World Art Glass Quarterly Winter 2017 by World Art Glass Quarterly

Volume 2

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Sidney Hutter Represented by Marx-Saunders Gallery, LTD

The Tenth Annual International Exposition of Sculpture Objects & Functional Art

June 1- 3 Seventh Regiment Armory Opening Night Gala â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Thursday, May 31 A benefit for the Museum of Arts & Design New York City

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JAMES NOWAK

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James Nowak Inc. 550 12th Ave. Seattle Wa. 98122 www.james-nowak.com 206-329-3914 World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

44 28

6 34

6 Rick Strini by : Jeremy Walton 16 A Garden in Glass . . . Susan Rankin by: Jill Culora 28 Pittsburg Glass Center by: Robert Kendrick 34 Steven Stelz by: Jill Culora 44 A Conversation with George Bucquet by: Kari McClelland 4

World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

features Volume 2

84 54 58 76 54 Freed Gallery by: Lloyd Braun 58 Inspiration From the Deep . . . Richard Satava by: Nathan Grover 70 Jim Moore by: Susan Bowen 76 Kokomo Opalescnt Glass Company by: Jessica Renae 84 Between Randomness and Chaos with Ed Kirschner by: DK Sweet World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

Publisher Editor-In-Chief Managing Editor Creative Director Staff Photographer Software Consultant Copy Editors

Advertising / Sales Foreign Correspondent Accounting Manager Office Administrator Web Manager Web Consultant Staff Writers

Contributing Writers

Consultants

Advisors

Volume 2 Mark Walton Curt Walton Robert Cullen Leann Sirkin Brittany Walton Jared Frisby Alex Maynes Jamie Robinson Susan Walton Emily Walton Tom Stanton Bob Lim Jennifer Hummel Masud Akram Patrick Thompson (Entrabase) Nathan Grover Jeremy Walton Jill Culora DK Sweet Susan Bowen Kari McClelland Jessica Renae Robert Kendrick Art Vandalay Lloyd Braun June Lim Michelle Walton Kathryn Knudsen Anita Schiller Gigi Erickson Nyal McMullin Larry Selman

World Art Glass Quarterly is published by Global Arts Publishing, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part without written consent is prohibited. Advertisers assume all liabilities for printed advertisements in World Art Glass Quarterly. Opinions in World Art Glass Quarterly are those of the writers, and may not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Quarterly, its management, or its advertisers. Please address unsolicited material to 1650 The Alameda, San Jose, CA 95126. Phone 408.834.8945. It will be handled with care, but the quarterly assumes no responsibility for the material. ISSN # 1934-8665 Postmaster: Please send address changes to World Art Glass Quarterly, 1650 The Alameda, San Jose, CA 95126.

RICK

S T R I NI

by: Jeremy Walton

lass blowing is one of the most PHYSICALLY demanding forms of art glass. STRENGTH is needed to heave the weight of the molten glass on the end of the pipe. DEXTERITYy is necessary in shaping the glass with jacks and blocks. And through it all there is the need to ENDURE the intense heat of the furnace, glory-hole, and the molten glass as it is worked. All these things attest to the fact that glass blowing takes WORK. In all the years I’ve worked in the glass industry both as an artist and as a writer, I’ve seen few artists who illustrate these qualities better than Rick Strini.

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

Rick’s work is the product of exactly that: he has created thousands of complex and intricate lectors and peers, he has done much of this on his own, Strini began his career as a glass artist at the age of sixteen in local pottery scene,” explains Strini, “I was preparing to go to that their son built a hot glass shop at their home. “They were At the young age of sixteen Strini became part of the 1960’s instruction and learning even to the present. He’s had formal College, a BA in Ceramics at San Jose State University and a

work—hard work—to be more precise. As an artist pieces all by hand, and to the amazement of his colwithout the use of shaping molds and assistants. his parent’s backyard. “I was a potter and really involved in the college, and wanted to teach.” Rick’s parents didn’t mind at all very encouraging, and really supportive of the arts.” revival of studio art glass. He has continued this pattern of selftraining as well, which includes an AA in Art at San Jose City Master’s Degree in Glass at U.C. Berkeley.

Strini is well known for his goblets. He started making stemware from the beginning and has continued to perfect this process throughout his career. “They used to call me ‘Strini the Goblet Man,’” remembers Rick. “Some of the first pieces I learned to make were pieces of stemware.” During the height of production, Strini and company could churn out more than sixty goblets in a single day. Rick and his assistants would work in the hot shop and Debra, Rick’s wife of 16 years, headed the task of marketing the products to galleries across the world.

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

In recent years Strini Art Glass has begun to move away from production and more into custom work. They’ve stopped making goblets and have moved into other forms like custom lighting fixtures, which present new challenges for Rick. “Most of these metal fixtures are made overseas,” says Debra while pointing to a huge chandelier at their outlet in Santa Cruz, California, “Rick has to be very precise when he’s blowing the cups to fit down in them.” The seamless way Strini’s pieces fit into the metal hardware attest to accuracy with which he works. Rick has been working a great deal with three-piece table lamps. Here again, Rick’s ability as a master glass blower comes to the fore; the pieces are often exotic and vibrant yet still demonstrate Rick’s commitment to tradition. His traditional methods provide a rich undertone in all of his work. You can look at a Strini piece and know that none of it happened by accident, rather every nuance was carefully planned and meticulously executed. Having assistants can make the glass blowing process easier, quicker, and more streamlined. The assistant can help reheat the pieces or hold puntees, blowpipes, and molds. There are dozens of ways they can facilitate the work. Some artists make their products completely through their assistants, often sketching out what they want the finished product to be or choosing color pallets and then passing the creation process off to their employed glass blowers. Rick, while employing assistants in his production days, has for many years worked completely solo. 12

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

“I really enjoy my own schedule and working time,” explains Strini, “I like working alone.” The sheer awe one experiences when looking at the thousands of pieces he’s made over the years is compounded by another factor of Strini art glass: he doesn’t employ the use of molds to create the shapes he produces. Rick uses a mold only to give the surface of some of his pieces texture. When it comes to shaping, only freehand manipulation with pliers and necking jacks is used. “There aren’t that many people that hand form anymore,” explains Debra. “But Rick also does decorating, layering all by hand.” Rick’s part of a dying breed of glass artists who hand decorate much like the artists of Tiffany and Frederic Carder did. “The reason I can hand decorate is that I melt eight colors at a time, hot colors,” says Rick, “And using a rake-like tool I comb and delicately move the colors into intricate designs.” Rick explains that it’s pretty rare to see hand decoration in glass blowers these days, “Most of all the hand decorators are making paperweights, not blown glass.” Every piece Rick constructs is ready to go right out of the annealing oven. Due to the way Strini necks and brakes off each piece from the blowpipe, World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

there is no need to coldwork them to smooth off sharp edges or make them stand level. Luster Glass is an incredible type of glass that is seen in some of the higher quality antique pieces produced in the U.S. at the turn of the century. The unique wavy designs that this technique produced were so valuable that the formula used to produce them was a closely guarded secret. With the closing of the more traditional glass shops such as Tiffany & Co. and Steuben Glass in the1920’s and 1930’s the ability to make Luster Glass was lost. In the 1980’s, however, while working at Oceana Glass Company, which he co-founded, Rick began researching and experimenting heavily to redevelop the lost formulas for this unique medium. After years of work, the formula was rediscovered and the technique mastered once again. And as Strini is one of the few glass blowers capable of reproducing Luster Glass, it has come to typify many of his pieces. These days the Strini’s operate out of their home, which is situated on a 14-acre ranch in Hawaii. Rick works alone in the hot shop, continually coming up with new ideas and new concepts, constantly stretching the limits of his already expansive abilities. Debra maintains the business end of the company, packaging orders and marketing pieces to many of the Top 100 Galleries. Rick’s pieces have been displayed everywhere from the Smithsonian to the White House and in galleries all over the world. With over 40 years as a master glass blower, Rick makes even the old guys feel young. However to look at Rick’s work and his extremely active lifestyle, it would be nigh impossible to classify him as “old.” “What’s the point of working hard if you can’t enjoy it?” says Strini, who at the age of 58 still makes time to do many sports that most people half his age aren’t physically able to do. For the Strini’s, its windsurfing and surfing in the summer. And in the 14

