Vitreosity

Made In America visits Franklin Art Glass

Posted recently on YouTube - a very nice professional take on Franklin Art Glass, out of Columbus, Ohio. The program "Made In America" was (is?) shown on The Travel Channel, hosted by John Ratzenberger.

It's about 8 minutes long - not sure when it was filmed or aired.

I never knew there was a "Wendy's" connection with Franklin Art Glass...

I'd never heard of "Made In America", perhaps something to do with my not having CableTV for 15 years and no TV at all now. There were apparently four seasons of episodes, with perhaps more to come. Whatever the whole series is like, I do like the idea of a series about the importance of making things for yourself and your own culture, whether it's about America or any other country. Making things really is a vitally important part of any national/cultural identity, and that identity is indeed in serious crisis in America.

One especially intriguing bit in the film for me (at about 2:50) - seeing the little snippet showing Wissmach's machine rolled glass making process.
more more, please more.

Cafe Gandolfi and the Flock of Fishes

A nice simple video about the commission "Flock of Fishes" for the Cafe Gandolfi in Glasgow, Scotland, with stained glass by John K Clark. "Flock of Fishes" is an early work by Clark, dated 1984-1987, but it's one of his most famous and popular despite his numerous successful commissions since then. I've been to the Cafe Gandolfi and can personally attest that it's a wonderful place and the 'fishes' is a wonderful work of stained glass.

I wish there were more videos like this on YouTube. Telling the story behind a stained glass commission, using simple narration by the artist.

Most videos on YouTube having to do with stained glass are so bad, with cheesy music, no information, and just bad filmmaking all around.

Lesson for today - keep it simple and informative.

Cars Break Bones...

The first stained glass co-production of Gwyneth D. Krepcio and Tom Krepcio.

Based on an incident in May when my ten year old daughter Gwyneth and I were nearly hit by a car while walking the dog in the streets of St. Louis. The cel-phone-wielding SUV driver didn't see us while we were crossing an intersection and we had bolt into a full run to avoid getting hit. The SUV missed Gwyneth by inches. I was livid and we were both seriously spooked by the whole thing. As soon as we got home, Gwyneth wrote out the poem. I worked up the design shortly after, adding the 'drive safely' at the bottom. We picked out the colors/glass together, and she even cut some of the glass! She scratched out the stars, I did the lettering, fired the glass and assembled the final panel.

Jon Kuhn and Salem Stained Glass

I've been busy recently and I'm only now catching up with this press release from about 4 weeks ago - New Technique Promises to Revolutionize Traditional Stained Glass Windows. The press release announces a collaboration between the glass sculptor Jon Kuhn and Salem Stained Glass.

The press release has generated some buzz. On the AGG bulletin board, there has been an ongoing discussion thread called Cold Glass Artist Jon Kuhn. A smaller thread with some better images of the sample 'Sacred Glass' pieces can be seen on the SGAA forum thread called Kuhn cold glass artist and traditional stained glass.

The press release also brought about this a recent article called Jewels' of Glass: Salem Stained Glass, Winston-Salem glass artist create works to tap into upscale residential market, from the Winston Salem Journal website.

Promotional video for 'Sacred Glass'

full disclosure - I worked at Salem Stained Glass for 3 years (2001-2004), with 2 of those as production manager. They're good people and they do good work. Plenty of flashbacks seeing the shop in the video.

More on Kuhn's work (including another video) and my own take on the collaboration, including a few caveats, below the fold...

Medieval Summer in New York City.

New York is the place for Medievalists this summer as there are two top notch exhibitions going on right now.

Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages is a show of drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While at the Met you can also see the recently authenicated First Painting of Michaelangelo. The painting was presumable done when he was just 13, and it is Michelangelo's version of a Schongauer engraving, Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons.

Pages of Gold: Medieval Illuminations from the Morgan - The Morgan Library and Museum is another one of my favorite places in New York city. I'm sure this is a great show.

