This is Warren standing in front of my very favorite thing in the whole gallery part of the Museum (http://www.cmog.org/). It is of course a Tiffany window which is such a strong influence for me. I was amazed at the quality of the pictures I got today changing the Sensitivity on my camera so that it imitated high speed film (ISO = 800). I wanted to get pictures of the hot glass show which is basically almost in the dark. I usually keep the sensitivity at 100 which is what mimics slide film and gives you very high quality pictures.Anyway, our usual day consists of going to every one of the Hot Glass Shows (demonstrations) and visiting the rest of the Museum in between those shows. A lot of people don't know that the shows are different all day and have different glass artists doing different glass objects. We were lucky enough to be the only two in the gallery for the show where they gave away a piece that was made the day before!! So we have a nice cobalt blue vase hand blown from the show! The pieces yesterday were totally awesome and we became a bit of a joke to the gaffers and the narrator as we were ALWAYS there! The following are a couple of the pictures I took of George and Eric who are both the highest level of glass artisans.
This is the "glory hole" where the 500 lbs of molten glass is kept at a consistent temp of 2100 degree F. This is one of two ovens on the stage. The assistant gathers the molten glass from this oven and the gaffer uses the other oven (which has a camera somehow mounted on the inside so you can see what is happening) to keep the vessel heated while he is working on it. He can only work on it for 15-20 seconds at a time before it gets too cool and liable to break.
This is Eric putting a handle on a pitcher with the assistance of the narrator who is also a trained glassmaker but more junior.
This is the finished pitcher which they recycled as it had no color and they recycle the clear glass daily.
This was George working on evening out the bottom of an object that eventually became a bowl. It is amazing how symmetrical they make this molten glass as they are moving it all the time. When they start, you are never quite sure what they are going to create. Sometimes the assistant isn't totally sure until they are along aways.
This may look like a vase now, but it will become a bowl. Here George is attaching the bottom from some hot glass that the assistant is holding on an iron. She has just taken this out of the huge "glory hole" containing 500 lbs of molten clear glass. The stripes are made by overlaying the original clear glass with a thin strip of colored glass and then George works his magic, moving the glass around almost like marbling. The molten glass at 2100 degrees has the consistency of honey and can be worked easily as it is extremely flexible. They have to keep heating it to keep it at these high temps so they can work it. They make it looks so easy although it takes 6 to 8 years to learn and practice the craft well!
This is George working on opening up what looked like a vase until now into a bowl! You can't see the striping because the glass is so hot but the bowl will be black and gold when finally done.
This was the final bowl with zig zag design on it right before going into the annealing oven which cools it slowly from the over 1000 degrees it is now. If you cool glass too quickly, it causes stress (the outside cools faster than the inside) and this causes cracks and eventually breakage.
These are just some of the thousands of examples of glass art through the ages that you can find in their extensive glass galleries. You can spend several hours there as well as in the main part of the museum where they have all the technical and historical information on modern glass making. It is absolutely fascinating and I always learn something new. I tend to like the modern studio art the best, but these I believe dated back to the 1800's . I should have taken notes about what these were specifically but I just liked them!
These are my favorites next to the Tiffany glass (of any kind). They were blown glass made during the latter part of the 19th century and are precise depictions of botanical and zoological specimens. They were made by the Blashke family. Harvard University employed them to make 1000's of these scaled models for teaching purposes back in the 1800's. If you EVER get to Boston, a visit to the museum where these specimens are is a "have to". You can't believe they are not real, they are so lifelike -- incredible!! All out of glass!
This is a Tiffany mosaic. I can't get enough Tiffany and his glass is definitely an influence in my design and color pallette for dyeing.
These are two examples of snails from the Blashke father and son. Thought this was appropriate with my passion for shells!
A trip to the Museum is not complete without spending at least an hour wandering through the Museum shop which is easily the best shop in a museum ever!! It is a show in itself and features glass artists from all over the world. The prices range from affordable to $44,000! Incredible but then Warren and I both love glass art!!
This is the finished pitcher which they recycled as it had no color and they recycle the clear glass daily.
This was George working on evening out the bottom of an object that eventually became a bowl. It is amazing how symmetrical they make this molten glass as they are moving it all the time. When they start, you are never quite sure what they are going to create. Sometimes the assistant isn't totally sure until they are along aways.
This may look like a vase now, but it will become a bowl. Here George is attaching the bottom from some hot glass that the assistant is holding on an iron. She has just taken this out of the huge "glory hole" containing 500 lbs of molten clear glass. The stripes are made by overlaying the original clear glass with a thin strip of colored glass and then George works his magic, moving the glass around almost like marbling. The molten glass at 2100 degrees has the consistency of honey and can be worked easily as it is extremely flexible. They have to keep heating it to keep it at these high temps so they can work it. They make it looks so easy although it takes 6 to 8 years to learn and practice the craft well!
This is George working on opening up what looked like a vase until now into a bowl! You can't see the striping because the glass is so hot but the bowl will be black and gold when finally done.
This was the final bowl with zig zag design on it right before going into the annealing oven which cools it slowly from the over 1000 degrees it is now. If you cool glass too quickly, it causes stress (the outside cools faster than the inside) and this causes cracks and eventually breakage.
These are just some of the thousands of examples of glass art through the ages that you can find in their extensive glass galleries. You can spend several hours there as well as in the main part of the museum where they have all the technical and historical information on modern glass making. It is absolutely fascinating and I always learn something new. I tend to like the modern studio art the best, but these I believe dated back to the 1800's . I should have taken notes about what these were specifically but I just liked them!
These are my favorites next to the Tiffany glass (of any kind). They were blown glass made during the latter part of the 19th century and are precise depictions of botanical and zoological specimens. They were made by the Blashke family. Harvard University employed them to make 1000's of these scaled models for teaching purposes back in the 1800's. If you EVER get to Boston, a visit to the museum where these specimens are is a "have to". You can't believe they are not real, they are so lifelike -- incredible!! All out of glass!
This is a Tiffany mosaic. I can't get enough Tiffany and his glass is definitely an influence in my design and color pallette for dyeing.
These are two examples of snails from the Blashke father and son. Thought this was appropriate with my passion for shells!
A trip to the Museum is not complete without spending at least an hour wandering through the Museum shop which is easily the best shop in a museum ever!! It is a show in itself and features glass artists from all over the world. The prices range from affordable to $44,000! Incredible but then Warren and I both love glass art!! 
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2 comments:
Thanks for the tour! Glass is the one kind of art that I collect. We got to tour the Waterford glass facotry in Ireland many years ago but I'd love to go to Corning sometime.
If you think the Corning Glass Museum is fantastic, you should sometime during a visit to the Seattle area go and visit Tacoma. There's a 'bridge' that has some really gorgeous Chihuly glass.
Lori
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