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World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

winter, it’s snowboarding or heli-boarding out of their other home in Sun Valley, Idaho. Rick Strini’s great health is due in large part to the six hours spent each day working hard in the heat of his glass shop. He works like a machine, but with an added endurance, creativity, and respect for tradition that a machine could never match. He works hard and he plays hard, keeping both mind and body fit through his efforts, while producing vibrant and exotic art that carries the stamp of a master artisan.

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

Debra and Rick Strini

“What’s the point of working hard if you can’t enjoy it?” says Strini. All images © Rick Strini

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

A in by: Jill Culora

he dark shadows of naked tree branches intertwining on fresh fallen snow catch Susan Rankin’s eye. For a moment she marvels at the scene that encircles her—it is like being encased in a wire basket. She begins to think about wire baskets. Where did they originate? Who used them, and why? The answers to these questions all lead to a series of glass art forms for Rankin, a Canadian glass artist based in Apsley, Ontario. The source of inspiration for her wired forms is not unique for Rankin, whose other work—epergnes, and vine, flower, and scroll vases—all originate from ideas found by combining natural elements with history. Her latest pieces, the Garden Columns—which showed at the Galerie Elena Lee in Montreal, Quebec throughout this past October—resemble enlarged lupines, standing eight and nine feet tall. Designed to be displayed outdoors, Rankin says the columns incorporate the element of light through multiple layers of glass, and are magnificent in the winter months.

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

Susan Rankin

“It’s an object for the garden that extends and holds the spirit. And the pieces interact with nature,” Rankin says. 20

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

“It’s an object for the garden that extends and holds the spirit. And the pieces interact with nature,” she says. “In the winter, the ground is all white and smooth. The sunlight has an effect on the columns, and the snow lands on them.” This is a special joy for Rankin, who purposely lives in the spectacular Precambrian Shield region of Ontario—an area known for beautiful hardwood forests, but short on a summer growing season. Rankin addresses the issue of having a love affair with her garden in a frigid northern climate by incorporating the garden’s magic in her glasswork. She’s careful to accurately depict the vegetation: some petals might be bent or wilted, or not fully opened. “They are flowers that are in the moment,” she says. “They have gestures. They’re not perfect and they’re not all the same.” Rankin creates each flower on the pipe, pinching and snipping each petal out. She places the flowers in the kiln while she works on the vase. When she’s happy with the shape of the vase, she begins to adhere the flowers, vines and petals using torchwork. She says she likes to “pile on” the flowers, to “over-decorate” the vase, so it resembles the lushness and abundance of a garden setting. In a unique step, she sandblasts the exterior to soften the look. “It’s funny because I work with glass,” Rankin says, “But I don’t like the shiny World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

aspect of glass, because gardens aren’t shiny.” Instead, she denies the glassiness to give the piece a “crawling in dirt” feel. In the flowering vine vessel series she uses black enamel. She also adds painted detail, her final step before sealing the vase. Rankin, who also teaches at the Haliburton School of the Arts, says she spends a lot of time planning and drawing forms in charcoal. She says she finds inspiration in classical forms because they are very sensual, pointing to the tight waist and broad shoulders of some of her vases. Historical references fascinate Rankin. Her elaborate epergnes are a modern rendition of a 19th century Victorian practice of placing a decorative floral epergne in the center of a dinner table as a display of status. She is also enthralled by the history of glass, especially the chandeliers and the florals, which she incorporates into her work today. It is no accident that Rankin is an artist. Her mother is an accomplished painter and art curriculum writer for the public school system in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, where she was born and raised. Her father, a successful photographer, tragically died in a plane crash before she was born. Rankin’s early life surrounded her in art—both in the family home and in helping her mother with galleries and shows. Ironically, she stopped taking school art classes at fourteen because she felt she was not learning anything new. At seventeen, Rankin participated in her first show—a textile show—working in fiber. It would still be some time before Rankin handled her first piece of glass. Three years later, Rankin found herself drawing designs for a stained glass art business that she and her first husband shared in Vancouver, British Columbia. She recalls that it was there, where she first saw the art, that she was “wowed” by glass

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

blowing. Before long she headed to the well-known Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington. While there, fellow Canadians encouraged her to head to Sheridan College in Toronto, Canada. After graduation, she took up a three-year artist residency at the famed Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. Since then, her work has appeared in numerous solo and invitational exhibitions, and in collections across North America, including the Corning Museum. She works with assistants Blaise Campbell, Sally McCubbin and Jay Olauson, in her studio near Apsley in central Ontario, alongside her second husband Brad Copping, a glass artist she met at Sheridan College. The couple takes time each summer to attend workshops and collaborate with other glass artists. Allowing this time to play has always provided 24

World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

“We always take something new away without having any preconceived ideas. It’s all about exposure and interacting with people that inspires new things,” Rankin says.

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

Susan Rankin and husband Brad Copping

turning points in Rankin’s work. “We always take something new away without having any preconceived ideas. It’s all about exposure and interacting with people that inspires new things,” she says. One promising aspect of creativity she now faces is in working with more assistants. “I just increased the number of assistants [I have] and I’m having to learn how to manage the team differently,” Rankin explains. “I’m not sure where this will take us, but it will certainly increase our possibilities.” Rankin says that glass blowing seduced her. “It’s the magic of the dance—the rhythm and the fluidity of it. When you can make it look easy, effortless, and beautiful, you and the material are really one, like a musical masterpiece.”

All images © Susan Rankin

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

916.925.9322 1815 SILICA AVE. SACRAMENTO CA 95815

BEVELED GLASS

in the FINEST AMERICAN TRADITION HOLY CITY ART GLASS Thom Stanton - Artist / Designer Box 113 Holy City, CA 95026 408-353-4426

Pittsburgh Glass Center:

Building a Glass City by: Robert Kendrick

hen thinking of Pittsburgh, what usually comes to mind is a turnof-the-century juggernaut in the steel industry. In 1901, after buying out Carnegie Steel Company, J.P. Morgan and Elbert H. Gary created the largest steel company in America. By 1911 the city of Pittsburgh was producing nearly half the nation’s steel. However, long before Carnegie ever came to town, the region was the country’s leader in glass production and continued to be so for decades. Indeed, the Steel City could just as easily have been dubbed America’s “Glass City.” In the years since the steel industry’s collapse, the city of Pittsburgh has shifted its economic base to the arts. The Pittsburgh Glass Center (PGC), founded in 2001 by Kathleen Mulcahy and Ron Desmett, is dedicated to teaching, creating and promoting art glass. In the process, it has helped to brush away much of the dust left from the steel industry, re-exposing the city’s rich glass roots. “We’re committed to creating a community of glass artists in Pittsburgh,” says Paige Ilkhanipour, Marketing Director at PGC. In the five short years since its inception, the PGC has attracted artists from around the world and has enticed more than two dozen artists to relocate their studios to Pittsburgh. Additionally, many artists have visited the center to teach and encourage by participating in workshops and demonstrations of all kinds. These include artists Dante Marioni, Henry Halem, Davide Salvadore, Boyd Sugiki, and Fritz Dreisbach. And the list goes on. There are currently over fifty core artists living in the region who are actively involved at PGC. 30