If you can't make it (like me) then the Morgan has been generous enough to post the images on their website, in high resolution, all zoomable, so you can pore over the details. There are some surprises when looking deep into the details.

Just one quick example - this is a portion of a page showing the Adoration of the Magi, 1500. But if I was asked where this came from I might just as easily imagine it a modern illustration for a children's book.

I'm always fascinated by the details. Go to the website and have a good browse. Better yet, if you're in NYC, go to the Morgan and see them yourself.

GAS Conference 2009

The Glass Art Society Conference 2009 is this week in Corning New York. Lookinig at the website, it looks to be a huge event. Once again, very little 'flat glass' presence, to the point where the only event of the conference directly related to stained glass, the Tiffany Windows in Western New York Tour, was cancelled due to low registration.
Still, I do know of a few SG artists who will be attending. Good luck to them. I'll relay reports if I hear anything.

Chagall Windows at Tudeley Church Kent UK

Tudeley Church, Kent, England
12 windows by Marc Chagall, and one of only 2 sites in Great Britain with Chagall windows.
The windows date from 1967 to 1985, the year of Chagall's death.

The Great East Window, 1967, a memorial tribute to Sarah d'Avigdor-Goldsmid.

click to enlarge
photo by flickrite ruthandjohnny...

Flickr Search for 'Tudeley' + 'Chagall'.
Lots of good stuff here. Take the time to search out the details.

Here's a video tour of the church. As usual in an amatuer video, it's a bit shaky and too contrasty, but it does give some idea of the layout, and as an extra bonus (this being a group of Dowsers doing the tour) you get to know how the energy flows around the building...

Stained Glass Day at the Met

On Sunday, May 31, 2009, there will be a day of talks on stained glass at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, all part of celebrating the opening of the newly refurbished American Wing.

Officially it's called Sunday at the Met—An Old-World Art Form for the New World: Issues in the History of Conservation, Collecting, and American Designs for Stained-Glass Windows.

Whew.

AGG 2009 Conference Early Registration Deadline

If you plan to attend the American Glass Guild Conference this coming July, you can save some money by registering by May 31, the deadline for early registration. You can find the Registration Form, Schedule and list of workshops, presentations and speakers and hotel reservation link at 2009 Conference webpage. The Conference will be held in Buffalo, NY, from July 16-20.

Workshops are being held Thursday and Friday Morning. Note that the Thursday full day conservation workshop is full.

You can look at detailed information of sites related to the conference at the Google Map, AGG 2009 Buffalo Conference Sites. The map includes the sites for the Friday morning walking tour and the Monday full day bus tour, as well as locations of local sites of interest. Lots of links.

It's going to be a full weekend. I'll be there, speaking on Friday afternoon (Stained Glass in the Internet Age) and again on Saturday morning (A Quick Primer: Photo Sandblasting and Silk-screening, with Dan Maher). I'll have more details as the time comes closer.

Cupples House Stained Glass

I finally got a chance to visit the Samuel Cupples house, on the campus of St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO. "Finally", because their hours tend to be a bit unusual, so it's been difficult before now. As it was, I visited on a Sunday and they were only open because of a special event called "Rooms in Bloom". Whatever the reason it was, all in all, a very pleasant visit.

Richardsonian Romanesque design, Thomas Annan Architect, circa 1889

I posted 75 photos from the visit as a VitreosityPictures Flickrset of Samuel Cupples Stained Glass.

Decorative Drawing Room Window, circa 1889.
These were my favorites - very detailed decorative windows, with tiny pieces of glass and string lead throughout. This one looked to be around 18 inches high, with many of the individual glass pieces are no bigger than a fingernail. Great work. There are some 8-10 varied, detailed, decorative windows throughout the house.

Zodiac Window, 1889
This is the window I had heard of, and which used to be featured prominently on their website (but no longer - wassup?).

