Happening in the Glass Studio the other day
Tag: Glow Glass Studio Oakland
working with Glass Artist Jess Wainer at Glow Glass Studio…
Yesterday Jason assisted Jess Wainer creating her beautiful luminescent large glass lampshades for a client commission. In the light these shades virtually glow and diffract colour into these gorgeous washes of green, yellow, red.. When not hit by direct sunlight the shades are a warm golden honey yellow with a whitish fog over towards the rim.
The picture shows Jess’s work straight from out of the annealer after their overnight controlled cooling process; before the items are cold worked and finished, hopefully we can show her final pieces, too.
Each lampshade will sell for $1000, 3 were ordered.
glassmaker’s tools in the glass studio
Here are a selection of tools made especially for working with hot molten glass as well as some more familiar ones that you will recognise from home diy projects.
On the far left is a cork yoga block that Jason cut into half, glued to a sheet of plywood and turned into a tool that can shape molten glass. He often uses this one when he is making blown glass chestnuts for example. Keep an eye on other studio photographs and you might spot him using it. He calls this a cork paddle.
Jason adds a very special new product to his collection of handblown glass! #3
A very special drinking glass, a style of which not many exist anywhere (because it requires time consuming multiple work steps to great and there is no other way of creating it..)
The process is called battuto. The glass is first blown into a mould to create ripple lines, blown a little thicker than usual. Then annealed overnight. Then the glass is ground with special glass grinding wheels, a process that in total take around 2 hours in the hands on making + the annealing time. THEN the glass is hot torched to soften the ground glass edges and sandy appearance. Then the glass is once more annealed and finally examined to check if the desired affect was achieved.
The total time worked and equipment used accounts for the uniqueness and price of this luxury, special occasion item! We are thinking about developing a full table set of these battuto glasses to offer at gallery price to the right person.
What it looks like when Alex creates glass bubbles #2
A day at the Glass Studio, Alex throw kerosene into the furnace to create fine bubbles in the glass for a glass commission project.
A Twisty Cane drinking glass is being born..
Keep an eye on this spot for a whole set of them making it’s appearance some time this summer.. And if you do see them: jump on them before they are gone. Not many people make cane work. It is technical, time consuming, intricate and requires experience.
Jason Stropko Glass 