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

Artists putting on a demonstration for visitors at PGC James Mongrain

“Our artists keep the studio top-notch and up to date,” explains Ilkhanipour. With over sixteen thousand square feet, PGC boasts state-of-the-art facilities unrivaled by any other on the continent. The building was re-engineered to meet federal Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)’s gold standard. As an official “green” building, the well-ventilated facilities’ many skylights and windows provide natural light to reduce electricity requirements. The ventilation system also re-circulates heat from its furnaces to heat the building. The two-thousand-five-hundredsquare-foot hot shop contains eight fully-equipped workbenches. Each has its own glory hole with pneumatic doors large enough to accommodate pieces up to thirty inches in diameter. The studio is also equipped with one glory hole that is five feet deep and thirty-two inches in diameter, making it one of the largest on the east coast. The flame working, casting, and cold working studios are equally impressive and formidably equipped, furnished with the most technologically-advanced tools available today. “We couldn’t have achieved all of this without our funding and donors,” says Ilkhanipour, “As a nonprofit organization, we rely heavily on fundraisers and private donations in addition to tuition fees.” Over seven hundred students participate annually in classes ranging from three-hour workshops to two-week intensive sessions. “Classes are kept small, usually eight to ten students, with an instructor and assistant,” explains Ilkhanipour. “That way they get time and attention with the artists and a lot of 32

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hands-on learning.” “During the summer sessions, classes run from nine to five and the furnaces and workshops stay open until late at night,” she continues. “Many artists jokingly complain that there is ‘too much time,’ because by the end of the week, they’re exhausted.” PGC also provides a free outreach program for high school students, generating interest and nurturing new generations of Pittsburgh artists. The center maintains a symbiotic relationship with the surrounding community, attracting more than four thousand visitors from across the globe every year. “Everyone in the community has been more than helpful,” says Ilkhanipour, “The city jumped on board at the beginning of PGC and has been enthusiastic about the whole idea.” She attributes much of this enthusiasm to Pittsburgh’s historic connection with glass manufacturing. Over the last fift y years, as the influence of the steel industry has waned, the city has been encouraging a cultural renaissance, and the art glass scene has become a significant contributor. From post-World War II through the present, Pittsburgh has developed several clean air and urban revitalization acts that have successfully rejuvenated the region. As part of these projects the city has actively solicited artists everywhere to come and establish their studios within its reach. Already home to the Carnegie Museum of Art, founded in 1895, and other museums such as the Mattress Factory and the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh is no stranger to art. Due to the great success PGC has experienced over the last five years, the City of Pittsburgh has named 2007 “The Year of Glass.” With events at all levels, from a Dale Chihuly exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art to marble competitions for neighborhood children, the city is coming together to embrace the theme. “The city’s been very excited about it,” says Ilkhanipour, “They’ve helped us to branch out and get other art organizations and businesses involved.” The Glass Art Society (GAS) chose Pittsburgh and the PGC to host its 37th annual conference June 7-9, 2007. “Our theme ‘Transformational Matter’ really fits with the city,” says Pamela Figenshow Koss, Executive Director of GAS, “People classically think of Pittsburgh as the center of the steel industry but now it’s transforming into one of the greenest cities around. The buildings that will be hosting the conference have all won awards for energy efficiency.”

All images © Pirrsburgh Glass

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

JOHN MULKINS Architectual and Art Glass Studio

johnmulkins.com

Glass ar t society’s 37th annual conference Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania June 7-9, 2007

Demonstrations • Lectures • Technical Resource Center Education Resource Center • Gallery Forum • Auctions Tours • Exhibitions • Parties ... and More! GAs membership is open to anyone interested in glass art: Artists Museums Collectors

Galleries Suppliers Writers

Educators Students Manufacturers

For more information or to join, contact the GAS office.

3131 Western Avenue, Suite 414, Seattle, WA 98121 USA Tel: 206.382.1305 Fax: 206.382.2630 E-mail: info@glassart.org Web: www.glassart.org

Over 3000 members in 54 cOuntries

StevenSTELZ

by: JILL CULORA

Combining a century-old style with modern art glass techniques, New Jersey artist Steven Stelz is creating stunning stained glass windows, the quality of which has rarely been seen in nearly 100 years. Pine needles – narrow extensions of unevenly-shaped glass – are fused shards purposefully positioned to mimic a true likeness, where other contemporary window artists would have relied on paint to depict such detail. 36

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

Similarly, Stelz’s vines and floral scenes are produced using 100-year-old techniques of plating – overlaying layers of opalescent glass to create color variations, tone and depth – a result not achievable by light passing through a single layer of glass. “It’s all about the layers,” says Stelz, who has been producing these unique windows from his studio in Flemington, New Jersey for the past 20 years. “It’s glass, so you must try to utilize the abilities that it gives you.” Stelz adopted the technique of layering multi-colored opalescent glass and refraining from paint in his work – an American innovation developed by John LaFarge and his competitor, Louis Tiffany, and commonly referred to as the American School of Glass – after seeing the walls of a church flanked with this style of stained glass in the late 1970s. Until then, he had only ever seen the flat panel, painted, European style of stained glass windows.

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

“There’s a wonderment about glass. It’s like no other medium. It’s so interesting to me and the effects that glass produce far exceed other mediums,” Stelz says. World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

“It was a thrill for me to see the depth and colors that were created using the layers of opalescent glass,” he says. Influence is everything. And so to cultivate that influence, Stelz and his wife Trini hit the road and traveled to visit churches and other buildings housing American School-style windows. He learned from studying the works of artists such as Tiffany, LaFarge, Frederick Lamb and Maitland Armstrong. But when Stelz attempted to try the technique himself, he faced an unusual dilemma. The range of color and styles of opalescent glass used by the 19th-century masters was not available today. Searching for a solution, he visited Youghiogheny Glass Company in Pennsylvania where John Triggs helped him create custom opalescent sheet glass for his leaded glass work. Later, Stelz learned the technique and chemistry and started making his own glass at his studio so that he could produce all the colors and textures needed for his windows. Eventually he returned the favor to Youghiogheny, sharing tips on possible glass color mixes that could be used for their glass line. Stelz starts a window by first making a technical sketch – a rendering in water color. He then makes a full-sized cartoon which he uses to cut a pattern. Working off his water color, he hand casts the glass in the colors and textures he needs to illustrate the image. He does this by re-melting glass cullet and adding opalescent, frits, and metallic oxides to create the colors. He then ladles the liquid hot glass from the pot furnace and places it on a rolling table. Using a heavy steel roller to work the glass, he uses several techniques to vary the thickness and texture. 40

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World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

