Lino Tagliapietra's New Aventurine Series

These small scale hand blown art glass pieces from Italian glass master Lino Tagliapietra are called his "Aventurine Series". The color is a muted antique gold that he gets from a secret source.

The finished piece is comprised of many similar vertical forms that are reminiscent of Middle Eastern glass and metal work.

Mr. Tagliapietra is also working with mixed media; using blown forms with fusing. This will be an entirely different approach than the large blown works he is most famous for to date.

You can read more about Lino Tagliapietra in an April 4th, 2011 interview by The Glass Art Quarterly Blog.

Hearst Art Gallery Show Upcoming

"Gifted Hands, The Fine Art of Craft" is a show at St Mary's College that opens October 10th.

The Hearst Art Gallery at St Mary's College is the setting for this SF Bay Area exhibit that will feature furniture, glass, pottery, wearable art, quilts, turned wood, jewelry, metal and fiber sculpture.

Kyla Porter Tynes, curator says: "We would love to have one or more pieces from you (Micheal Nourot) for this show." Since they had only one piece in their collection (a 1980's series work), Micheal dug down into his archives for an good example of his "murrini" series. Also on display by Mr. Nourot will be a "low energy" work that was made earlier this year. The murrini series is pictured. Other low energy works by Nourot are also on display at the studio's gallery located at 675 East H St, Benicia, California.

Fellow fine craft artisans included in this show at St Mary's are :Garry Knox Bennett, Oakland, furniture maker Leslie Carabas, Sonora, quilter Skip Esquierdo, San Lorenzo, potter Janet Lipkin, Richmond, textile artist Marvin Lipofsky, Berkeley, glass artist; Erin McGuiness, Berkeley, potter Alison McLennan, Oakland, furniture maker Freddy Moran, Orinda, quilter, Florence Resnikoff, Berkeley, jewelry artist Kay Sekimachi, Berkeley, fiber artist and weaver Merryll Saylan, Berkeley, wood turner Victoria Skirpa, Oakland, jewelry artist Chuck Splady, Oakland, metal worker Zhenne Wood, Oakland, fiber artist.

The Fine Craft Show opens Sunday, Oct. 10. Hearst Art Gallery is located at: 1928 Saint Mary's Road, Moraga, California, 94575 PH: 925-631-4353. Events include a 4 pm panel discussion with the artists, coil pottery demonstrations, a reception, & unique works of art in the gift shop.

Guest Artists Craig and Anny Zweifel

Spring Sale at Nourot Studio is coming up in a month. This year's guest artists will be Craig and Anny Zweifel of Williams, Oregon.

Craig and Anny make a type of glass that is not often seen. The lustre effects they get always make them stand out at the art fairs and markets where we have seen them and their works.

Colors they work in are Amber, black and irredescence of many colors. No diachroic is ever used to achieve these effects.

The secret to making glass like the Zweiffel's will be revealed at the Nourot Spring Sale. Thursday through Sunday the last two days of April and the first two days of May there will be glassmaking by both the Zweiffels and the Nourots.

You may drop by the studio then to view their works. You can also sign up for email alerts on Benician Glass website which is the studio tourist site.

We hope next month this time we'll be welcoming you into our shop to see molten glass take form right before your eyes.

Location is 675 East H Street in Benicia, California about a half hour's drive from Napa and about an hour from San Francisco.

They will be refreshments as well and you won't want to miss Arts Benicia's Open Studios that weekend also. Many of the best artists in the area will be open to visitors. Look at the Arts Benicia website for information on who is participating. No charge for admission. At Nourot there is plenty of free parking and a great view of the straits! Vista Point bridge walk is now open too, for bicycles and pedestrians from here to Martinez. Google Vista point for location.

Lino Tagliapietra Chrysler Museum Show, Virginia

Lino Tagliapietra is one of the world's most well known glass artists. His works span six decades. No stranger to American art glass, Mr. Tagliapietra continues to impress the public with his effortless and elegant style. Widely copied now, but never duplicated.
Tomorrow his show at Norfolk, Virginia's Chrysler Museum closes. Here is a link to the article about it.
Micheal Nourot sends his regards to Lino and all his collectors. Lino, we remember your compliment when you blew glass at Nourot Studio in 1994 for the Glass Artists Society Annual Meeting: "Micheal, that red is the best I have ever seen."

BAGI Auction Raises the Bar

Last night April 18th, the Bay Area Glass Institute in San Jose, California, proudly presented the works of over 100 glass artists in their annual dinner/live auction. Many of the works there went for over the listed "fair market value". A few fetched in excess of $4,000.
Micheal Nourot and Ann Corcoran were the featured speakers just after the silent auction at 6 PM. The Nourots presented a power point on the formative years of the Nourot Glass Studio of Benicia. Afterwards they took questions from the 90 collectors who attended.
Quite a few San Francisco Bay Area glass artists attended as well. In the crowd were Mary B. White and Randy Strong.
The silent portion of the auction offered eight pieces of early Nourot Glass donated by Judy and Jerry Rose. The nicest one was the vertical stripe square cane murrini cylinder by Micheal Nourot.
The BAGI auction was held at 88 Fourth Street in the seventh floor ball room. The dinner was catered by the Fairmont Hotel. Event chair Steven Aldrich said, "I'm really plesed with what we've raised. It's been a good evening." Among the auctioned items were dinner with a visiting artist, lessons in the hot shop or outright donation to the electric furnace fund. The BAGI hot shop wants to go more eco-friendly by going electrical and over $11,500 was raised towards the cost of a new electric furnace. At BAGI they have classes, workshops, studio rentals a gallery and a gift shop. See their site at ww.bagi.org

Best of the Bay Show Filming Today

TV crew from KRON's "Best of the Bay" show were filming at Nourot Glass this morning. The segment is set to air on April 19, 2009. Micheal Nourot was featured in a "how-to" like appearance. Here you can see a home movie of the crew following him around. What fun!