Glass art
Encyclopedia
Studio glass or glass sculpture is the modern use of glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

 as an artistic medium to produce sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

s or three-dimensional artworks
Work of art
A work of art, artwork, art piece, or art object is an aesthetic item or artistic creation.The term "a work of art" can apply to:*an example of fine art, such as a painting or sculpture*a fine work of architecture or landscape design...

. Specific approaches include working glass at room temperature cold working, stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

, working glass in a torch flame (lampworking
Lampworking
Lampworking is a type of glasswork that uses a gas fueled torch to melt rods and tubes of clear and colored glass. Once in a molten state, the glass is formed by blowing and shaping with tools and hand movements. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking, as the modern practice no longer...

), glass beadmaking
Glass beadmaking
The technology for glass beadmaking is among the oldest human arts, dating back 3,000 years . Glass beads have been dated back to at least Roman times...

, glass casting
Glass casting
Glass casting is the process in which glass objects are cast by directing molten glass into a mould where it solidifies. The technique has been used since the Egyptian period...

, glass fusing
Fused glass
Fused glass is a term used to describe glass that has been fired in a kiln at a range of high temperatures from to . There are 3 main distinctions for temperature application and the resulting effect on the glass....

, and, most notably, glass blowing. As a decorative and functional medium, glass was extensively developed in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 and Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...

, brought to the fore by the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 (who spread glassblowing, invented by the Phoenicians), and includes among its greatest triumphs European cathedral stained glass windows. Great ateliers
Studio
A studio is an artist's or worker's workroom, or the catchall term for an artist and his or her employees who work within that studio. This can be for the purpose of architecture, painting, pottery , sculpture, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, radio or television...

 like Tiffany
Tiffany glass
Tiffany glass refers to the many and varied types of glass developed and produced from 1878 to 1933 at the Tiffany Studios, by Louis Comfort Tiffany....

, Lalique, Daum, Gallé
Galle
Galle is a city situated on the southwestern tip of Sri Lanka, 119 km from Colombo. Galle is the capital city of Southern Province of Sri Lanka and it lies in Galle District....

, the Corning schools in upper New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 state, and Steuben Glass Works
Steuben Glass Works
Steuben Glass Works was an American art glass manufacturer, founded in the summer of 1903 by Fredrick C. Carder and Thomas G. Hawkes in Corning, New York, which is in Steuben County, from which the company name was derived. Hawkes was the owner of the largest cut glass firm then operating in Corning...

 took glass art to the highest levels. Glass from Murano
Murano
Murano is a series of islands linked by bridges in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. It lies about 1.5 km north of Venice and measures about across with a population of just over 5,000 . It is famous for its glass making, particularly lampworking...

 (also known as Venetian glass) is the result of hundreds of years of refinement and invention. Murano is still held as the birthplace of modern glass art.

The glass objects created are intended to make a sculptural or decorative statement. On the market, their prices may range from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars (US).

Before about the early 1960s, contemporary glass art had mostly been glass made for decorative use, usually by teams of factory workers, taking glass from furnaces with a thousand or more pounds of glass. This form of glass art, of which Tiffany and Steuben in the U.S.A., Gallé
Émile Gallé
Émile Gallé was a French artist who worked in glass, and is considered to be one of the major forces in the French Art Nouveau movement.- Biography :...

 in France and Hoya Crystal
Crystal
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. The scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is known as crystallography...

 in Japan, Royal Leerdam Crystal
Royal Leerdam Crystal
Royal Leerdam Crystal, also known as Royal Leerdam, is the designing and glass blowing department of Dutch glassware producing factory, Glasfabriek Leerdam. The company was founded in 1765 as a manufacturer of bottles in the Dutch city of Leerdam....

 in The Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 and Orrefors and Kosta Boda
Kosta Glasbruk
Kosta Glasbruk is a Swedish glassworks founded by two foreign officers in Charles XII's army, Anders Koskull and Georg Bogislaus Stael von Holstein, in 1742 . It is located in Kosta, Sweden...

 in Sweden are perhaps the best known, grew out of the factory system in which all glass objects were hand or mold blown
Glassblowing
Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble, or parison, with the aid of a blowpipe, or blow tube...

 by teams of 4 or more men. The turn of the 19th Century was the height of the old art glass movement while the factory glass blowers were being replaced by mechanical bottle blowing and continuous window glass.

