsen and GAS Board Member Sunny Wang posed in Jasen’s GAS Market booth.

Joe Hobbs combined decals and hot glass during his demonstration at CCS.

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THE CONFERENCE IN PHOTOS

Tabitha Thierjung and Viviane Stroede worked together as part of the Iconic Yonic collaborative demonstration

Angel Pronger, Shannon Teeple, Amy Kasdorf and Rebecca Silverman enjoyed an evening of Firestarter.

Herb Babcock (second from left) and other attendees enjoyed GAS Market.

Charlene Foster (ChaCha Chainz) demonstrated at Michigan Hot Glass.

Mike Mason filmed flameworking demonstrations.

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The Best in Glass Art for Sale • Glass Blowing Demonstrations • Live Music • Artisan Food and Beverages

ARTS FESTIVAL Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass announces our third annual GLASS Arts Festival, August 10, 2024 Centered on the museum’s mission to provide extraordinary glass experiences to spark fun, kindle creativity, and illuminate learning for all, we will feature artists, art, and experiences on the shores of beautiful Lake Winnebago in Neenah, Wisconsin. This admission-free event will support artists and provide brand new experiences celebrating everything glass. The museum galleries will also be open and admission free as always!

Call to Glass Artists!

Artists working in glass may answer a call for entries beginning in December on ZAPPlication.org.

Cash Prizes • First Place award includes an exhibition at the museum.

bmmglass.com/glass-arts-festival

For Visitor and Artist information, scan the code with your mobile camera

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NOV   DEC , 

MAY   SEPT , 

2024 PROGRAMS

Make the most of your summer by applying for a session at Pilchuck!

Applications open this fall.

Learn more at pilchuck.org/2024programs.

HOLIDAY ART SALE Show your support for Pilchuck’s community of artists by shopping from one-of-a-kind gifts this holiday season!

Shop at pilchuck.org/holidaysale.

PILCHUCK.ORG Beans n’ Rice is a woman owned graphic design studio that has provided over 20 years of creative design solutions for small businesses, non-profits and artists.

Contact us to discuss your design project.

Email: info@beansnrice.com Web: beansnrice.com Instagram: @hellobeansnrice

OUR SERVICES

Print Design

Web Design

Branding

Illustration

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