GASnews
SPRING 2018 VOLUME 29 ISSUE 1
INSIDE
3 Letter from the President 3 Letter from the Editor 4 No Animals Were Harmed in the Writing of this Article:
Batch Books at the Rakow Library
6 GASnews Interview with Claire Kelly 8 New Conversations on Color in Glass 10 Spectrum of Approach: Adverserial Tendencies in Teaching,
Learning, and Thinking About Color Within Glass Education
14 Color Explorations 17 Minnesotan Hues: A Brief Look at the Colorful Glass
Community in Minneapolis and St. Paul
18 GAS Resource Links Cover: Claire Kelly, Perigee, 2018, 15 x 6.5 x 6.5 in.,Blown glass, sculpted and assembled, string. Photo by the artist.
GAS news
GASnews is published four times per year as a benefit to members.
Glass Art Society Board of Directors 2017-2018
Contributing Writers: Regan Brumagen, Lori Fuller, Jay MacDonnell Jonathan Rees, David Schnuckel, Caitlin Vitalo Editor: Michael Hernandez Graphic Design: Ted Cotrotsos*
President: Natali Rodrigues Vice President: Tracy Kirchmann Treasurer: John Kiley Secretary: Jessica Julius
Staff Pamela Figenshow Koss, Executive Director Kristen W. Ferguson, Operations & Program Manager Tess McShane, Communication & Social Media Specialist Jalair Box, Development & Membership Specialist Helen Cowart, Administrative Assistant Charlotte Moss, Part-time Bookkeeper *part time/contract
Kelly Conway Matt Durran Glen Hardymon Mike Hernandez Nadania Idriss Jeff Lindsay Heather McElwee Lynn Read Debra Ruzinsky Masahiro Nick Sasaki Jan Smith Demetra Theofanous David Willis Caitlin Vitalo (Student Representative)
6512 23rd Avenue NW, Suite 329, Seattle, WA 98117 USA Phone: 206.382.1305 Fax: 206.382.2630 E-mail: info@glassart.org
Web: www.glassart.org
Š2018 The Glass Art Society, a non-profit organization. All rights reserved. Publication of articles in this newsletter prohibited without permission from the Glass Art Society Inc. The Glass Art Society reserves the right to deny applications for Tech Display, advertising participation, GAS membership or conference participation to anyone for any reason.
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PRESIDENT’S LETTER
EDITOR’S LETTER
Dear Fellow Members, This letter comes with great joy and gratitude for the amazing experience that the Murano conference was for all of us. Whether you participated, attended, volunteered, or cheered from the stands or social media, it will have a lasting mark on the future of our organization and our global network. Putting together the conference was one of the most rewarding team experiences I have ever had. To see the last three years of work coalesce into four days of celebration, effort, experimentation, and community is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone again; to the site committee, the donors, Murano, the Board, the GAS staff and all of the members who made this historic event possible. The next phase for our organization is twofold. The first phase seems like an insurmountable task, filling the vacancy left by our outgoing Executive Director Pamela Koss, but after accomplishing the conference we know that we are up for it. Pamela has been with GAS for the last 14 years and helped steward the organization into a position where holding a conference on Murano was more than just a dream. On behalf of the GAS board, I’d like to thank Pamela for all of her hard work and dedication. The second, concurrent task is to get ready for our next conference, hosted in St. Petersburg, Florida in March 2019. From the exciting venues to an incredible line up of artists and presenters in conference, the local site committee, GAS Board and staff have been working hard on all the things that make a conference fantastic. It will be a very interesting and exciting conference! I hope to see you all there.
When most people think of glass in an art context, their minds immediately go to the vibrancy and emotive qualities of its broad colorful palette. Indeed, glass has a unique ability to be a vehicle for color. Color is an essential consideration for all that engage the material, possibly even more so if the objective is to work in or produce clear glass. The technology that has gone into the production of our seemingly endless spectrum of color, and that of clear glasses is immense. Color is what defines many artists in our field. There is a plethora of effects that can be achieved, from the flatness and graphic, form-defining qualities of opaques to the gem-like qualities and subtle transitions of transparents. But, selecting a color palette is not what sets us apart as artists, critics, and connoisseurs. There is a strong polarity to the perception of color use as either an essential element or a trite endeavor in the glass field. Color allows us to transform the material of glass to emulate textures and materials. One of the earliest uses of glass was as an analogue for precious stones. It can be formulated and altered in nearly endless varieties to become both deceivingly recognizable and strikingly alien. From the roots of the Studio Glass Movement, color has been a widely researched and experimented facet of art production. While some continue to carry the torch, most studios rely on color manufacturers to determine their palette. Throughout this issue, GASnews writers explore topics of Color from a broad range of perspectives. Regan Brumagen and Lori Fuller of the Rakow Library present some of the highlights and eccentricities of the library’s collection of batch books, Jay Macdonell balances his perspective on the standard for the use of pre-manufactured color from suppliers to the formulation of custom batches, and David Schnuckel weighs in on the considerations and implications of teaching color in the arena of higher education.
