Trends in Hand Blown Glass

It's just a day away:2012. Today I'm pausing to note that the term "hand blown glass" finally has some meaning in America. When the Nourot Studio was formed years ago, the term was tagged onto anything that was hollow, almost. The actual hand blown part was faked. Sort of like the term "all natural" on a juice drink nowadays.
There just wasn't any real hand blown glass being made until the studio glass movement of the early 1970's in America. Steuben and Blenko did some, but mostly their glass was partly moulded. Maybe Blenko made some wholly hand blown vintage flask bottles and pitchers. And yes, the Wheaton New jersey works did make Early Colonial reproductions for the tourist trade. The point is there was no industry in hand blown glass then.
Today in late 2011, there is a really wide group of people making all kinds of blown works. You probably know that. But look at the ranking of the top ten cities.
Maybe it's time for a new contemporary glass gallery in each of these places.
Google trends tells us the top 10 cities that search for the term "hand blown glass" are:
Seattle
San Diego
Denver
Portland
St Louis
Philadelphia
Tampa
Orlando
Boston and...
San Francisco

Dallas Addison Area Art Show

The 21st Anniversary of our favorite Texas gallery is having a "One of a Kind" show of glass artists. Micheal Nourot's work titles: Low energy bowl will be one of the pieces in this show. Michael Riffkind and Barbara Kittrell have operated a fine craft art gallery showcasing American made glass since 1990. The show runs October 1st through November 5th. For more information call: gallery 972-239-7957 or the studio (classes in slumping and stained glass) 972-239-7989.

Flapper Style at The Crucible this Weekend

Theatrical is an element very close to fire on the wheel of life, apparently. The Crucible updates us at Nourot Studio today with an excellent newsletter about this weekend's Performance art: Heat a Fire Caberet.

They say dress up in 1920's style. What fun that will be! They also provide links to wiki articles about 20's fashion, Youtube makeup ideas and even ideas for men's costumes. Roaring hot we say!

How about taking a date to the Crucible event this Saturday or Sunday? Tickets are $40--45. You can get an overnight room at the Oakland Executive Inn with a water view in Oakland, for just $109 when you mention you are a friend of the Crucible.

Go for it and report back. We'll be minding the shop here in Benicia. Look for this annual event to continue to get great press and large crowds. A better time you'll be hard put to find for a mid-summer's eve.

Bold and Fearless Art by Ruffner

"If you believe it is real, it is real," says Ginny Ruffner.
Recently Seattle radio station KPLU did a profile piece on Ginny Ruffner who is one of the studio glass movement's iconic founders. Ms Ruffner is also the featured subject of a movie called "A Not so Still Life."
June 27, 2010 interviewer Jennifer Wing reads a piece on Ruffner and her work and life. The wonderful podcast is highly recommended by us and is available on the KPLU website here.
The site has a great amount of images of her fanciful, beautiful and powerful glass art work. Which some how is surprising from a radio station!
Ms Ruffner is a person of great personal strength and powerful insight. She is known for being an innovative crafts person. Her painting on lamp worked glass sculptures was revolutionary.
Both her colorful glass and metal works and herself are thoroughly enchanting.

Custom Weights

Here are a group of custom weights for corporate giving. The examples shown are just a few of the colors available. Othe colors include, gold, orange, lavender, hyacynth, lemon, pink, coral, navy to just name a few. Nourot glass creates works in enamel colors and solid color glases. The patterns shown are "Zoomie", "Moonjelly", "Scrabble" and "Stormy".
For other items that can be made to order please contact the studio: nourotglass@gmail.com.

Jewelry Trunk Show October 25th

Jill Bugni's Jewelry will be featured at a Trunk Show in the Nourot Glass Gallery Saturday October 25th from 10AM to 5PM at 675 East H Streetin Benicia, California. Jewlery designer Jill Bugni is actually big sis to Benicia's own cat doctor Dr. Brisbin on East Second Street.

Jill will attend and be showing her whole line of wonderful works. This is planned as a fun ladies event.

Mike Marcus, glass bead artist, and also a member of Benicia City Planning's Office, will also be showing jewelry of his own design.

Come try on fabulous glass bead and semi-precious stone jewelry in a relaxed atmosphere in the Nourot Glass Gallery. Many Christmas items are already in, too! Refreshments will be served. Everyone is welcome. Call 745-1463 for more information.

Making a Rivergate at the bench lately

Pictures here are courtesy of Joe Spillman of Novato, California. Micheal Nourot is making a "Rivergate" piece in these shots. His assistants are Nicholas Nourot (white shirt) and Reeven Rosen (blue shirt). The furnaces are up and running at this time, so come on down to the shop to see some exciting glass making.

The use of the large rosebud tipped torch is a common site when making large scale works. There used to not be much you could do really over 20 inches without it. The emergence of the new American glass masters in Seattle with their fondness for huge wonky works has brought this technology down the coast to us. The largest "glory hole" at the Nourot Studio is about 26 inches in diameter but the back side of the piece on the finishing rod is actually blocked from the heat by the girth of the piece. The torch adds the necessary heat on the side nearest to the glass maker to keep the whole thing right. There are other uses of the torch, too, depending on the process necessary to create a certain piece or with certain additions of hot glass to the original form that take time out of the 'Hole" and so the piece needs to be reheated in a piecemeal way; each part getting the added heat it requires.
Notice the bench and the 'glory hole" have both been lowered to make the working of these heavy large works more ergonomic. Every little innovation that we adopt is for a reason. Here you see the marvering table has had it's legs shorn shorter also.