The opalescence is controlled by the chemistry of the glass and by striking – reheating the sheet in a final step. Stelz also uses powders and fusing, and a revitalized French technique known as pate de verre – casting with glass paste. However, none of these techniques are useful to Stelz unless he has a clear idea of the image he wants to make. He finds this clarity by spending time studying his subject. He recalls spending hours sitting in a pumpkin patch so that he could study the subject and absorb impressions needed to produce the glass images of pumpkins. He examined how the pumpkins changed in different light. He studied the details and he captured the images on film. Then, by working his custom and handmade opalescent glass, he placed the pieces in layers, one in front of the other, to achieve the true color likeness of a pumpkin – the combined effect of color variations found in each layer of glass. It’s a result that is impossible to achieve using a single layer of glass. Stelz also utilizes lead and copper foiling techniques, incorporating these elements into his designs. Jewels and radiant beach

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

pebbles can also be found in his work. And an enameling technique is sometimes used to depict background features such as the pine forest and sky in his Rhododendron window, created for the Kokomo Opalescent Glass Company. His body of work includes ceilings, screens, light fixtures and decorative mosaic plaques. “There’s a wonderment about glass. It’s like no other medium. It’s so interesting to me and the effects that glass produce far exceed other mediums,” he says. Self-taught, Stelz describes the “good fortune” of being able to work on restoring the works of his mentors – Tiffany and LaFarge. Restoring this work is how Stelz has learned the most about the American School style of stained glass windows. “What shocked me the most was how plain and mundane a single piece of glass was before it was layered and combined with other pieces,” he says, referring to a window restoration piece by Tiffany. Stelz had another shock, which proved to be a turning point in his glass career. One day, several years ago, while thumbing through the Christie’s catalogue, Stelz saw one of his mosaic pieces – but the caption, the headline and write-up described a 100-year-old piece by Tiffany. While some people would be flattered that their work could be mistaken for that of a pioneer American glass artist, Stelz took it as a clear signal that he had to shift gears and create a style of his own. (Christie’s later pulled the piece after Stelz produced drawings proving the work was his). This event is what led Stelz to many of the innovations he uses today. He began by experimenting with fusing mosaics on a ceramic substrate. His latest innovations are entire landscape paintings created by composing and fusing glass powders. 44

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

Stelz has spent time studying the color and chemistry of glass at Corning’s glass library. Through this he has been able to develop his own colors – making his work truly unique. Working on a small scale has allowed him to have better control over the glass he produces. And he is clear in stating that “without his custom made glass, there would be no windows approaching the quality that is found in the early American School works.” He points out that it just can’t be done with the glass that is commercially available today. Each new commission is a new challenge, an opportunity to build on what he knows and explore the possibilities of glass. Modern machinery such as glass saws enable him to work with much thicker pieces which in turn are capable of holding more depth and color than the glass of Tiffany and LaFarge. Stelz says he strives to create a mood or impression that will be around for generations for people to enjoy and to evoke a similar emotion as to the one he had when he first set eyes on American School style stained glass windows. With the beauty of the stained glass that Stelz is is producing, it’s clear that he’s achieving his goal and setting the standard of quality for the next 100 years.

Steven Stiltz

All images © Steven Steltz

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

Conversation with:

George Bucquet by: Kari McClelland

eorge

Bucquet makes what he wants, and if you like it too, well, that makes his job even easier. And Bucquet’s “job,” as he sees it, is not centered on selling as many pieces of his art as possible. Rather, as Bucquet states, “I try to stay focused on the work that is in front of me, or better yet, the work that is in me.… Of course I care very much if people are buying the work. However, it is important to keep in mind that selling the work is not the end, but the means.” Fortunately, Bucquet has had ample financial success and collectors’ acclaim to keep his studio running. His cast glass pieces have found homes with the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Bill Gates. He doesn’t care much for throwing around those names, however, and is quick to point out that “they’re just people and nobody’s more important than anyone else who buys the work.” Rather than dwelling on commercial success, which he says has come by the “Grace of God,” Bucquet’s priorities are on glass for the sake of the glass itself. Bucquet’s artistic journey began in Carmel, California, when he visited a prominent glass gallery and felt for the first time the excitement of blowing and creating artistic glass. From there he went to the Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle and then finally to Penland School in North Carolina, where he spent one year as a student and four years as a resident artist.

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

Describing himself as a “late bloomer,” Bucquet realized that going to a university wasn’t the most expedient way to learn what he wanted to know. Rather, he says, “I wanted to immerse myself wholly in glass. That’s why I went to Seattle and worked at Pratt and that’s also why I went and stayed at Penland.” Penland, a well-established school for crafts and craft-making, afforded Bucquet the ability to immerse himself fully in the glass-making process. That complete dedication to one medium, coupled with the influence of the people and artists he met while living in the Penland area, allowed Bucquet to more fully embrace his goal of getting into the glass market. Although the idea of blowing glass and creating stemware first led him into glass, he explains that “one thing led to another, and I never did make a goblet.” However, after many years in North Carolina, the end of which he spent making sculptural glass pieces, Bucquet found that “financially, my career was in the toilet.” Going home seemed to be the answer, and Bucquet moved back to California in order to pursue a different side of glass with his selfformed company, Mad River Glass.

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

The focus of Mad River Glass was cast glass dinnerware. Though coming from a somewhat different “world” of the glass market, Bucquet started “doing low-end production work” to get back on his feet financially. Looking back, however, he says it was “probably the best thing that happened to me … because it was humbling and it had me go back to the roots of glass, and really the foundation of glass—which was functional work, which was craft, which was a simple, humble thing that people could use.” This reshaping of priorities regarding glass as a medium and as an art form helped transform Mad River Glass and Bucquet himself and opened new opportunities for both. He moved on from creating dinnerware to making larger, vessel-based forms. Having to humble and reshape himself and his views about the various possibilities and markets of glass ignited in Bucquet a desire to find a way where he could, as he says “make the work, have it be accessible, be affordable, and still have the creative latitude I wanted so I could make changes and have the work flow.” In fact, this flow is primary in Bucquet’s mind and in his glass-making process. In his approach to casting glass, Bucquet admits that he is “more unorthodox, and that leads to a different kind of aesthetic.” In fact, he says that the technical aspect of just “figuring out how I’m going to make it,” by asking himself questions like “How am I going to make that thing? How’s it going to work?” and “What’s the glass going to do?” is the most difficult

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

part of the process. However, according to Bucquet, this method of changing and altering techniques to create a specific piece often “leads to another piece, and as this goes on, a kind of vocabulary of techniques is involved. And work will follow a certain vein, partially because of the end goal of the piece that wants to be made, but partially because the technique is the language that you’re speaking.” For Bucquet, each piece truly does have its own personal “end goal.” It is as if Bucquet is simply the conduit, the hands that create a work that already knows what it wants to become. This act of creation, of giving form to a new piece, is what excites Bucquet the most. He loves “that sort of groove or place you get to when you’re working on new work, when something is flowing through you and thought disappears. That is what it’s all about—the sense of communion or creative flow.” Often this flow accomplishes pieces that, according to Bucquet, are “simple designs that work well, or simple designs that evoke stillness or peacefulness.” In fact, he says that what influences his work the most is “the simple desire to create beauty, to evoke a feeling.”

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

Indeed, for Bucquet, success is “finding your own way to be happy in what you’re doing,” and that’s what he tries to accomplish with each piece of glass he casts and creates. In other words, success isn’t always defined monetarily or in popularity; it’s more of, well, a flow. And if you can go with that flow and be happy? That, as Bucquet says, is “being good at life.”