Natali Rodrigues President, Board of Directors Glass Art Society
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Michael Hernandez
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NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF THIS ARTICLE: BATCH BOOKS AT THE RAKOW LIBRARY by Regan Brumagen and Lori Fuller “To soften crystal,” plunge your gather of hot glass into “mutton and lamb’s blood mixed and warmed together.” No, this isn’t a hoax from a glassblowing message board. It’s advice found in an 18th-century manuscript (Valuable secrets concerning arts and trades CMGL 97130) in the Rakow Research Library’s collection. The Library has a growing collection of more than 200 digitized batch books. A batch book, if you haven’t encountered one, is essentially a recipe book for making glass. The batch refers to the pot of glass produced after combining all of the components – the sand, limestone, boron, copper, etc. In case you’re interested, back to that 18th century manuscript, during the month of August, you could replace lamb’s blood with goose and goat blood. While not technically a batch book, the 18thcentury manuscript such as this one record early efforts to preserve the knowledge of the glassmaker, a tradition that continues today. Think of the knowledge on glassmaking available on YouTube, ResearchGate, Academia.edu, blogs, and forums. And while you find many artists today willing to share their glassmaking secrets, there are still those techniques, recipes, or tricks of the trade too hard-won to share wide and far. When one’s livelihood depends on protecting a recipe for a popular glass color, you can understand why glassmakers and glass factories often wished to keep their glassmaking secrets close. Take the recipes for Louis Comfort Tiffany’s famed iridescent glass, which reside in small notebooks written in code. These notebooks were mostly penned by Tiffany’s chief chemist, Arthur J. Nash, who eventually passed them to his son, Leslie, also a Tiffany employee. Leslie subsequently scrawled “keep it safe” and “don’t let anyone see you mix [the batch]” across pages in the notebooks. [Read more about the Nash notebooks].
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Pages from Leslie H. Nash batch book with hand drawn illustrations. Collection of The Rakow Research Library, purchased with Fellows Funds and Norma Jenkins Funds (CMGL 142798)
Often the batch books in the Rakow’s collection are written by hand, annotated either by the original author or someone from a later generation with notes on the individual recipes. Sometimes they are typewritten on almost transparent onionskin paper, carrying with them the unique lines and faded ink marks of the typewriter used to produce them. They also carry the imprint of the author’s personality. In some, the words are scrawled across the page, defying the tidy grid of the graph paper. Others are unbelievably neat, so much so that one cannot believe they are handwritten. Some are businesslike, others convey an air of neutrality and scientific objectivity – the scientist recording observations and conclusions. Still others reveal a hint of the “aha!” moment when a truly fine color is perfected. GASNEWS
Some combine recipes with notes on equipment, labor, drawings of furnaces, and other useful bits of information. One manuscript from the 19th century contains newspaper clippings and the author’s notes about fighting the common cold. Henry Hellmers, a glassmaker who worked for various glass factories from 1921-1965, recorded his recipes for glass colors. Hellmers’ book includes 11 opalescent recipes, 19 recipes each for opal and transparent glass and many other glass formulas. Because of copyright restrictions, Hellmers’ batch book and a few others are not yet digitized, but you can still study his recipes if you visit the Library. The Rakow also has a digital collection of Antonio Neri’s L’Arte Vetraria, the first known glassmaking book to be published. Neri’s book has been translated into multiple languages in several dozen editions.
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Garnet red glass recipe from G. Book. (1880-1885) Collection of The Rakow Research Library (CMGL 32300)
Page from Amory Houghton Batch Book (1885) Collection of The Rakow Research Library (CMGL 75375)
Many editions include new recipes or updated information, like the German edition translated by glassmaker Johann Kunckel. According to Dedo von KrosigkKerssenbrock, Kunckel perfected a recipe for Gold Ruby glass in the 17th century using perfectly-sized flakes of gold. [You can watch a video about this process on the CMoG YouTube channel.] Von KrosigkKerssenbrock notes that Kunckel’s edition of Neri’s book was considerably altered. Kunckel apparently tested each recipe, then made notes about the quality of the resulting glass, calling one shade of blue “charming” while discrediting another recipe completely: “I am absolutely certain, that [Neri] did not try it himself, or else he would have regarded it differently and abstained from including it [in the book] because it does not work at all....” [Read von Krosigk-Kerssonbrock’s full article.] While current websites or textbooks may be more useful for contemporary
artists looking to make their own batch, these historic texts illuminate the ways in which glassmakers have continuously been pushing the boundaries of science and art. They also reflect a sense of exploration and creativity that will be familiar to the alchemists of this generation – those who are still making discoveries about the material of glass and how it can be used in the work of artists today.
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Regan Brumagen is an Associate Librarian in Public Services and Lori Fuller is an Associate Librarian in Collections, both of the Rakow Research Library at Corning Museum of Glass.
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GASNEWS INTERVIEW WITH CLAIRE KELLY GASNews: Your current body of work exemplifies the vibrancy of color in glass. What is the basis of your exploration in color and pattern?