Australia

The early glass movement (studio glass) in Australia was spurred on by a visit to Australia by American artist Richard Marquis
Richard Marquis
Richard Marquis is an American studio glass artist who was born September 17, 1945 in Bumblebee, Arizona. He studied both ceramics and glass at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a BA in 1969 and an MA in 1972...

, who toured the country in the early seventies with a mobile studio assisted by Australian Nick Mount. Since that time Australian glass has gained worldwide recognition with Adelaide in South Australia, hosting the International Glass Art Society Conference in 2005 on only its third occasion outside of the U.S.A.

Belgium

Daniël Theys en Chris Miseur from the glass factory Theys & Miseur in Kortrijk-Dutsel, Belgium, which represent Belgian artistic glass work concerning the entire world.

China

In China, the making of glass arts date back to the Western Han Dynastry of the 3rd century BC. "Liuli" is the name of an ancient form of Chinese glassmaking. Today, Liuli Gongfang
Liuli Gongfang
Liuli Gongfang or Liuligongfang is Taiwan's only contemporary glass studio devoted to artistic Chinese glassware. Since its establishment in 1987 Liuligongfang has become known in Asia and abroad for its outstanding artistic endeavours and its high standard of craftsmanship.Liuligongfang was...

 is Taiwan's only contemporary glass studio devoted to artistic Chinese glassware.

Italy

Glass blowing began in the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

, and Italy has refined the techniques of glass blowing ever since. Until the very recent explosion of glass shops in Seattle (USA), there were more on the Island of Murano (Italy) than anywhere else in world. The majority of the refined artistic techniques of glassblowing (e.g., incalmo, reticello, zanfirico, latticino) were developed there. Moreover, generations of blowers passed on their techniques to family members. Boys would begin working at the fornazi (actually "furnace
Furnace
A furnace is a device used for heating. The name derives from Latin fornax, oven.In American English and Canadian English, the term furnace on its own is generally used to describe household heating systems based on a central furnace , and sometimes as a synonym for kiln, a device used in the...

"--called "the factory" in English).

Japan

Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese glass art has a short history. The first independent glass studios were built by Saburo Funakoshi and Makoto Ito, and Shinzo Kotani in separate places. Yoshihiko Takahashi and Hiroshi Yamano show their works at galleries throughout the world and are arguably Japan's glass artists of note. Yoichi Ohira has worked with great success in Murano
Murano
Murano is a series of islands linked by bridges in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. It lies about 1.5 km north of Venice and measures about across with a population of just over 5,000 . It is famous for its glass making, particularly lampworking...

 with Italian gaffers. The small Pacific island Niijima, administered by Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

. has a renowned glass art center, built and run by Osamu and Yumiko Noda, graduates of Illinois State University
Illinois State University
Illinois State University , founded in 1857, is the oldest public university in Illinois; it is located in the town of Normal. ISU is considered a "national university" that grants a variety of doctoral degrees and strongly emphasizes research; it is also recognized as one of the top ten largest...

, where they studied with Joel Philip Myers. Every autumn, the Niijima International Glass Art Festival takes place inviting top international glass artists for demonstrations and seminars. Emerging glass artists, such as Yukako Kojima and Tomoe Shizumu, were featured at the 2007 Glass Art Society exhibition space at the Pittsburgh Glass Center. Kyohei Fujita
Kyohei Fujita
was a Japanese glass artist. He is best known for his glass boxes with complicated surface decorations, and his work was included in the exhibit One of a Kind: The Studio Craft Movement at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, December 22, 2006-September 3, 2007.-References:* Boone,...

 was another noteworthy Japanese studio glass artist.

Mexico

Mexico was the first country in Latin America to have a glass factory in the early sixteenth century brought by the Spanish conquerors. Although traditional glass in Mexico has prevailed over modern glass art, since the 1970s there have been a List of glass artists#Mexico  that have given a place to that country in international glass art.

The Netherlands

Glass art in the Netherlands is mainly stimulated by the glass designing and glass blowing factory Royal Leerdam Crystal
Royal Leerdam Crystal
Royal Leerdam Crystal, also known as Royal Leerdam, is the designing and glass blowing department of Dutch glassware producing factory, Glasfabriek Leerdam. The company was founded in 1765 as a manufacturer of bottles in the Dutch city of Leerdam....