A placard at the museum stated that this is a Tiffany Studios window based on a design by Edward Burne-Jones. My initial response to the Tiffany attribution is skepticism, as the circumstances and the quality of the panel seem a bit wonky.

How exactly did a Burne-Jones design for a 'Four Seasons' design became a stained glass window for the 'Zodiac'? and by Tiffany Studios? and in St. Louis? I'd always assumed, before I saw it in person, that the Zodiac window was done by a good early St. Louis stained glass studio. The design, fabrication and painting seem a bit crude compared to the Tiffany and LaFarge windows I've seen over the years. I've only ever heard of one Tiffany Studio window being designed "based on" a non-Tiffany studio artist - a panel from 1894 based on a print by Toulouse Lautrec, and the style and circumstances of the commission simply don't match, IMO.

On the other hand, in terms of attribution, the decorative windows throughout the rest of the Cupples House are first rate technically, so it certainly does not rule out the Tiffany Studio.

more on the Zodiac window plus a surprise or 2 below the post...

Connick Tour in Pittsburgh

An article called Shining a light on stained glass artists, about Charles Connick's stained glass in the Pittsburgh area. This coming Sunday there will be the first in a series of lectures and tours related to Connick stained glass.

Not from Pittsburgh, but a nice early Connick piece I found on Flickr.

Adoration of the Magi, LACMA, from flickrite howcheng

The Tip Jar

You might notice that I've added a button on the left for donations.

I've never asked for money on this site. When I first started this blog in 2003, it didn't occur to me that the idea would ever come up. But after the number and size of entries grew, and there seemed to be a steady readership, then it seemed to me appropriate to either put up a donate button or seek advertising. Frankly, I've never wanted to clutter up the space with advertising, nor do I want to have to consider the agendas of advertisers when writing entries. Advertising on the blog may happen in the future, but with discretion and guidelines.

So a simple, easy to use donate button it is.

Why now? Aside from the stresses of the economy that everyone is feeling, I would like to upgrade the blog. Improve the look and function and, most importantly, bring back comments.

After 5½ years of blogging and over 300 blog posts, I think I can give myself permission to ask. Any help is much appreciated.

Met's American Wing Galleries to reopen May 19

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, is announcing the reopening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing.

One of the windows going back on display is The Welcome Window by John La Farge, which is in my opinion one of La Farge's very best windows. The roses on the steps, when seen up close, are just astonishing.

from flickrite miai c

Entire press release below the fold -

LIFE Photo Archive Online

If you haven't done it already, check out the LIFE Photo Archive hosted by Google.

When I was growing up in the mid-60's, LIFE magazine was for me the most important part of the weekly news cycle. This was because LIFE magazine had the best images of current events. Movies created big beautiful images, but it was never 'current' enough. TV was immediate, but at that time the image quality was lousy, mostly filled with still studio sets and talking heads. LIFE magazine was the grand canvas for current world news and culture. It’s almost impossible for anyone under the age of 40 to even imagine what kind of anticipation there was waiting for the current issue of LIFE magazine to show up in your mailbox once a week. Of course, all that changed rapidly as TV mobile technology improved, and then cable TV expanded the number of images, and eventually the internet came in with even more diverse and instant imagery.

So, as this is a blog about stained glass, I was curious to see what would show up in a search for 'stained glass' in the LIFE image archives. Some images I expected, like 20th century modern art related stained glass (LIFE's heyday was from about 1940-1970). In some cases, where I might expect to find something, there was nothing. For example, there are images of the National Cathedral, but no stained glass.

And there were some very odd surprises. More on that later.

One example of a totally expected image. French painter Marc Chagall working on a stained glass window, circa 1960. Expected since I remember a good number of photo essays on modern artists in the pages of LIFE.

more modern artists and a few oddities after the fold...

Mary Clerkin Higgins Lecture

A talk on Stained Glass and Conservation by Mary Clerkin Higgins.
Bio as a member of board of directors of the American Glass Guild
Website, only a home page, under construction.