Claire Kelly, Fibrilles 1-2, 2017-2018 121 x 4 x 6 in., 28 x 9 x 5 in., Blown glass, sculpted and assembled. Photo by the artist
Claire Kelly: I remember once looking at a section of orange color rod and just being completely mesmerized by the absolute orangeness of it. My focus on pattern evolved from creating more sophisticated cane techniques then one sort of fed the other. As I figured out how I could create mosaic patterns with cane, the color combinations began to develop. The beginnings of the mosaic pieces found their roots in examining materials and translating them into glass. I referenced the graphic qualities of mosaic tile patterns, of course, but also things like wood inlays, and textile. The ability of glass to be a vehicle for color is a continuing pursuit for me. The pure saturation that glass color can express allows me to describe the forms I create with broad swathes of color and pattern. GN: From sculpted elephants to mesmerizing canework, your work shows strong Venetian influences. Describe where you draw your inspiration. CK: I am a student of the astonishing work being made in Venice (Murano) during the early and mid 20th century. The incredible vision and modern designs from Venini and Co. are always a revelation. During this time, Venini gave artists from other disciplines (Carlo Scarpa, an architect) and areas of Europe (Tapio Wirkkala, a Finnish industrial designer) access to glass. These visionaries saw the potential in aspects of Italian traditions that weren’t previously being exploited. Other glass Maestros during that time also seemed to be caught up in the maelstrom of the experimental and creative, I can site Archimedes Seguso and Fulvio Bianconi as important influences in my work. Seguso for his imagination and virtuosity in cane techniques (Did he invent Merletto? I’m curious) and Fulvio for his clean lines and
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inventiveness with line and pattern. There’s too many more to credit, but needless to say, it’s a period that expressed itself through large leaps and pushing the material to levels of design and creativity that many artists, myself included, still look to for inspiration or to just drool over. For me, in particular, I love the saturated mosaics and unconventional forms of Carlo Scarpa as well as the deceptively simple and stylized animals forms by Napoleone Martinuzzi for Venini. GN: There is an element of fantasy to your candy-colored forms that recalls story book reveries. What would you like your viewers to take from your work? CK: The themes of my glass sculptures examine the connections we have with animals and their larger relationship to
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our world and environment. The result is a series of fantastic microcosms that bring a consciousness to their decorative status. My sculptures tell a story about the fragility and conservation of places both physical and metaphysical. They are a gentle mirror allowing us to examine our contradictory world. I’m curious about what we see in my toy-like landscapes and animals and what they see when they look back. Much of my recent work has centered on elephants because of their unique role as beloved childhood toy, popular decorative figure with a strong history in glassmaking, and a perilously threatened species. I am continuing my explorations into these themes with work that explores fantasy landscapes populated by creatures both real and imaginary. These colorful worlds allow me to explore concepts of perception, liminality, and memory.
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Claire Kelly, Prominence, 2018, 18 x 8.5 x 4 in., Blown glass, sculpted and assembled, string. Photo by the artist
GN: Where can your work currently be seen? CK: I had an opportunity to show a selection of my work from my residency at the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass at TOKEN in Brooklyn. It was work that I envisioned as a fantasy landscape populated by strange animals called GeoSpectra. I will be included in a group show with two other female glass artists at Duncan McClellan Gallery this fall. I'm looking forward to continuing the landscape based work with multiple animals as well as some new Noah’s Ark sculptures which are a look at our changing world and where our future might lie. I was recently a demonstrating artist at the GAS Conference in Murano at the Effetre studio. The demo was inspired by
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my residency at Corning where I worked with Effetre 104 glasses to create my work. Upcoming in the Fall of 2018, I will be a resident artist at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, working with the team there to realize some new work and experiment with form.
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NEW CONVERSATIONS ON COLOR IN GLASS by Caitlin Vitalo Color is an ever-present consideration in creative communities, and the richness of color research and expression in the glass community is exceptional. However, when it comes to the demographics of glass field population, it is blindingly white. This lack of diversity is certainly not just an issue within the glass community, but one that applies to most of the art world. While rethinking and unpacking unequitable cultural and systemic ideologies in art is a body of work too large to tackle, we can start the conversation on a more accessible level with a focus on crafts schools, specifically the Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG), Pittsburgh Glass Center (PGC), and Pilchuck Glass School. Many other crafts schools were contacted, but the aforementioned were available and willing to engage in a dialogue about a lack of diversity within their institutions. When posing questions about diversity to CMoG, PGC, and Pilchuck, it is clear all three of these institutions are having these conversations within their own communities. Exactly how are the demographics of these institutions balanced? We don’t know, because none of them could provide this type of information on either their student body or visiting faculty. Each of these schools have created programs to target a diverse group of people and underserved communities which looks good on paper, but how can these institutions tell if the programs are fulfilling their purpose if they have no way to track its success and failures. With applications asking our names, preferred first name, gender identity, etc., it seems simple enough to include a space to enter the race you identify with. An understanding of their programs success rate could help guide its growth and accelerate change against the stunning lack of diversity in craft schools. So, why is it that these analytics are not researched? Stuart Kestenbaum, the previous director of Haystack Mountain School of
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Pittsburgh Glass Center SiO2 Program Photo: Nathan J. Shaulis Courtesy of Pittsburgh Glass Center
Crafts and current strategist to facilitate discussions of racial diversity and inclusion in crafts schools, provided an enormous amount of ideas and approaches to productive change in these institutions. In conversation, Kestenbaum stated “changing institutionally means all parts of your institution should reflect the equity and diversity they hope to achieve” and went on to emphasize the fact that financial aid is not always the deterrent for students of color attending these schools. An essential reason for the lack of diversity appears to be that some communities simply do not know about places like CMoG, PGC, and Pilchuck. Craft institutions must reach out and listen to the communities they hope to welcome in order to understand what their needs are specifically. Knowledge of the amazing experiences and learning that happens at craft institutions is often shared through word of mouth, keeping these spaces inherently insular, Kestenbaum’s underlying message pushes for a consistent relationship with communities and institutions beyond glass and crafts.