. Such notable designers as H.P. Berlage , Andries Copier and Willem Heesen (Master Glassblower as well) had a major influence on Dutch glass art. Later the studio glass movement, inspired by the American Harvey Littleton
Harvey Littleton
Harvey Littleton is an American educator and glass artist. Born in Corning, New York, he grew up in the shadow of Corning Glassworks, where his father headed Research and Development during the 1930s...

 and the new Masterstudy Glass art at the Gerrit Rietveld
Gerrit Rietveld
Gerrit Thomas Rietveld was a Dutch furniture designer and architect. One of the principal members of the Dutch artistic movement called De Stijl, Rietveld is famous for his Red and Blue Chair and for the Rietveld Schröder House, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.-Biography:Rietveld was born in...

 Academy in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

 led to a new generation of glass artists.

United Kingdom

Notable centres of glass production in the UK have been St. Helens
St Helens, Merseyside
St Helens is a large town in Merseyside, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens with a population of just over 100,000, part of an urban area with a total population of 176,843 at the time of the 2001 Census...

 in Merseyside (the home of Pilkington Glass and the site on which lead crystal glass was first produced by George Ravenscroft
George Ravenscroft
George Ravenscroft was an English businessman in the import/export and glass making trades. He is primarily known for his work in developing clear lead crystal glass in England.-Personal life:...

), Stourbridge
Stourbridge
Stourbridge is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands of England. Historically part of Worcestershire, Stourbridge was a centre of glass making, and today includes the suburbs of Amblecote, Lye, Norton, Oldswinford, Pedmore, Wollaston, Wollescote and Wordsley The...

 in the Midlands and Sunderland in the North East. Sunderland is now home to the National Glass Centre
National Glass Centre
The National Glass Centre is a cultural venue and visitor attraction located in Sunderland, North East England.-Background:The National Glass Centre is located in Monkwearmouth, on the north banks of the River Wear, on the former site of J.L. Thompson and Sons shipyard. The centre is close to the...

 which houses a specialist glass art course. St. Helens boasts a similar establishment but without the educational body attached. Perthshire in Scotland was known internationally for its glass paperweights. It has always hosted the best glass artists working on small scales, but closed its factory in Crieff, Scotland in January 2002.

Glass artists in the UK have a variety of exhibitions. The Scottish Glass Society hosts a yearly exhibition for members, the Guild of Glass Engravers exhibit every two years and the British Glass Biennale, begun in 2004 is now opening its third show.

British Glass Art owes much to the long history of craft. The majority of its glass blowers who operate small studio furnaces produce aesthetically beautiful though primarily functional objects. Technical skill as a blower is given as much importance as the artistic intent.
Other notable Glasshouse artists are Steven Newell, Catherine Hough, Annette Meech and of course Simon Moore.

There are a growing number of art glass studios in the UK. Many specialize in production glassware while others concentrate on one off or limited edition pieces. An Arts Council
Arts Council of Great Britain
The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. The Arts Council of Great Britain was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England , the Scottish Arts Council, and the Arts Council of Wales...

 funded, non-profit making organisation, the Contemporary Glass Society
Contemporary Glass Society
The Contemporary Glass Society is an association of artists, collectors, students, writers, organisations, academics, galleries, manufacturers and enthusiasts of Glass...

, founded in 1976 as British Artists in Glass, exists to promote and support the work of glass artists in the UK.

Other glass organisations in the UK are The Guild of Glass Engravers, the Scottish Glass Society and Cohesion. Cohesion is a different sort of entity to the other organisations in that it was specifically founded to promote and develop glass art as a commercial concern. It organises trade events in and around the UK and at the international level. Originally it focused only on artists based the north east of England but has since expanded its remit to cover the whole of the UK.

The Northlands Glass School was established in late 1990s in the far north of Scotland and offers residencies and masterclasses to arts students and established glass artists.

In November 2007 the glass sculpture Model for a Hotel was unveiled as an exhibit on the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...

, London.

United States

The United States has had two phases of development in glass. The first, in the early and mid-1900s, started in the cities of Toledo, OH, and Corning, NY
Corning (city), New York
Corning is a city in Steuben County, New York, United States, on the Chemung River. The population was 10,842 at the 2000 census. It is named for Erastus Corning, an Albany financier and railroad executive who was an investor in the company that developed the community.- Overview :The city of...

