Pittsburgh Glass Center Exhibit :: Lifeforms

I live in Pittsburgh, PA and we have a really awesome glass center.  Currently, the PGC is running an exhibit called Lifeforms.  This is a travelling exhibit that will eventually end at the Glass Art Society Conference in Corning NY in June 2016.  Heather McElwee, Executive Director of the PGC, is a juror on the show.

Lifeforms (show link) is an exhibit of glass models that were made in the spirit of father and son team, Rudolf and Leopold Blaschka (read the wiki about these two, very interesting) who are famous for their 19th and 20th century models of invertebrates and plants. If you go to the show link, you will be able to see all entries. The show includes botany models, zoology models, and scaled models of microorganisms.

The show was juried by 5 well known artists in the glass field, and 50 artists were chosen to exhibit.  I happily took in the show last week and took some photos so that you could all see the awesomeness that is a glass exhibit! I did not take photos of every item, and can't share them all with you here because it would be a massive post.  I will share some, and list the artist, title and skills used, and let you know which are my faves! All photos are mine.

 Victor Trabucco, Hawthorne Berries, lampwork, fused, laminated

 Paul Stankard, Meditation - Healing Virtues of the Plant Kingdom, Apis, flameworked

 Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen, India Blue Peacock, blown, sculpted, powder images

 Elizabeth Johnson, Ranier Cherries, lampworked, copper wire, ceramic

 Lisa Demagall, Radiolaria, flameworked

 Shane Fero, Winter White Redpolls, flameworked, etched, found objects

 Sara Sally LaGrand, Culling, flameworked

 Mark Clarson, Untitled, cast glass, silver leaf

 Mauro Vianello, Snailes, flameworked, wood

 Brandon Martin, Axolotl, lampworked, river rock, resin, wood, copper

ONE OF MY FAVES!

Bronwen Heilman, The Lovely, flameworked

 Michael Mangiafico and Ed Pinto, Tears of the Sun God, flameworked, kilnformed, wood

There is so much detail in this piece, it's unreal!

Jupiter Nielsen and Nathan Belmont, I'iwi in Haleakala Sandalwood, flameworked 

 Jeremy Sinkus, The Future is Coming, blown, sculpted

Another favorite, filled with detail

 Beau Tsai, Panther Chameleon, flameworked

 Kelly O'Dell, Hope, blown, sculpted

 Raven Skyriver, Bask, solid sculpted

Sam McMillen, Cupped Up, solid sculpted

And finally, my personal favorite of the whole show.  So much so that I was tempted to purchase it.  

 Erin and Grant Garmezy, Desert Blossom, sculpted and electroplated

If you have the time and are within driving distance, or even not, it's a great show to take in.  It's not very big, you could also tour the glass center or time your visit to also take a class or a make-it, take-it, but it's well worth it to see.  I really enjoyed bringing this exhibit to you and hope you enjoyed seeing it as well!

Susan Kennedy

 

"Out of the Archives and Into The Gallery"

This past summer, while I was taking my summer intensive class with JC Herrell, the Pittsburgh Glass Center had an exhibit going on, entitled "Out of the Archives and Into the Gallery".  They invited 17 glass artists to go behind the scenes at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History here in Pittsburgh, to find ancient pieces of glass that inspired them to make something new.  I thought I'd share some of the photos with you that I managed to take.

Mike Mangiafico

Mike Mangiafico (from whom I have taken some glass classes!) chose these roman glass face murrini beads as his inspiration for the pieces below.

 Mike's interpretation in jewelry!

Gillian Preston

I don't know Gillian but I was impressed by her interpretation of a blown glass pig vessel!

To me, her piece almost looks like ceramic - I really love the finish and still marvel that it's blown glass!

John Sharvin

Again, I don't know John either, but was really impressed by his interpretation of the Janus Flasks and the detail in the faces, as well as the ancient look he gave to them.

Travis Rohrbaugh

And, finally, I don't know Travis, but loved his interpretation of this awesome Egyptian vessel.

Certainly, there were other works in the gallery, but just picked a few to show you.  I consider myself lucky to have the Pittsburgh Glass Center in my backyard!  In about two weeks, another exhibit is coming to the Glass Center, the exhibit "Lifeforms 2016".  

I will be attending that exhibit and will be reporting to you on it as well!!!

And now, just for fun...

Beading with JC Herrell!

During the crazy last month of summer, I was able to fit in an intensive class at the Pittsburgh Glass Center.  I won a juried partial scholarship to take a class of my choice - I had already signed up to take the intensive class JC Herrell was teaching, so yay!

JC making a demo bead

Intensive classes at the Pittsburgh Glass Center mean 5 full days, 9-5, of learning and making beads with an awesome lampworker.  Most people also stay later, up until 10pm if they wish.  I, however, can never do that.  By 5pm I am pretty much done!  I never (get to) make beads for an 8 hour day, and that's just too much for me!

JC's class was called Color, Form and Line.  If you don't know JC's beads, here's some examples:

These are the beads in my own personal collection; they were purchased quite a long time ago:

The class was about enamels, how to use them, how to form a great bead, and how to do that awesome stringer work! We learned how to make some of her signature beads, including a poppy bead, a waterlillies bead, a tree bead.  How to use the enamel sifter the correct way, how to make those lines. 

Our very first exercise was - make a bead that's in your head using enamels, lines etc.  Then at the end of the week, the last exercise was to make that bead again, using the skills that we've learned throughout the week.  Here are my first "head beads"!

What was I going for?  The symbol is a Japanese Torii gate.  The colors to me were Asian, and the form was to look like a Japanese lantern.  Unfortunately, I had to miss the very last class because I was going to Scotland, but I'll make a bead soon, in my new interpretation, and show you when I finish it!

Here are some examples of JC's beads and mine - wonder if you can tell the difference???

JC's Tree Bead and Starry Night Bead 

My tree bead - not too bad!

My Starry Night Bead - more starry than night...

 My fade beads - fading the enamel from light to dark/dark to light.  Trying to get the form.

My waterlillies bead - not great, but pretty good.  I'd use it for a fan pull!

All in all, I very much enjoyed this class. I almost never do stringer work, because I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, and if I can't finish my line without getting that "dot" at the end, I don't like it! But I think with the skills I learned from JC, I will try again. I very much enjoyed using the enamel sifter and some of the tips and tricks she gave us regarding making enamel stringer and how to get that fade or ombre look. I also very much appreciate the time it takes to get that perfectly formed bead - I learned a lot about taking my time and how to finish the ends of beads! I hope when I get time in the near future to put these skills to use!

Here's a bead I purchased for my daughter:

And how lucky am I?  I WON this bead in the raffle at the end of the class!

I haven't taken an intensive class at the Pittsburgh Glass Center for well over 6 years, and I'm glad I did.  In my next post, I'll be able to show you my work from a Polymer Clay class I am taking with Heather Powers at Andrew Thornton's place, Allegory Gallery!  I look forward to even more fun!

Susan Kennedy