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

Although no artist can force a particular effect upon a viewer of his work, Bucquet hopes that his pieces “cause a stillness or a reflection” or “stop thought” so that the viewer can “just respond to beauty for beauty’s sake.” However, the entire process of creating these pieces of cast glass is not always a cause of stillness or reflection, and Bucquet is the first to admit that, “really, glass is a pain … Everybody thinks, ‘Oh, it’s so free, and look at all the form and the way it flows—it’s like a dance!’ but really, when you get down to it,… there’s these narrow technical parameters that you have to stay in to make pieces work.… There are so many things that could go wrong: compatibility, flaws, bubbles, annealing.… Really it’s kind of a pain in the neck. It’s a difficult, troublesome material to work in.” In addition to being “hard,” Bucquet also acknowledges that the glass making process is “very satisfying, and it’s fun and it’s unique.… The reason that people are attracted to it initially—the romance of it—is because it’s very seductive.” However, as in most relationships, that seductive allure soon gives way to reality. As Bucquet says, “when the honeymoon’s over and there you are—it’s really a pain … But it’s worth it, and I love it. I just think in glass. I’ve been doing it so long that that’s the vocabulary.” Having worked in the art glass business since the 1980’s, Bucquet finds himself “at a point where it can be easy to lose track of the reasons why I’m in this. It goes back to that creative process and finding your way with new work and having work evolve while trying to run a business.” World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

In other words, Bucquet has decided that it’s time for a break from the daily grind of running a studio. In following his plans to shut down his studio for about a year, Bucquet hopes to find the time to relax, develop new techniques and ideas, and get back to the basics. He looks forward to “being in the studio alone and all that goes with that: it is peaceful, reflective, creative, and edifying.” Rather than continuing to run his studio as it is—complete with employees and a constant whirlwind of projects, this year off will allow Bucquet “time for re-creation” and, as he puts it, “in-spirit-ation.” Whether or not these new ideas and creations will be similar to the “old” and familiar Bucquet is yet to be seen. However, leaving behind a specific legacy or revolutionary collection of work for the art glass world is not at all on Bucquet’s agenda. First and foremost, Bucquet wants to keep making work that is honest and that represents him and, most importantly, itself. As he says, “it’s a trick, being able to make what you want and accomplish what you want and have all the pieces fit together. You have to follow that flow” that comes from the creation of the piece itself. And Bucquet intends to keep following that flow and make what he wants. He has personally found that, “the more I do what I want, the more successful I’ve been. You can calculate all you want,… you can come up with something terribly clever and for whatever reason it works or it doesn’t work. I can’t figure it out. It’s a blessing that it all works out. You do your best and try to make the best work that you can and hope it works out.” Indeed, for Bucquet, success is “finding your own way to be happy in what you’re doing,” and that’s what he tries to accomplish with each piece of glass he casts and creates. In other words, success isn’t always defined monetarily or in popularity; it’s more of, well, a flow. And if you can go with that flow and be happy? That, as he says, is “being good at life.”

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

George leading the team as they cast a large piece

All images © George Bucquet

George Bucquet World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

Freed Gallery

by: Llyod Braun

estled on the central coast of Oregon between the ocean and forested Coast Range Mountains, Lee Freed’s Lincoln City art gallery exists in harmony with its exquisite surroundings. “We have no seascapes and no seagulls,” Freed tells visitors. “God made them better. Just go outside and look!” Freed has a deep love for her work and environment. “The natural beauty of this place is beyond description,” she exclaims. “Every day is a different scene.” In 1994, after thirty years of working in Chicago real estate, Freed traded in the stress of the city for the beauty, tranquility, and relaxed lifestyle of the Oregon coast. She and her husband fell in love with the area while there on a family vacation. Vibrant and energetic, Freed felt unable to “just retire.” She decided to bring art to the resort community, opening Freed Gallery with only three artists, one of whom was contemporary glass artist Benjamin Moore.

Freed Gallery is a work of art in and of itself. It features twostory windows and incredible views, which include striking 56

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

From those humble beginnings, Freed Gallery has grown to represent over 120 world class artists from all over the globe. They hail from countries including Japan, Greece, the Netherlands, Australia, Greece, and the United States. This summer Lee even hosted an international glass exhibit, featuring acclaimed artists such as George Hamilton, Peter Layton from the United Kingdom, Hiroshi Yamano from Japan, Yorgos Kypris from Greece, Peter Bremers from the Netherlands and Ion Tamiian from Romania. About seventy-five percent of the gallery’s artists live in the Pacific Northwest. “Emerging artists are the lifeblood of this business,” Freed states.

“We have no seascapes and no seagulls…God made them better. Just go outside and look!” outdoor sculptures that Lee calls her “neon sign” for people passing on Highway 101. The gallery, designed by Freed herself, has a reputation for high quality presentations and an expansive variety of artists and mediums. “We don’t believe in crowding,” Lee asserts. “Everything has to have space around it. We are fortunate that our 18-foot ceilings provide a wonderful space for our works. However, we balance this by not having a museum look to the gallery. We want it user-friendly. [Having the space] subject and color coordinated—without a decorated look—is important.” Lee fosters an attitude of cooperation among her employees, and takes pride in her staff. “There is little competition among them,” she says. “It may take more than one person to make a sale, and we all work together toward that goal. Ego is not good team work.” Freed has not only created a sought-after art destination in one of the most awe inspiring places in the world, but also works tirelessly to bring art education to the children in her community. If you ask Lee Freed what she loves most about her work, she will probably tell you about the “Let There Be Arts” program she co-founded with Suzanne Dalton, a local school principal. Freed recently received an award from NICHE magazine, which named 58

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All images © Freed Gallery

her their Best Local Community Outreach winner for her work with children in Lincoln County, Oregon. Freed spent much of her youth at the Chicago Institute and was raised in an atmosphere that fostered her love for the arts. She thought that all children received art and music education until she moved to Lincoln County, where over seventy percent of the children live below poverty level. At the time, these children had little or no contact with the arts. Now in its seventh year and under the direction of Kaline Klaas, the “Let There Be Arts” program engages children in artistic pursuits, bringing teachers, parents, children, and the community businesses together in a common goal. Freed’s program includes guest artists, concerts, music and movement, hands-on instruction, and art education, appreciation, and exploration. She also works with theater production and performance, as well as The Americana program in the high schools. “Now we have accomplished something that needed to be done here, where people will work together for the good of children,” says Freed. Freed has opened a second gallery in Portland, and may expand into other locations as well. She hopes her art program will continue to grow as well so it can benefit many more children. Lee Freed finds fulfillment in teaching young people to see beauty around them, and to use it as inspiration to create art. According to Freed, the most beautiful wall in her office is the one on which hang the many thank you cards that she has received over the years. These come from children who have enjoyed and benefited from her art program, and who otherwise might not have had those opportunities. Whether it’s fostering art appreciation in local schools or in the community, Lee Freed has brought to Lincoln City a unique and welcomed approach to art though her galleries and community outreach programs. And with her work in the schools, her positive influence is sure to be felt for years to come. World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

Satava: Inspiration from R I C H A R D

the

DEEP by: Nathan Grover

World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

The

Aquarium on California’s Monterey Bay is a major attraction for both tourists and locals. Every weekend you can expect to find large processions of eager sightseers pushing through the aquarium’s dim blue passages. Of the many wonders the Aquarium offers, few are more popular, and more strange, than the jellyfish of the Outer Bay. In fact, the Pacific Coast sea nettles, the largest jellies on display, collect such large crowds that it causes a foot-traﬃc problem. At any one time, half a dozen people have their digital cameras or cell phone cameras fixed on the display and are clicking away. It’s hard not to get a good shot. The jellyfish drift in a field of blue, looking something like Victorian-belled skirts as they bob their long, lacy flounces up and down the tank. Lit from beneath by a hidden lamp, they saturate with eerie bronze light. They’re almost unfathom62