, where factories such as Fenton and Steuben
Steuben Glass Works
Steuben Glass Works was an American art glass manufacturer, founded in the summer of 1903 by Fredrick C. Carder and Thomas G. Hawkes in Corning, New York, which is in Steuben County, from which the company name was derived. Hawkes was the owner of the largest cut glass firm then operating in Corning...

 were making both functional and artistic glass pieces. Toledo’s rich history in glass goes back to the turn of the century when Libbey Glass, Owens-Illinois and Johns Manville led the world in the manufacturing of glass products. Their reputations earned Toledo the title of the "Glass Capital of the World." These industry leaders, along with the Toledo Museum of Art, sponsored the first glass workshop in 1961. This workshop would lead to a new movement in American studio glass.
The Beginning of the American Studio Glass Movement

The second, and most prominent, phase in American glass began in 1962, when then-ceramics professor Harvey Littleton
Harvey Littleton
Harvey Littleton is an American educator and glass artist. Born in Corning, New York, he grew up in the shadow of Corning Glassworks, where his father headed Research and Development during the 1930s...

 and chemist Dominick Labino
Dominick Labino
Dominick Labino Dominick Labino was an internationally-known scientist, inventor, artist and master craftsman in glass. Labino's art works in glass are in the permanent collections of more than 100 museums throughout the world...

 began the contemporary glassblowing
Glassblowing
Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble, or parison, with the aid of a blowpipe, or blow tube...

 movement. The impetus for the movement consisted of their two workshops at the Toledo Museum of Art
Toledo Museum of Art
The Toledo Museum of Art is an internationally known art museum located in the Old West End neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio, United States. The museum was founded by Toledo glassmaker Edward Drummond Libbey in 1901, and moved to its present location, a Greek revival building designed by Edward B....

, during which they began experimenting with melting glass in a small furnace and creating blown glass art. Littleton and Labino were the first to make molten glass feasible for artists in private studios. Harvey Littleton
Harvey Littleton
Harvey Littleton is an American educator and glass artist. Born in Corning, New York, he grew up in the shadow of Corning Glassworks, where his father headed Research and Development during the 1930s...

 extended his influence through his own important artistic contributions and through his teaching and training, including many of the most important contemporary glass artists, including Marvin Lipofsky
Marvin Lipofsky
Marvin Lipofsky is an American glass artist. He was one of the six students that Studio Glass founder Harvey Littleton instructed under an independent study program for the University of Wisconsin-Madison in fall 1962 and spring 1963...

, Sam Herman (Britain), Fritz Dreisbach and Dale Chihuly
Dale Chihuly
Dale Chihuly is an American glass sculptor and entrepreneur.-Biography:Chihuly graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Tacoma, Washington. He enrolled at the College of the Puget Sound in 1959...

. [1]
In 1964, Tom McGlauchlin started one of the first accredited glass programs at the University of Iowa, and Marvin Lipofsky founded the university-level glass program at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1964, Dr. Robert C. Fritz
Robert C. Fritz
Robert C. Fritz was an American ceramics and glass artist and professor at San Jose State University in California. As a major player in America’s mid 20th century studio glass movement, Dr...

 founded a university-level glass program at San Jose State University in San Jose, CA. As a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under Harvey Littleton, Bill H. Boysen built the first glass studio at Penland School of Crafts, in Penland, NC, in 1965. After graduating in 1966, he started the graduate glass program at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Illinois. Dale Chihuly
Dale Chihuly
Dale Chihuly is an American glass sculptor and entrepreneur.-Biography:Chihuly graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Tacoma, Washington. He enrolled at the College of the Puget Sound in 1959...

 initiated the glass program at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1969. Tom McGlauchlin joined the Toledo Museum of Art as Professor and Director of Glass in conjunction with the University of Toledo's Art program in 1971.
American Glass Schools and Studios

The growth of studio art glass led to the formation of glass schools and art studios located across the country. The largest concentrations of glass artists are located in Seattle, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. San Francisco, Los Angeles/Orange County and Corning, NY, also have sizable concentrations of artists working in glass.

The Pilchuck Glass School
Pilchuck Glass School
Founded in 1971 by Dale Chihuly, Anne Gould Hauberg and John H. Hauberg , Pilchuck Glass School is an international center for glass art education. The name "Pilchuck" comes from the local Native American language and translates to "red river"...

 near Seattle has become a mecca for glass artists from all over the world. Those who attend Pilchuck, either college students or established artists, have the opportunity to attend master classes and exchange skills and information in an environment dedicated solely to glass based arts.

