Posted 13 years ago
Belltown
(241 items)
For a brief period in the mid-1980s, I worked for Dale Chihuly. It must have been 1983 or 84. At the time, Dale, like a few other artists, would rent the furnaces and facilities at the Pilchuck Glass School about an hour north of Seattle. The school ran during the summer, so the artists would take over in the fall before it got too cold.
I had been working in the kitchen and got to know Dale and a few of the other artists in the Pilchuck orbit (including Billy Morris, Rich Royal, and Benjamin Moore). I knew my way around the pad (where the glass blowing actually happens) but I was mostly hired to do grunt work and cook for the crew, which I was happy to do.
Anyhow, this is one of two shot glasses done in his Macchia style that Dale gave me. The second one vibrated off a shelf during an earthquake in Los Angeles, shattering as it hit the floor. As the artists at Pilchuck always used to say, glass breaks.
Hi. Thanks for sharing the piece and the story.
Did you meet any Australians over there at Pilchuck?
Hi vetraio50:
I met Klaus Moje, who was teaching in Canberra at the time. He did these amazing fused and slumped bowls. Who else should I know about?
Hi yeah Klaus introduced bullseye in Australia. Giles Bettison, Brian Hirst, Nick Mount, the Eliott's?
Wow. I like the Edols/Elliott pieces a lot. All that engraving and cold work on the surface, like the inciso Venini stuff, but at once more obsessive and organic. Thanks!
Hi ben Edols these days is doing some more commercial blowing, very much influenced by the Italian. I have a Giles Bettison vase that was one of his first pieces using bullseye. It too is engraved back all over the surface area. Thanks for your kind comments about the Aussies!
Wonderful to "meet' you and so glad to learn that you love glass! In addition to collecting Loetz and other Bohemian glass, I collect and represent Lotton art glass in the midwest at the Figge Art Museum Store, Davenport, Iowa. The CW offers many wonderful options for the collector such as posting events(It was great to be able to post the Lotton pieces available from the Lilian Nassau collection offered at Early Auction Co last year!), providing weekly notices with summaries of the latest & greatest Ebay offerings in the categories that I am interested in (I have purchased many pieces thanks to your heads up!) and I especially love the Show & Tell feature for which I have a list of articles that I hope to submit shortly. Thanks again for all you do for the collecting community and for your interest in art glass!
Hi this is a little article on Australian Art glass Pioneers
http://glasscentralcanberra.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/australian-glass-pioneers-the-paper/
I now regret not being one of them . I was asked ( several times! ) to come and have a go at making glass in the early/mid 70's but was too interested in s.. d...s and R&R ...
Thanks for the article Marty.
love the story thanks for sharing!
VERY BEAUTIFUL!!!