It's a longish presentation (roughly 1 hour, 15 minutes) and you can't see the slides very well, but it's worth it, especially if you are fairly new to working in stained glass. Roughly speaking, the 1st third is about materials and process, the 2nd third is a history of stained glass, and the last third is about conservation techniques, with examples. The information is rock solid. Mary is one of the best in the biz.

Here is the link on Truveo if it doesn't work for you here. Curiously, there is no information on date or origin of the video.

'Twibing' Stained Glass

I’ve been a little over a month on twitter now -

http://www.twitter.com/vitreosity

I’m still skeptical but still interested in the possibilities.

I find the 140 character limit surprisingly intriguing, as it forces you to focus and make your thoughts clear and straightforward.

Still, the whole ‘follower’ and ‘following’ thing is confusing and a bit maddening to me, and man-o-man do I get tired of the whole ‘what I’m doing right now’ small talk and chitchat. Twitter is indeed awash with that.

So, I’m trying something different. There is a thing called ‘twibes’, and if you have a twitter account, you can join. I created a ‘twibe’ specifically for people interested in stained glass.

http://www.twibes.com/stained_glass

It aggregates twitter messages by narrowing the search to three words you choose. That is, if you have a twitter account and sign up with the ‘stained_glass twibe’, anytime you do a tweet that includes the words ‘stained’ OR ‘glass’ OR ‘art’, your tweet will be posted on the ‘stained_glass twibe’ automatically. Theoretically, you can go to the 'stained_glass twibe' site and get the links, insights and thoughts of those who are especially interested in stained glass.

I have no idea whether or not this will attract stained glass professionals or enthusiasts, or if it will further the discourse between different people interested in stained glass. It’s very new, and a guess and a gamble. But there is nothing to lose, except a little more time in following the experiment. Frankly, I’d be surprised if it worked out the way I would like or imagine.

Still, I can always mark it down to research and development.

Or in twitterspeak - Call it R&D

Emanuele Luzzati - Illustrator, Animation Designer...
and Stained Glass Artist?

Michael Sporn has recently posted several entries on the films of Luzzati & Gianini on his animation blog, focusing particularly on the designs of Emanuele Luzzati, who passed away in 2007.

A typical Luzzati illustration, from the book version of The Magic Flute.

Luzzati's illustration is commonly referred to as 'stained glass like', which is to say that it features bright primary colors with strong black outlines. Because of this, I've long been curious to know if Luzzati ever designed any actual stained glass windows. It turns out he did, but only a few windows for one location. I found this article about Emanuele Luzzati called Fond Remembrances of Italian artist Emanuel Luzzati on the San Diego Jewish World website.

The website includes this small image showing windows designed by Luzzati for his local Synagogue in Genoa, Italy. Alas, I could find no closer images.

The other thing I've been curious about is if these 'stained glass like' designs would actually translate easily into actual stained glass. Below the fold I did a short experiment to see just how one of his illustrations might be translated into stained glass...

Morning Glass Design gets the Internet Thing

Another find via my new twitter account - http://twitter.com/vitreosity

Gordon Watt, of Morning Glass Designs, out of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, seems to get the whole internet thing. At the very least he's decided to dive in and use the tools available. Not only does he have a blog, but also a Flickr Projects Page, and also a Twitter account where I first came across him.

Look at a recent project for a window at Portlethen Kirk that was posted initially on his blog and then as a Flickrset. It will be interesting to see how this all develops.

Smithsonian Craft Show starts TODAY

As I posted about last December, friend and colleague Nancy Nicholson is in this year's Smithsonian Craft Show, which starts today and goes through next Sunday.

As I said before, it's big news, as it's pretty rare for a stained glass artist to make it into the show. I was in the 2000 Smithsonian Craft show and it was a great experience, and I'm still getting commissions from that show.

I'm with you there in spirit, Nancy. Good Luck!!
If you're in Washington DC this weekend, make a point to go!!