The Pittsburgh Glass Center in Pittsburgh, PA, has residency programs for artists working in glass, as well as a facility for artists to make use of for their works. The Pittsburgh Glass Center offers classes to the public on glassblowing and many other forms of glass art. Philadelphia hosts a small array of glass studios for artists that use glass. Home to the National Liberty Museum (featuring all exhibits by international glass artists), Philadelphia hosts the non-profit P.I.P.E. program, with residencies for artists that use glass as well as metal, electroforming
Electroforming
Electroforming is a metal forming process that forms thin parts through the electroplating process. The part is produced by plating a metal skin onto a base form, known as a mandrel, which is removed after plating...

 on glass, and bronze casting. The state of Pennsylvania has a long tradition of the production of industrial glass and its influence has quickly been absorbed by artists working in glass.

The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass, established in 1996, is an internationally renowned teaching facility in Corning, NY. Classes and workshops are held for new and experienced glassworkers and artists. The Studio’s residency program brings artists from around the world to Corning for a month to work in The Studio facilities, where they can explore and develop new glassblowing techniques or expand on their current bodies of work. Artists working in The Studio have access to the collections of The Corning Museum of Glass
Corning Museum of Glass
The Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning, New York, explores every facet of glass, including art, history, culture, science and technology, craft, and design....

, and benefit from the resources of the Rakow Research Library, whose holdings cover the art and history of glass and glassmaking.

Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center located in New Jersey, just below Glassboro, is a non-profit that hosts a fellowship program exclusively for artists working in glass.

The international studio glass movement

The international studio glass movement originated in America, spreading to Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia and Asia. The emphasis of this movement was on the artist as the designer and maker of one-of-a-kind objects. This movement enabled the sharing of technical knowledge and ideas among artists and designers that, in industry, would not be possible.

With the dominance of Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

 in the arts, there was a broadening of artistic media throughout the 20th century. Indeed, glass was part of the curriculum at art schools such as the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...

. Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...

's produced glass windows considered by some as masterpieces not only of design, but of painterly composition as well. During the 1950s, studio ceramics and other craft media in the U.S. began to gain in popularity and importance, and American artists interested in glass looked for new paths outside industry. Harvey Littleton
Harvey Littleton
Harvey Littleton is an American educator and glass artist. Born in Corning, New York, he grew up in the shadow of Corning Glassworks, where his father headed Research and Development during the 1930s...

, often referred to as the "Father of the Studio Glass Movement", was inspired to develop studio glassblowing in America by the great glass being designed and made in Italy, Sweden and many other places, and by the pioneering work in ceramics of the California potter Peter Voulkos
Peter Voulkos
Peter Voulkos popular name of Panagiotis Voulkos, was an American artist of Greek descent. He is known for his Abstract Expressionist ceramic sculptures, which crossed the traditional divide between ceramic crafts and fine art....

. Harvey Littleton and Dominick Labino held the now-famous glass workshop at the Toledo Museum of Art in 1962. The goal was to melt glass in a small furnace so individual artists could use glass as an art medium in a non-industrial setting. This was the workshop that would stimulate the studio art glass movement that spread around the world. Instead of the large, industrial settings of the past, a glass artist could now work with a small glass furnace in an individual setting and produce art from glass.

Creating art made from glass

There are many ways to create and decorate a piece of art from glass. Blown glass, where a glassblower works at a furnace full of molten glass using metal rods and hand tools to blow and shape almost any form of glass, is one of the older and more popular ways to work. Most large hollow pieces are made this way, and it allows the artist to be improvisational as they create their work as it is very hands on.

Another type is flame-worked glass, which uses torches and kilns in its production. The artist generally works at a bench using rods and tubes of glass, shaping with hand tools to create their work. Many forms can be achieved this way with little investment into money and space. Though the artist is somewhat limited in size, a greater level of detail can be achieved with this technique. The paperweights by Paul Stankard
Paul Joseph Stankard
Paul Joseph Stankard, considered the father of modern glass paperweights, was born April 7, 1943 as the second of nine children in an Irish Catholic family. He lived in North Attleboro, Massachusetts in his early years. He graduated from Salem Vocational Technical Institute in Salem, New Jersey...

 are good examples of the realism and level of detail that can be done with flameworking techniques.