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

able—they’re not exactly plants and not exactly animals. They look as though they might have evolved on some strange and different planet. And as you continue, the press of the crowd urging you along, life on earth seems more alien and possibly more magical than you’ve previously imagined. Almost twenty years ago, glass artist Richard Satava stood in front of this very display and was struck with an idea. “Wow!” he recalls. “What a gorgeous creature! I knew right then I could put that in glass, because it was translucent. It had all the properties of glass. It was a perfect fit.” Satava began talking with the Aquarium about his idea. They thought it was a perfect fit, too, and if he could accomplish it they said that they would love to partner with him to display and sell his pieces. His timing couldn’t have been better; the Aquarium was planning the grand opening of their new jellyfish tank for the following year. Greatly encouraged, Satava went to work trying to recreate some of nature’s most bizarre handiwork. Though the inspiration for the project came in a flash, the execution would prove a long, painstaking task. It took Satava four years to hone his jellyfish, and he worked well beyond his projected timeline. “I was doing tradeshows all that time and still had my other line I was producing. Three years in a row I brought my jellyfish with me to the ACD show in Baltimore. I put them on display, but they just didn’t look right, so I pulled them down.” Nothing less than a living jellyfish rendered in glass would do. Now, those years of trial and error behind him, Satava has perfected his process. In his studio in downtown Chico, California, with the aid of three assistants, Jim Radey, Mark Delfava, and Wyatt Campbell, Satava creates his jellyfish. He begins by taking a gather of clear molten glass. Working from the inside out, he paints on layers of tendrils with a hand torch and thin rods of colored glass. Unlike a painting or a drawing that can be revisited day after day, a jellyfish must be painted in the heat of the moment— specifically at 2090 degrees Fahrenheit. The job requires precision and confidence. It’s nearly impossible to erase a line that is buried an inch in glass. Building layer upon layer, Satava constructs a depth of wavy tendrils. He then crowns the piece with the jellyfish’s characteristic colorful bell and encases the finished creature in a dome of clear glass.

“I feel blessed,” Satava says. “I’m fortunate to have worked in this medium as long as I have. I still love it as much today as when I first started. “The key to figuring this thing out was the color,” says Satava. “I started the way most glass artists do; go buy some colors and try them out. That’s how most glass studios do it. But there’s only a few out there—and we’re one of them—who have the capability to melt their own colors. I have a furnace with five crucibles where I melt five different colors. The turning point was when instead of designing a jellyfish with what we had available, we said, let’s make available what we need.” So Satava began experimenting with formulas until he had just the right colors. Finally, pleased with his design, Satava began selling the pieces at the Aquarium. He was among twelve artists whose work the Aquarium selected for their new exhibit, “Jellies: Living Art”, where Satava showed, among other work, three large jellyfish glass sculptures weighing fifty pounds each. The exhibit had originally been scheduled to last a year and a half, but proved so popular that it has continued for seven years. Although Satava’s work has now been rotated out of the exhibit after a long residency, his glass jellyfish can still be found on display in a glass case outside the exhibit as well as for sale in the gift shop. The Monterey Bay Aquarium gift shop is, like most gift shops, a busy, cluttered place. The patrons squint, having just emerged from the darkness of the deep-sea displays. They meander in that half-dazed, half-distracted spell that gift shops cast over their customers. They sift through stuffed otter dolls and hermit crab refrigerator magnets until finally they encounter a tall cabinet filled with radiant glass jellyfish. This display, like the Pacific Coast sea nettles that inspired it, collects an audience, and when the crowd disperses they leave behind nose smudges and hand prints on the glass as tokens of their interest. The first thing one notices upon seeing a Satava jellyfish is how life-like the creature looks. The glass bell, like the bell of a living jellyfish, is semi-transparent; frosted with enough color so that the skin glows as it captures the light, but also transparent enough so that the viewer can see through the skin into the mysterious inner workings. Inside the bell there are other bells and suggestions of bells in varying states of opacity. The skirt is created by impressionist paint strokes that hang suspended in three-dimensional space. Satava replicates the jellyfish’s tendrils with wispy strokes of relatively opaque glass, while the jellyfish’s more fleshy appendages (called “mouth arms”) are formed from translucent touches of glass. Consistent throughout the pieces are Satava’s striking, unexpected colors, whether looking at his ghostly iridescent moon jelly, or his gold ruby jelly, whose bell is a spiral of rich wine-red and bright gold glass. 64

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Rick Satava

World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

In some ways, Richard Satava’s jellies make the perfect aquatic pet. Dazzlingly colorful and life-like, they’re sure to catch the eye, but there’s no murky tank to clean and no fish food to buy. Unlike a real jellyfish, you can handle them without being stung. And they remain perfectly content beaming from their crystal clear dome. Perhaps this is why the design has become so popular. “As an artist you’re always trying to come up with a design everyone’s interested in,” Satava says, “and this was definitely a grand slam.” Patrons of the Monterey Bay Aquarium or vacationers snorkeling in Hawaii—those who have been freshly seduced by the vivid creatures of the sea—-are given a unique opportunity, upon finding Satava’s work, to bring a keepsake home with them. The design has also been popular among marine biologists, which Satava counts as a true compliment. “These are people who actually know what they’re looking at!” he laughs. One biologist even went so far as to present a Satava jellyfish to his companion while underwater on a scuba diving excursion. Satava’s other work is mainly the interest of art glass collectors, but the jellyfish seems to have struck a chord among the general public. “From the beginning we realized we had a market that was unrelated to the collectors market.... Collectors are buying them, but so are the noncollectors. Maybe we’re starting them as collectors by getting them into the jellyfish,” Satava muses. Either way, he couldn’t be happier. The success of the jellyfish has spawned a whole line of sea-inspired designs. Among his paperweights is the Nautilus, a globe of glass, which presents a sleek red and black spiral set on an abstract ocean floor. He’s created sea anemones and “sideswimmer” jellies, which swim over a floor of realistic barnacles. Jellyfish and nautiluses have also found their way into Satava’s sophisticated vase designs. These vessels of various size and body-shape have provided Satava with a canvas on which to perfect a number of stunning portrayals of nature. Some of these are portraits of famous wilderness sites in the western United States. Mount Shasta for instance, presents a frosty winter forest, and Yellowstone depicts the mineral hills and blackened trees of a wilderness visited by fire. Satava has also created portraits of Sedona, the Grand Teton, and most recently, the Northern Lights.