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The Corning Museum of Glass acknowledged The Studio’s glass scholarships are open to everyone, noting two programs Expanding Horizons and High School Learning Center, aimed at reaching a wider audience. Expanding Horizons is a week long program at CMoG for top students in at-risk schools around the U.S. The program provides airfare, lodging, and meals as well as glass instruction, a visit to the Rakow Research Library, and a presentation on applying to college with a focus on glass. The High School Learn Center takes place at Corning Community College for students who have decided traditional high school is not for them. The program includes 10 days at Corning where students learn glassblowing in the fall and flameworking in the spring. The Learning Center emphasizes different ways of problem solving and the vast possibilities for alternative careers. Both programs have demographics online, but none were racial demographics. These programs approach inclusion in the glass field from an important perspective, the lack of knowledge of the field and its possibilities.
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Expanding Horizons Courtesy of the Corning Museum of Glass
However, their incomplete data on their success rates delays productive growth and masks their weaknesses. The Pittsburgh Glass Center does not track the demographic information of their students but Heather McElwee, PGC Executive Director, acknowledged immediately that the glass community lacks racial diversity. PGC did provide information about their staff. Of the 17 staff members, 5 are people of color and 10 are women. McElwee stated, “over the last year, we have worked with African American Artist Sharif Bey to create new work through our Idea Furnace program and he opened a solo show in our gallery last week.” PGC also provides scholarships specifically for people of color and veterans. In addition to that, they have a program called Si02, a hands on glass art program that occurs after school and during the summer. The Si02 Young Artists Glass Program scholarships are available to all middle and high school students, student of color are eligible to apply for full-tuition scholarships and no glass or art experience is required. The Pittsburgh Glass Centers programs offer great opportunities for younger students and provides equitable scholarships to students of color who are statistically more likely to be living below the poverty line in the Pittsburgh area. Pilchuck Glass School compiles demographic statistics of their students to help inform their marketing practices as well as their understanding of the disparities within their institution. In order to work towards a more inclusive space, Pilchuck offers scholarships based on artistic merit which then identifies students who qualify for special scholarships, such as people of color, conceding that in past years there is greater demand than what they often have to offer. Pilchuck also collaborates with the Hilltop Artists program to provide a fully funded immersive retreat for 30 students that provides glass education to underserved
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youth experiencing barriers to their success. Some of the students from Hilltop Artists return to Pilchuck for regular season sessions as staff or students, oftentimes receiving scholarships from the skills they gained from Hilltops youth program. Ethan Stern, Pilchuck’s Interim Executive Director, noted that “the Pilchuck Board of Trustees has taken it upon themselves to participate in diversity, equity, and inclusion training, with staff trainings following suit. We want our efforts to be transformative for the organization and are recognizing that while many changes can be made immediately, for this type of critical work to be effective it needs to become a greater priority in everything we do.” It is exciting to see Pilchuck’s desire for institutional change paired with an outreach program with Hilltop Artists does not end after an immersive youth experience but has lead those students to Pilchuck’s regular season classes. While not every underserved youth has the opportunity to be a part of Hilltop Artists it begs the question, is Pilchuck missing an opportunity by only considering students of color for scholarships that have remained after applicants have been chosen on artistic merit? These three craft schools are very aware of the lack of diversity within their programs
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and are creating scholarships, alternative options, and more inclusive environments. The leaders of these organizations are discussing change and many of their students are talking about the glaring racial imbalances in these spaces, but this dialogue doesn’t appear to happening between student bodies or faculty and the institutional staff in a progressive manner. It would benefit these organizations, their growing programs, and the glass art community in its entirety to stop quietly acknowledging these homogenous spaces but rather openly share statistics and create an environment to discuss the needs and people these amazing spaces are not meeting. As spaces known for promoting student experimentation and alternative thought, these craft schools can be catalysts for change in the glass community if their leadership are prepared to embrace it. 1. According to the 2015 Census information 16% of the white population and 33% of the black population live below the poverty line in Pittsburgh.
Caitlin Vitalo is the GAS Student Representative and currently an MFA candidate at Tyler School of Art.