Cast glass can be done at the furnace at the torch or in a kiln. generally the artist makes a mold out of refractory, sand, or plaster and silica which can be filled with either clear glass or colored or patterned glass, depending on the techniques and effects desired. Large scale sculpture is usually created this way.

Slumped glass and fused glass is similar to cast glass, but it is not done at as high of a temperature. Usually the glass is only heated enough to impress a shape or a texture onto the piece, or to stick several pieces of glass together without a glue.

With stained glass the artist cuts the glass into specific patterns to make their artwork which are stuck together using lead came and solder. They can also use hot techniques in a kiln to create texture, patterns, or change the overall shape of the glass.

Etched glass is created by dipping glass that has an acid resistant pattern applied to its surface into an acid solution. Also an artist can engrave it by hand using wheels. Sandblasting can create a similar effect.

See also

  • Cameo glass
    Cameo Glass
    Cameo glass is a luxury form of glass art produced by etching and carving through fused layers of differently colored glass to produce designs, usually with white opaque glass figures and motifs on a dark-colored background...

  • Caneworking
    Caneworking
    Caneworking is a glassblowing technique that is used to add intricate patterns and stripes to vessels or other blown glass objects.Cane refers to rods of glass with color; these rods can be simple, containing a single color, or they can be complex and contain many strands of multiple colors in...

  • Fused glass
    Fused glass
    Fused glass is a term used to describe glass that has been fired in a kiln at a range of high temperatures from to . There are 3 main distinctions for temperature application and the resulting effect on the glass....

  • Glass beadmaking
    Glass beadmaking
    The technology for glass beadmaking is among the oldest human arts, dating back 3,000 years . Glass beads have been dated back to at least Roman times...

  • Glass casting
    Glass casting
    Glass casting is the process in which glass objects are cast by directing molten glass into a mould where it solidifies. The technique has been used since the Egyptian period...

  • Glass disease
    Glass disease
    Glass disease, also known as sick glass, is a degradation process encountered in art conservation.Glass disease is caused by an inherent fault in the chemical composition of the original glass formula. Usually, inadequate calcium oxide causes the alkalis in the glass to remain water soluble at a...


Glass museums and galleries
  • Glass tiles
    Glass tiles
    Glass tiles are pieces of glass formed into consistent shapes. Glass was used in mosaics as early as 2500 BC, but it took until the 3rd Century BC before innovative artisans in Greece, Persia and India created glass tiles....

  • Glassblowing
    Glassblowing
    Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble, or parison, with the aid of a blowpipe, or blow tube...

  • Glossary of Glass Art terms
    Glossary of glass art terms
    A glossary of terms used in Glass art* Cane, rods of glass with color, either single or multiple * Cast, Glass formed by pouring hot glass into a mold or kiln-casting using the cire perdue method...

  • Lampworking
    Lampworking
    Lampworking is a type of glasswork that uses a gas fueled torch to melt rods and tubes of clear and colored glass. Once in a molten state, the glass is formed by blowing and shaping with tools and hand movements. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking, as the modern practice no longer...

  • Flameworking
  • List of glass artists
  • Mosaic
    Mosaic
    Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...

  • Murano glass
    Murano glass
    Murano glass is a famous product of the Venetian island of Murano. Located off the shore of Venice, Italy, Murano has been a commercial port as far back as the 7th century. By the 10th century, the city had become well known for its glassmakers, who created unique Murano glass...

  • Murrine
    Murrine
    Murrine is an Italian term for colored patterns or images made in a glass cane that are revealed when cut in cross-sections. Murrine can be made in infinite designs—some styles are more familiar, such as millefiore...

  • Paperweights
  • Val Saint Lambert
    Val Saint Lambert
    Val Saint Lambert is a Belgian crystal glassware manufacturer, founded in 1826. Val St Lambert is the official glassware supplier to H.M. King Albert II of Belgium.-History:...


Sources

  • The End William Warmus Glass Magazine Autumn 1995
  • Fire and Form by William Warmus Norton Museum of Art 2003 contains a detailed Chronological Bibliography
of Contemporary Glass compiled with assistance of Beth Hylen
  • Martha Drexler Lynn. American studio glass, 1960-1990. Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills, 2004.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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