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

When posed with the question, Why nature? Satava asks, “What could be more natural? I’m outside all the time. I live in the country. I live on a river, in a beautiful setting with wildlife around me everyday. And our studio is open. I’m not an indoor person; I like to be outside. I feel comfortable designing things that are related to nature.” World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

He explores more general themes of nature as well in his sleek and elegant Poppy, Bamboo, and Iris designs. With his Petroglyph vases he recreates the rough of sandstone, branding it with the artwork of Hopi, Anasazi, and other indigenous peoples. In some vases he’s combined motifs blending the indigenous depictions of sea turtles with the red nautilus, capping the vessel with a tiny sideswimmer jellyfish. The Harvest Moon is an especially eye-catching vase design, one reminiscent of Asian brush and ink paintings. Here the moon beams through a leafless tree as wisteria vines droop to catch the lunar light. As with all of his work, special care is taken to render startling, perfect color. When posed with the question, Why nature? Satava asks, “What could be more natural? I’m outside all the time. I live in the country. I live on a river, in a beautiful setting with wildlife around me everyday. And our studio is open. I’m not an indoor person; I like to be outside. I feel comfortable designing things that are related to nature.” Satava discovered glass blowing as a freshman in high school. He’s never done anything else, and he’s never wanted to do anything else. “I feel blessed,” he says. “I’m fortunate to have worked in this medium as long as I have. I still love it as much today as when I first started. What keeps me going is the new work and the accolades received by the various designs. People from all around the world have been calling for our work, and that’s a real treat.”

All images © Rick Satava

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

Mark Delfava, Jim Ready, No Name, Wyatt Campbell and Rick Satava

His love for the medium is obvious in the enthusiasm with which he speaks of it. His experience as a craftsman and patience as an artist shows in his work. It is a success well deserved. Satava Art Glass Studio

World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

isgb_w_artglass.qsd

12/14/2006

5:22 PM

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SMALLER SCALE, GREATER REACH. ISGBâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s outreach encompasses the yearly Gathering , museum e xhibits, and national bead sho ws to involvement with art glass conferences. Diverse programming continually fuels the awareness of this art form, and helps support our memberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s endeavors. The Trajectories e xhibit, showing at the Bead Museum in Glendale, Arizona, runs through March 2007, travelling nationally thereafter. Look for us at the Philadelphia Buyers Market of American Craft. For information on ISGB programs and membership, visit www.isgb.org.

Shown: Margaret Zinser: Woodlands Maze

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The magic of

English Muffle

Painting by Rhonda Foster

Have you ever wandered down a cobblestone alley or through a tiny village while on vacation and stumbled across an entrancing leadlight glass window? Chances are you caught a glimpse of English Muffle, a glass recently resurrected from the Victorian era. This dazzling, highly-polished glass is available in a huge range of wonderful, soft colours and its unique design makes it easy to cut. Would you like to add a touch of Victorian beauty? Contact Wissmach Glass for a list of English Muffle distributors in your area.

P.O. Box 228 Paden City, WV 26159 Tel: 1-304-337-2253 Fax:1-304-337-8800 Email: wissmach@rcvideo.com

JMoore I im

by: Susan Bowen

nvariably, when glassblowers across the world discuss tools, Jim Moore’s name is mentioned. As a skilled toolmaker and artisan, his goal is simple; make tools that will sell themselves. And for twenty-five years his tools have been doing just that.

Jim’s fondness for metal began at an early age. At twelve he saved his lunch money for his first acetylene torch. With supportive parents he spent many hours welding and making metal sculpture. As the years passed, he acquired a keen working knowledge of metal.

Needing work and knowing the right people landed Moore a job at Englesby Glass Studios in 1982. His metal working skills were immediately put to work sharpening and altering some of the tools and equipment. Glass blowing tools were hard to find in the eighties, so Jim made the tools he needed as he began blowing glass. His first was a graphite paddle, followed by a puffer. He later began trading and selling the tools as he made them. While working at the Glass Eye Studio, Jim purchased his first pair of jacks. They were made by the master Italian toolmaker Antonio Dino and they cost Moore a full week’s wages. As he studied the fine Italian tool, he

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

wondered why tools of that caliber were not readily available from American manufacturers. Combining his tool-making skills with his knowledge of glass blowing, Moore realized he could craft a tool that would be comparable to the Italian product. From 1985 to 1990 he worked hard at learning how to make a better tool. With guidance and suggestions from many glass blowing friends, he was able to craft the tools they needed. In 1990, the Glass Art Society held its annual conference in his hometown of Seattle, Washington. Moore was able to introduce his tools to glass artists attending from around the world. As his customers were discovering the integrity of Jim’s tools, Moore was making a discovery of his own; it became clear that there was a market for his quality glass blowing tools. He had found his niche. He promptly quit his day job maintaining industrial furnaces and began making tools full-time. The glass blowing community at that time was small and close-knit, and news of Moore’s tools spread quickly. Liz Wootten first 74

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heard of him while working at a glass factory in South Africa, several years before they met in 1994. “When I met Jim he was making tools all day and returning phone calls and shipping late into the night,” Liz says, smiling. “It was obvious to me that he needed a wife!” Liz took over the shipping and office end of the business, leaving Jim to focus on developing his product line. Claude Wootten, her brother, joined the business in 1997, contributing his tool and die expertise. Over the years, Jim has created a variety of tools for shaping, cutting, and manipulating hot glass. His shears, tweezers, and jacks are among the most popular, often referred to as “workhorse” tools by the artists that use them, because the tools never wear out. Those who have used Moore Tools know that quality does make a difference in the end product. His tools make that end product better. With the recent popularity in glass bead making, they have received increasing requests for new tools. Andrea GuarrinoSlemmons, world renowned bead artist, has been helping Jim design tools to fill their unique needs. With many students taking bead-making classes, Jim has found that “new students mean new tools.” The Moores work out of their home in Port Townsend, Washington. When visiting the workshop, one finds stacks of shears and other tools in raw form waiting to be forged, ground and polished. Liz packs the tools on the dining room table and ships to artists in 17 countries. Their children, Anna age ten, and Groves, age eight, serve as a delightful distraction. They can be seen helping out in the Moore Tools booth at the annual Glass Art Society Conferences. When asked what direction his business is headed and what World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

Claude Wootten, Jim Moore, Liz Moore, and Joel Burns

the future holds, Moore answers, “Keep making quality tools and follow the direction glass goes.” With his knack for staying close to the pulse of the glass art industry, it is evident Jim Moore will continue to fill the needs of the glass artist, maintaining his high standards and producing quality tools. Perhaps he characterizes his work best with the following statement taken from his website;

“Tools, life and art continue to evolve, but my goals remain the same. I try to make tools that help you translate the picture in your head to the piece on the stick. Tools that feel right in your hand and that you feel right about owning. Tools that do exactly what you want, every time you pick them up.” 76

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Connecting artists with art buyers for over twenty years, through artist sourcebooks, catalogs, and website.

Visit www.guild.com or call 877-223-4600 to become a Guild artist or to request a free catalog.

K okomo O palescent G lass Company by: Jessica Renae

World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

Making Glass Since 1888

World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

How do you get to be the oldest opalescent glass manufacturer in the world? Just ask Dick Elliott, president of Kokomo Opalescent Glass Company located in Kokomo, Indiana. “Over the years we have developed a name for ourselves as the number one manufacturer of quality sheets [of glass] — but we do an awful lot more. We are involved in almost every aspect of colored glass; special shapes, rondels, blown glass, and giftware. We are always looking for new products and a new direction which would supply us with a little growth.” And that formula has allowed Kokomo Opalescent Glass Company (KOG) to thrive for well over 100 years.