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SPECTRUM OF APPROACH: ADVERSARIAL TENDENCIES IN TEACHING, LEARNING, AND THINKING ABOUT COLOR WITHIN GLASS EDUCATION by David Schnuckel The allure of colored glass is diverse. It’s determined when opaque. It’s luscious when transparent. It sears radiant when lit up as neon. It’s textural when applied as a granulate. It withholds strong, associative connections; single hues possessing the power to speak to individual viewers in uniquely broad and individual ways. Color in glass is a multi-faceted topic, conversationally. It can move one’s spirit just as easily as it can move one to roll their eyes. Therein lies the dilemma of color: it’s loaded. Easy to be mishandled creatively, visually, and intellectually. Sometimes all at once. Turns out that the application of color within our making, teaching, and learning about glass introduces an equally diversified palette of predicament as it does allure. In contributing to this newsletter, I admit that I can’t single-handedly take on the challenge of thoroughly investigating and questioning the history, practice, contradictions, and possibilities of glass color in relation to education. I am interested, however, in introducing an educator’s point of view in briefly examining the “predicament” of color within glass education; that which is real and that which is misperceived. As a theoretical debate, color is complex; and talking about it can be a contentious affair among glass educators and glass practitioners alike. It’s another
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Bullseye 001122-0030F-HALF, Red Transparent, Double-rolled, 3 mm, Fusible, 17 x 20 in., Half Sheet Photo: David Schnuckel “The allure of colored glass is diverse. It’s determined when opaque. It’s luscious when transparent. The application of color within our making, teaching, and learning about glass introduces an equally diversified palette of predicament.”
one of those “c-words” like criticality or craft or cross-disciplinarity that can lend way to small riots within our community when the topic is brought up. Lots of angles in understanding its usefulness, just as many angles in understanding it as a hindrance. But the conversation about color in the studio within the context of education introduces some interesting points of consideration. Color in and of itself isn’t the dilemma. It should be encouraged when student ideas justify its presence. I’ve bore witness to student learning and making under my watch where the integration of color was incredibly pertinent to the questions those students were asking in their research. I’ve also bore witness to the opposite: instances of student learning and making under my watch where the integration of color distracted, compromised, and/or derailed the objectives in their work and working. What facilitates such a disconnect? In cases like mine, the desire to maintain a GLASS program that acknowledges issues of skill and material comprehension in the service of creative inquiry and progressive ideas related to glass, the GASNEWS
decorative associations with using color can introduce contentious territory. The first dilemma of a student’s desire to engage color is rooted in pageantry; a prominent disconnect regarding the role color plays in their thinking and making when the spectacle of color gets in the way. I’ll use the hot shop as an example… Introductory students love the ease and immediacy of rolling around in frit. Equally, they love the spontaneously dynamic effect of how that process visually translates when their objects come out of the box. Even the most basic mechanical theories involved in gathering, marvering, and blocking molten glass to the beginner are complicated. Every step afterwards progressively even more difficult, both in theory and in action. Rules in relation to time, temperature, force, and physics are many. Even the awkwardness of using one’s body in new and weird ways has its own set of rules of understanding. To make the whole hot glass experience even more difficult, the beginner is having to pay mind to all these things simultaneously within one singular making moment while at the bench. All of which deeply acquainting
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“Color in and of itself isn’t the dilemma. It should be encouraged when student ideas justify its presence.” Photo: David Schnuckel
intro students to what the concept of “impossible” feels like. It’s here that color – in the form of the frit bomb – makes sense to the introductory student: something productive that can still happen from a beginner’s vantage point amidst the chaos and mystery that glass working is, especially when the prospect of having molten glass “do what one wants” seems so far away. Color, in this educational case study, seems to provide a brief sense of satisfaction within their material incomprehension. On the other end of the hot shop spectrum, the case study of color as spectacle for advanced students lies in bravado; when the driving force in engaging the overlay, incalmo, stuffing a color cup, or even pulling off some reticello is pursuied as only a thing to “master.” They love encountering (and showcasing) signs in the things that they make as an indication that they, too, can accomplish the technical applications and feats involving color somewhat akin to their hot shop heroes… the pros at the upper echelon they want to emulate. It’s here that color application in student thinking and making is pursued as some sort of technical badge; an endpoint as opposed to a means. Neither one of these examples of GASNEWS
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“Color is loaded; easy to be mishandled creatively, visually, and intellectually. Sometimes all at once.” Photo: Chenyang Mu
student approaches to color in the learning experience with glass are actually about color. They’re mostly about the psychological relationship to issues of skill (or lack thereof) by way of color. For the beginner in the above illustration, coloration in the studio is about making something interesting happen with hot glass when making anything at all seems damn near impossible. For the so-called advanced student, coloration in the studio is often mistaken as a billboard to broadcast what they can do with glass, instead of serving as a platform to support their thinking about it. Beyond spectacle, a second area of dilemma regarding color relates to the twosided coin that skill-specific teaching is. Building a sound material comprehension with glass and working it competently is important. But, to what extent can skillspecific instruction be truly helpful? The educational rub is that it’s difficult to provide students an open opportunity to navigate broad conceptual territory when they’re obligated to stick within the framework of a specific glass working technique. Especially when it comes to teaching, learning, and using color. It is important for students to learn the ins and outs of basic material processing VOLUME 29, ISSUE 1
