WSJ Throws Stones at Museum

Today's Wall Street Journal claims that the sheet glass used for the Toledo Museum of Glass was actually manufactured in China. There are good reasons for this but the scandal here rests on the fact that Toledo bills itself as "America's Glass City". City Hall may have egg on their face now but if the glass industry continues to migrate to Asia, they may have to find their city a new moniker.

It is hard NOT to use items made in China for projects in the USA. Anybody who has built here knows that, but this industrial migration in the 21st Century could come back and bite the USA later.

WSJ's James T. Areddy writes that "industries where global demand has shifted to China (for construction materials) the pattern is repeated, from steel to locomotives and turbines and specialized glass works."

It does not take an aerospace or economic degree to see that the reason is that's where the right materials are found at the right price. China is now making 45% of the world's total production of sheet glass produced on continuous "float lines" where molten glass falls onto a surface of molten tin; riding on a conveyor until it cools. Float lines run 24/7 for years at a time. China has 150. America has 33 total. Only two of them are in Toledo.

It used to be sheet glass in America meant Pittsburgh Plate Glass. The skyscraper boom of the post WWII period created huge demand and PPG filled it for years. Until the 1970's America made all or most of it's own.

However in the new millennium the sources have changed.

Why was glass made in Toledo, Ohio? In the late 1880's East Coast glass makers such as Edward Drummond Libby were persuaded to come to the area. In Ohio there was cheap natural gas, cheap land and cheap labor. It was close to Detroit and the burgeoning car manufacturing industry. Glass became the trademark of the industrial age in NW Ohio.

American Glass Makers are turning to manufacturing their goods IN China. Owen-Corning is the biggest glass maker in the area today and is set to throw "possible hundreds of millions" into developing their manufacturing in China. "What we bring the market is know-how,"

says Owens-Corning's L. Richard Crawford, president of global glass operations. Ouch. Give away American glass making secrets for profit? Where is your American pride? Not exactly Venice is it?

UK educated Chinese glass art Instructor on CCTV

Guan Donghai
UK educated Chinese artist Guan Donghai has been only been working in glass for eight years but he's established a style of his own. He's created two glass series, "Gates" and "Weapon". The later is pictured above.
It looks to us like these are pate de verre, but is hard to tell from the CCTV review which appeared October 21, 2008 on CCTV's website.

Guan said, "The human head figures as the remarkable part of most of my works. The look is typically Chinese. It doesn't represent ancient people. I use it to express a modern idea. In ancient China, rulers cut off the heads of criminals - stuffed them in cages and hung them on gateways."
Wow just like the English in the 1700's.
"I am trying to adapt that Draconian rule of ancient times, to the discussion of how today's people can open their minds. I've just borrowed the system of punishment from ancient China to explain my thinking about today's social problems."
Nice thinking, and it looks fierce, too, Guan.

Guan didn't find his lifetime interest right at the beginning. He took a detour into dyeing and weaving and watercolor painting, says the CCTV article. Wow, just like Annie and Mike Nourot here. Weird and interesting parallel.
In 2000 he was named director of the newly established glass art studio, of the Tsinghua University's Academy of Arts and Design.
It may be true he then went to the University of Wolverhampton,in the UK. Anyway this trip helped him decide to make glass his life's pursuit.
Guan says he is enthralled by the mystery and fascination of the art. And so are we at the Nourot Glass Studio in Benicia, California.
He has found that, "I can see what a glass piece will look like before I make it. Sometimes the completed work is totally out of expectation. Sometimes it's even better than the way I had visualized it."
It seems we both find glass making a breathtaking and exciting experience.
He adds, "You may discover a new technique accidentally.To me it is the most valuable and encouraging thing."
You can read more about this Chinese artist in glass at the CCTV website.
Happy Happy, Mr. Guan Donghai!