In continuous operation since 1888, KOG manufactures sheet glass the same way it did in the early part of the twentieth century, having then perfected the process. At the factory, you’ll see assistants deftly running ladles of molten glass from a twelvepot furnace to a mixing table to be hand mixed, rolled and hand cut, then packaged in hand built crates for shipping. Mixing the sheets one at a time gives KOG artisans infinite flexibility in color and texture options. They boast the ability to manufacture over 22,000 different color/density/texture combinations. A huge natural gas pocket was discovered in Kokomo, Indiana in the 1800’s. Free natural gas was offered to anyone who would bring business and new jobs to Kokomo. Within ten years, the gas was gone and so were most of the glass businesses that relied on it. KOG is the lone survivor. Its longevity is due to it’s ability to produce unique and beautiful art glass to discerning artists. Many restoration specialists use Kokomo glass because more often than not, the glass they’re trying to match was originally made by Kokomo. KOG expanded in 1998 with the opening of the KOG Hot Glass Studio. The Studio produces singular hand blown and hand cast glass. KOG is renowned for their opalescent glass, designed and created by the nationally recognized artists Jon Wolfe and Michael Amis. On KOG’s website, Amis states: “The designs I develop for the KOG Hot Glass Studio utilize a wide variety of blowing techniques and approaches to the functional glass object. I like to try something new or different with each design. With the Colorfield series, I developed a process of winding 80

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

Workers in the early years, installing a new tank in the main furnnace

World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

separate colored glass bands on top of each other in order to build a form in which those colors can blend in subtle ways or juxtapose the vivid hues. I am exploring the concepts and conventions of function with the Space Ware collection. The Anti-Gravity Martini and the Martian Martini challenge the traditional form of the martini glass in a playful way. Whether developing a new technical process or taking an old one in new directions, I enjoy pushing myself as a glass blower and as a designer. This helps keep the work challenging for me to make and hopefully keeps the designs fresh and unique for the viewer.” While Michael Amis pushes the limits of form, function, and color, John Wolfe prefers “the simple dialogue of basic design elements that provide a canvas for active surface treatment”. “Active surface treatment” doesn’t even begin to describe the complexity, depth and beauty of John’s multi-layered, almost organic art designs. The depth of these simple forms of vases and bottles give the feeling that you are peering into another world. World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

www.pattycokus.com

Cardiovascular brooch: clogged, 2006, sterling silver borosilicate glass, soft glass, salted butter

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Between R a n d o m n e s s and Chaos with Ed Kirshner

by: DK Sweet

World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

Ed Kirshner

f you like juxtapositions, you will love Ed Kirshner. His resume exemplifies things that don’t normally go together. Glass artist and Vice President of an investment firm is one odd pairing. Working with the geographically, ethnically, and socially disparate communities of Santa Barbara, California, and Oakland, California, as an affordable housing consultant is another. But the most visually interesting juxtaposition in Kirshner’s life is the two elements of tension evident in his artistic work: control and chaos. Many artists subjected to pop-culture psychoanalysis are said to be attempting to exert control through their art: Control over the chaos they see in society or feel in their often-tortured souls. Kirshner’s psyche doesn’t fit on that couch. His altruistic instincts seek control over the kind of economic chaos that forces some people to live in cardboard boxes. But when it comes to his art, Kirshner says “I like to straddle the line between randomness and chaos.” If that sounds like a clichéd pretension, it’s not. Kirshner knows what he likes, what he doesn’t, and why. His manner of describing those things employs the directness you would expect to find in a scientist rather than in an artist. So it’s no surprise that his current interest in plasma sculpture can be traced back in part to a childhood interest in the scientific method. “I really liked science as a kid. Making small changes in things; observing the different outcomes … I was definitely drawn to that.” Nature played a part too. “I was really fascinated by the Aurora Borealis.” It’s perhaps also no surprise both of these inspirations led Kirshner to what a scientist might accurately describe as “putting lightning in a bottle.”

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

The pleasure in the cerebral aspects of science may have been the catalyst, but there’s no mistaking that Kirshner’s art is driven overwhelmingly by an aesthetic impulse. While he can talk about his techniques at an atomic level, it’s not the mention of charged particles or chemical reactions that stir artistic wonder. And it’s not the elements he takes off the Periodic Table to make his visual stews of light and gas that this writer found most compelling. It’s when Kirshner talks about that line between randomness and chaos that things get really interesting. First, though, a bit of science: Plasma is the so-called fourth state of matter, right after solids, liquids, and gases. Apply enough energy to a gas and it turns to plasma. The extra energy blasts negatively-charged electrons off the atoms that make up the gas and divides the gas into positively charged ions and loose electrons. Plasma generally radiates a lot of visible light and heat. The electrons continue to be attracted to the ions, and tend to reattach themselves as soon as the energy or heat diminishes, so plasma is inherently unstable. It doesn’t last very long unless you insulate it from natural earthly 90

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

forces in a vacuum. Kirshner’s artistry doesn’t come from creating the blown vessels that provide the vacuum protection. “I’m just not good enough a glass bower” he admits. Despite a good deal of instruction in top institutions from Oakland, California to Ithaca, New York, the artist prefers to assign this part of the process to superior glass blowers. Outside of blown glass creations, Kirshner does create his own vessels with what amounts to glue and thick pieces of glass. It’s very specialized glue—a uniquely rare substance that won’t chemically react to the forces of electricity and gas. Kirshner’s “inner scientist” states with evident satisfaction “it performs better than the stuff NASA uses at a fraction of the cost.” Saving money on the elements of his creation is more important than in most artistic endeavors. He scraps a staggering one fifth of his pieces after concluding they will never measure up to his aesthetic standards. And what are those standards? World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

World Art Glass Quarterly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volume 2

“The most visually interesting juxtaposition in Kirshner’s life is the two elements of tension evident in his artistic work: control and chaos.”

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

“A lot of plasma and neon artists go for dramatic, highly dynamic effects,” Kirshner explains, “like the ‘lightning in a globe’ stuff that’s coming out of China now. But that doesn’t interest me. I’m always striving for something, well, sensuous … more languid and ethereal than electrifying.” If you’re into jazz, you might say the sonic equivalent of a Kirshner piece is more akin to Miles Davis’ early 60’s “Kinda Blue” than the often frenetic electronic music the visionary musician produced from the 1970’s forward. Like Davis was famous for in his music, Kirshner embraces a fair amount of experimental improvisation in his art. In fact, he says some amount of randomness is an unavoidable aspect of the craft. “It’s virtually impossible to get a piece to turn out exactly a particular way” he admits, adding “you just can’t control the large effects that come from undetectably small influences.” Those influences include small differences in glass thickness throughout a piece, tiny vessel shape anomalies, the mix of gases he uses, and the impurities in each gas. Once he begins applying the forces that make the light “perform” in his pieces, how long does it typically take him before he’s satisfied? “Five seconds to five weeks” he replies instantly. “Though there are a number of effects I can produce consistently and fairly quickly, most of the time it’s more a process of continued experimentation until I like what I see.” Paraphrasing Yogi Berra, he concludes: “You don’t get there until you get there.” Listen to Kirshner describe the process of getting there—to the aesthetic line between randomness and chaos—and you may hear some really interesting doors opening on the way. When he described how, every once in a while and for no apparent reason, a randomly moving plasma 94

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

environment will instantly “self organize” into a stable, fixed state, it reminded me of one of the arguments “creationists” make: for things like that to happen in the natural world there has to be an intelligent creator involved somehow. Kirshner dismisses that notion, but states that the odds of some things happening totally randomly are so outlandishly remote it proves one of two things: “Either there’s an intelligent creator or a second universe.” Kirshner thinks selforganizing environments prove the latter. For this writer, it proves something else: what’s going on inside an Ed Kirshner plasma sculpture can be more interesting than what the eyes alone can see.

World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 2

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