within their field; and various ways of applying color to glass is certainly something to educationally support. These concerns abound in all areas: the hot shop, the kiln shop, the flame shop. Every studio that accommodates glass working has its own protocols and possibilities. But when is the right time to dive into those? …and for who? If for all students at the same time, how is that information disseminated in student learning? Are they obligated to generate “an artwork” relying on that colorbased learning? ...to develop an idea that can only be examined within the framework of a specific glass working process? It’s difficult to invite broad student thinking when educators designate required work to be executed within the restrictions of a specific skill or methodology. Ideally, the integration of skill-specific teaching is right when it reveals itself as pertinent to a student’s needs. When relevant to student ideas, the notion of learning and executing color-based processes could very well require a strong sense of technical comprehension in how color is best used or applied in relation to a student’s vision. For some students, they may want (and need) to know the rules of color application to support their proposed objective in the most informed and
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resolved way. For other students, they may need (or want) to know the rules of color application in order to innovatively bend them. Further, some students may need to know these rules in order to blatantly disregard them for revolutionary renegade purposes. In either of these cases, the issue of color (or any skill-specific technique) no longer resides as an “issue” when a sense of relevance is in play. Beyond the dilemmas of color that compromise a student’s making relationship to glass are the ones that compromise their thinking relationship to it. Even when ideas seem relevant to color, they might not necessarily indicate something new, provocative, or even interesting that involves (and/or relates to) color. The downside to a student’s enthusiasm for ideas driven by color is that it far too easily accommodates an unthoughtful approach to “self-expression” by way implied symbolism, metaphor, and/or the “universally accepted associative implication.” Perhaps the dilemma is, even still, a bit broader than that; that the integration of color within student thinking and making often reveals a misconception
that a student’s desire to “imply meaning” is synonymous with “conceptual impetus.” It’s problematic when student ideas rely on color only as an unanchored allegorical feature. It’s problematic when student ideas rely on color only to “represent” a singular emotional tone. And, it’s problematic when student ideas rely entirely on personal relationships to color and somehow still attempt to speak to a broader viewing public. The integration of color within glass education is tricky territory, and integration of color within student thinking and making even trickier territory. Even though intention has everything to do with its presence in studio, the obligation for sound discernment in how appropriate its role plays within our ideas demands our very careful and thorough consideration. Color is a tool, and it’s a difficult one to wield coherently…which is why it certainly needs to be approached conversationally within our teaching and learning, both in theory and practice. Perhaps one area as an educator I’d like to consider more broadly extends upon the notion of “teaching it.” The traditional demonstration model in studio is designed
“Ideally, the integration of skill-specific teaching is right when it reveals itself as pertinent to a student’s needs, relevant to student ideas.” Photo: David Schnuckel
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to show students how to do something; to give evidence as to how one executes a process in real time and in-the-flesh. I love the idea of using the demonstration model as an opportunity to bypass the instructional “how-to” in making something with color in a certain way, but an opportunity to use color as a means to see or illustrate something within that making. I’ll pull from recent experiences to illustrate… I had the fortune of hosting Micah Evans to the GLASS program at RIT as part of our Visiting Artist Lecture Series in the Spring of 2016. During that visit, he constructed a lidded, percolating kettle at the torch by blowing and assembling a variety of hollow borosilicate components over a few hours. To indicate where the joinery exists between the kettle’s components, Micah applied a thin, black wrap before sealing one part to another in its assemblage. The integration of color in this case used a decorative process that transcended decoration: a method of mapping out the construction of the object visually after it had been made. Color, in this case, functioned as a visual tool for students to see how and where the kettle quite literally
Micah Evans, Lidded, Percolating Kettle (demo), Borosilicate Glass, 2016. “Color as teaching tool post-demo: black wraps to indicate where the connection of separate parts came together in the assemblage process.” Photo: Chenyang Mu
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came together after it had annealed; a way for students years later to “read” the kettle’s assemblage long after the demo had taken place. I admire that thinking and wanted to translate it in my own teaching experience at The Studio at CMOG this past summer. Part of that class experience was using the cup making process as a means to explore the relationships between the hand, time, temperature, force, and physics while at work. In support of that teaching experience, The Studio provides two pots of hot, colored glass: I chose to have an opaque black and an opaline white to be melted down for class use. This decision was made not for their decorative appeal in the finished products of the course, but as a tool to visually read and measure the presence of heat in our cup making process. The opaque black was soft and glowed orange where influenced by a re-heat or a flash when we returned to the bench to work some more. It was informative to see where and how our time in the hole affected certain components of our cups. The targeted areas of our heating were quite predictably radiant, but the dainty areas that were seemingly stiff and “cold” indicated a surprising amount of heat glimmer, too. To see what components of our work held a glow, the degree with which they were glowing, and for how long or not long they would glow during a postheat working period was an opportunity to witness the influence of time over temperature (and vice versa) in real time while at work. Color, in this case, acted as a barometer; the opaque black visually changing within a student’s working period to indicate and reveal the nuances of thermal change in real time. On the other hand, our use of the opaline white enabled us to witness these relationships between time and temperature within the cup making process after our objects had been annealed. The opaline is a translucent color that appears whiteish when straight out of the pot; it gains a stronger sense of opacity when one purposefully allows the glass body to get uncomfortably cold and, once reintroduced GASNEWS
