![]() ![]() Many glass artists talk about how mistakes shape their work. ![]() Using metal tools, they then sculpt the material, perhaps applying color or more glass, and reheat the glass periodically in another furnace called a “glory hole.” At any point, the entire vessel could break off the pipe and shatter. (The Corning Museum of Glass partnered with Celebrity Cruises to bring glassblowing demos to their ships.) Onlookers watch as artists extract molten glass from a 2,000-degrees-Fahrenheit furnace with a long metal blow pipe. The process is mesmerizing, jaw-dropping and nerve-wrecking. Glass art isn’t holding its value well on the secondary market, Maylone says.Īlexander Rosenberg competes on "Blown Away."Īt the same time, glassblowing demonstrations-the “spectacle” of glassmaking, as Maylone puts it-have become a popular pastime. A 2015 report produced by the Glass Art Society and Chihuly Garden and Glass suggested that, despite public enthusiasm for glassmaking, galleries are concerned that young art collectors were less excited about the medium. to teach their techniques, launching a number of successful artists, including Chihuly.īut now things have changed. ![]() Then, in the 1960s, the studio glass movement brought Venetian maestros to the U.S. The Industrial Revolution saw increased production of luxury goods, and factories full of artisans working with glass popped up all over Europe and the United States machines made it possible to manufacture glass, and glass tableware became affordable and accessible to the masses. During the Renaissance, Venetian “maestros” perfected the art of glassblowing, making ornate vessels such as dragon-stem goblets. In ancient Rome, glass makers discovered that they could inflate glass by blowing into a tube, making it much easier to create vessels. The first, simple glass objects were made before 2000 B.C., in ancient Mesopotamia. Glass artists, as well as many art institutions, hope that the show will raise public perception of glassblowing as a fine art-a perception that has been diminishing in recent years, according to Cybele Maylone, executive director of Connecticut’s Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and former executive director of UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, New York. In each episode, artists create a finished piece in a matter of hours, each hoping to avoid elimination and emerge the winner, who receives a $60,000 prize and a coveted artist residency at the Corning Museum of Glass. Premiering this Friday, July 12, the show is the first-ever competition series to focus on glassblowing. This show will showcase the huge range of work that’s being made in glass, and what different generations are doing with it.” But Chihuly’s work is just one-albeit, very famous-interpretation of glass. Which is not a bad comparison, and I’m glad people know of his work. Far beyond the paraphernalia Gray’s interlocutors ask about, the art form demands incredible skill and produces stunning works worthy of any museum collection.Īdds Gray of the stereotypes she encounters, “Or, they think I make work like Dale Chihuly. A professor of art at California State University, San Bernadino, Gray is the chief judge on “Blown Away,” a new Netflix reality competition centered around the dramatic, sweaty, creative process of glassblowing. This all raises the cost and takes a lot of time! Because we have a busy production schedule, we’re unable to take time out to work on pieces like this.“When I say I’m a glassblower, people think I make pipes and bongs,” says Katherine Gray with a laugh. Anything that deviates from our typical style and production requires prototyping, experimenting and trial and error. If you’re looking for something completely different from what you see on our website, we will likely pass. You can certainly ask us, but it’s unlikely we’ll make things like this. We get people asking for specific animals, vessels, items from movies, one time even a tiara and glass slippers. Art evolves, so if you’re interested in a piece from 20 years ago, that might not be a possibility. However, be aware that out website is a time capsule of artwork and some styles are no longer in production. If you see something on our website and would like it customized, we’d be happy to talk to you about it! Feel free to send us an email here. We do make custom pieces! However, there’s also a great deal of custom work we don’t do. ![]()
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