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to heat, the glass body physically reactivated while chemically triggered to opacify. The cup making process doesn’t really accommodate that sort of intentional negligence of time and temperature in the effort of opacifying color in this way well. However, it does make good use of the opaline’s chemical transformation in its own way. Some parts of our cup making process required extensive re-heating and some didn’t. Once annealed, those cups indicated which parts of the process required an instance (or instances) of significant heating by how much opacity was present, where it was present, and to which degree it was opaque in various points of the finished cup. The parts that didn’t require significant heating remained semi-transparent. Color, in this case, acted as a measuring stick. The opaline visually documenting the relationship of time to temperature in the object’s making as seen through the diverse ranges of translucency and opacity from top to bottom once out of the kiln. There’s definitely more to discuss and chew over when it comes to the teaching, learning, and making with color in the context of glass education. In fact, I feel like I’m just getting started here. The topic of color is one of many examples of the kind of educational territories we educators in degree-granting, media-specific programming have to negotiate quite often. It is our job to give and nourish. It is the student’s job to receive and grow. To bring educational content to the table that informs a student’s making as effectively as it challenges a student’s thinking is a significant responsibility. The issue of color is one of many conversations related to glass teaching and learning that hosts many snags. It’s important to identify where color proves problematic, but I’m more enthusiastic about dwelling on its unfulfilled potential; as teaching tool, as conceptual impetus in student research, and as a platform for deeper material comprehension. David Schnuckel is an artist and educator, currently serving as Lecturer within the Glass Program of the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. VOLUME 29, ISSUE 1
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COLOR EXPLORATIONS by Jay Macdonell
Effetre glass color
My work takes me to a lot of different places to source color and problem solve design details. I work for an Architecture and Design firm called Bocci. It’s based in Vancouver, Canada and Berlin. My position is Manager of Material Exploration, which sounds kinda fun, and it is. I source and explore ideas brought forward by Omer Arbel the Artistic Director for the firm. The design process at Bocci is an explorative one, no finished design drawings are ever presented to the hot shop. Lines of inquiry are opened and pursued until something interesting happens or documented as an expanded view of the materials and processes in question. My time spent as gaffer for Pilchuck and my experience in the glass field prepared me for the openness it takes to fail as fast as possible. This issue of GASnews is all about color. If you were at the historic conference in Murano or glued to your social media like
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Mark Peiser, Passage
the rest of the glass world you couldn’t have missed the many images of Effetre glass factory. Piles of color! So beautiful! We aren’t used to seeing so much color in one place, we purchase rods, frit, stringers, sheets and shards from a handful of manufacturers. A box at a time. In many ways our industry has become disconnected from the sources of the base material we all use. The major upheavals of the industry in the last couple of years with the change in production of Spectrum moving to Ocean Tile, their cullet no longer produced, the closure of Uroboros, to the trials and tribulations reaped upon Bullseye. Bullseye has survived but it brought to the forefront a part of glass which most rarely think about. What makes this stuff? Beyond your bright reds going yet a different shade of liver how many can say they have a firm grip on the reasons why you should be so careful when you heat
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it up. When the studio glass movement started most makers made everything from scratch. They tuned their batch and made color. We have reached a point of a stable source of color, and stable in it’s coe and consistency. This has allowed us to concentrate more on making art and less on making the stuff we make stuff with. After all, if you have ever had the compatibility train leave the station and are looking at a week’s worth of work in pieces a little consistency goes a long away. There are some color explorers out there, Mark Peiser and Pete Vanderlaan recently taught a class on the subject, Nick Fruin at Penland, Ben Tullman at Ignite Glass in Chicago, Harry Seaman at Corning are running color pots to name just a few. The work being made with Harry’s opaline by Martin Janeky is exquisite. Pot color, industry standard in the factory world, affords a speed and cost
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VIDEO: Pulling Cane
VIDEO: Striking Pink Rod
VIDEO: Rolling Out Bar
VIDEO: Color Separation
VIDEO: Annealer GASNEWS
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savings that bar cannot duplicate. The combination of the two is even better. In many cases factory to factory formulas are closely guarded and can differ wildly. They are often designed for specific production methodologies made inhouse by technologists. Can you list what is in your batch? And what the different components do? If you want to explore you should pour through the papers and research done by Bullseye on compatibility. Go onto CraftWeb and drop down the color and batch rabbit hole, gain a greater understanding of the material that drives you. I have visited the Kugler and Richenbach factories, besides the technology, color is made the same way it has been for hundreds of years. There are other manufactures of color, based in other industries where their colors are used in all sorts of applications. Density is adjusted according to item thickness and tonal range requirements. This is the color sample books for a company in Germany. They press these forms by hand. Rods of color are heated in a small furnace and then pressed into various lenses. They then get dropped onto a small continuous annealer. Tuning each glass to process and understanding all of the factors that create compatibility allows for an uninhibited exploration of material or at least an understanding of what went wrong. “The only failed experiment, is the one where you weren’t paying attention.” – Dr. Jane Cook Glass is engineered within industry to design parameters, they would never expect one glass to do everything, but that is exactly what we expect as glass artists. In doing so we can limit the parameters of exploration to known factors and what is available. It can be quite liberating to throw the toolbox out and begin from a place of experimentation and solution. Indeed, it’s what the Studio Glass Movement did and it turned glass on its head. The DIY ethos of the studio glass movement dictated that you make everything from scratch and the exploration resulting reflected that. VOLUME 29, ISSUE 1
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Martin Janecky, Opaline
Standard glass color samples
Stamping station
Some of the most interesting work being done in glass today embodies this spirit. Standardization of material facilitated a robust maker industry able to concentrate on the ideas rather than the base materials needed. A healthy mix of both worlds allows
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for creative innovation from a place of material understanding, a good place to be. Jay Macdonell is an artist, gaffer, and Manager of Material Exploration at Bocci in Victoria, BC, Canada.
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MINNESOTAN HUES: A BRIEF LOOK AT THE COLORFUL GLASS COMMUNITY IN MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL by Jon Rees After recently moving to the Twin Cities to pursue a job opportunity, I was surprised to discover a little known, and rather large community of glassmakers in the area. The cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are host to a variety of studios ranging from individual private studios to public access facilities that are home production lighting factories and a wide range of independent artists exploring an array of approaches to color in hot glass. Many of the artists and glassmakers in the area began establishing their careers while working at Foci – the Minnesota Center for Glass Art. Originally founded by Michael Boyd, Andy Thompson, and Todd Cameron as a cooperative studio, Foci has evolved into the upper mid-west’s premier public access glass facility. Fueled by former students of the local university glass programs over the years in both Minnesota and Wisconsin, Foci continues to grow. Today, Boyd as well as Thompson and Cameron have started new private studios in order to return to their own work. Just a few blocks down the road from Foci is MPLS Glass, a small private studio run by Thompson, Cameron, and Jeff Sorensen. Thompson originally learned to work with glass in Seattle at 5th Ave Glass. He then moved to Minneapolis to build his own studio, and eventually assisted Boyd in creating Foci. Thompson describes his blown work as simple shapes that act as canvases for the display of intricate color patterns. At the moment he is working with a technique that he calls “coil building”, in which he layers hot cane on top of one another hot in a similar way to how ceramicists coil build clay pots. The result is a cane aesthetic that is different from what we normally see. Cameron’s work spans a more sculptural approach to blown glass, often incorporating metal assemblages. He began working with glass by taking a few classes and then supplemented those by assisting artists
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Tom Maras, Horizon Bottles, Blown Glass. Photo courtesy of the artist
such as Karen Willenbrink, John Miller, Charles Lowry, Grant Garmezy, and Claire Kelly. As an artist, Cameron has several bodies of work ranging from finely crafted vessels with variations of color overlays to solid sculpted robots. Another body of Cameron’s work combines glass and metal into sculptural forms. The metal in these forms provides contrast to the transparent blues, greys and ambers used in the blown glass components above and below the metalwork. Recently, he began experimenting in the hotshop with the
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vortex marble, a technique widely used by lampworkers today. The current vortex spheres that he’s creating are up to twelve inches in diameter and he’s planning to go even larger. With these larger scale spheres, Cameron is able to achieve a great amount of depth and space within. The color application and patterning in these pieces appears to recede into infinity. Jeff Sorensen hot sculpts his work, often incorporating a mix of fluid forms, rectilinear cubes, and occasionally animal skulls. The contrast between
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Todd Cameron, Gear Vase, 2017, 33 x 7 in., Blown glass and steel. Photo courtesy of the artist
abstract geometric, abstract organic, and representational forms within each sculpture is poignant. In several variations, the abstract forms become almost like a pedestal for the representational. Within his sculptures, Sorensen also uses electroforming for emphasis, introducing additional textures as well as color. He attributes his chromatic sensibility to the twelve years he spent assisting another local glassblower Robinson Scott. Local glassmaker Tom Maras, who
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currently works out of Foci, has a long history working with glass as a material. He was first introduced to glass at Moorhead State University in Minnesota in 1991 and since has worked for several local glass artists, owned his own private studios, and rented time at many local studios. Maras is drawn to opaque glass colors and utilizes a raking and stippling technique that he refers to as a “lava lamp” landscape. His inspiration for these works stems from a combination of knowledge gleaned from his color and design theory classes in college as well as extensive experimentation in the studio with Kugler’s color palette. Although his unique coloring style is applied to vessels, Maras sees these vessels as canvases for a painterly expression of color combinations and reactions between the colors. Also in the Twin Cities is Hennepin Made, a local, independent studio creating well-designed lighting. Founded in 2011 by Joe Limpert and Jackson Schwartz, this studio continues to thrive and grow. Their contemporary lighting products utilize either no color at all or subtle earth tone transparent colors for a modern aesthetic. The subtle color schemes for these fixtures are enhanced by the clean lines of the simple shapes and the often included “roman rings”. The studio glass community in Minneapolis and St. Paul is burgeoning with artists using diverse techniques and approaches to design through traditional and experimental approaches to color. Although the current trends lean heavily hot-shop based approaches to glass, there’s a growing interest in flameworking and kilnforming. The Twin Cities and their suburbs are host to an abundance of opportunities for glassmakers to make and exhibit their work. From craft fairs and galleries to art walks and open studio tours, it’s no surprise that the Twin Cities are ranked as the fifth most vibrant arts community for cities of populations of one million or more by the National Center for Arts Research in 2017.
GAS RESOURCE LINKS To access the Glass Art Society’s up-to-date resources, just click on the links below.
CLASSES EXHIBITIONS AND WORKSHOPS CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS
JOB OPPORTUNITIES
FOR SALE
CALLS TO ARTISTS
OTHER OPPORTUNITIES
Jon Rees is a full time Studio Technician at Foci – Minnesota Center for Glass Art
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