RawhideArtist
2008-01-27, 12:53pm
We have so much in the way of tooling and kilns and controllers and glass and new US glass and dichroic and enamel and every color possible and bead releases and graphite this and that and tungsten and compressed gases and new bigger, better faster torches and this incredible global network to share it all with everyone else. And on and on and on and on and it never really ever ends. And that's great because it keep us all interested and producing new and exciting work, more efficiently than ever.
And then I remember seeing these at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/on_exhibit/the_glass_flowers.html
http://www.designmuseum.org/design/leopold-rudolf-blaschka
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/12.14/16-glassanimals.html
http://www.journalofantiques.com/Feb04/featurefeb04.htm
I look at these and wonder. I am actually in a state of awe. How in the world did these guys, Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka, make these in the late 1800's? I saw the work bench, the tools, the torch they used. Harvard has these items there. Today they have no value other than their historic presence because of what was made with them. You would not buy any one of these tools at a rummage sale for a nickel. It looked like a pile of garbage or some stuff that needed to go to the recycler. And yet, here are the glass objects this father and son team made with them. I would Love to know how, even the the 'how on earth could one ever?' part of the how. It does not seem physically possible that one could have made this form of art, I suppose their contemporaries called it crafts, given the restrictions of the tools and glass and enamel and kilns available. The torch was a glorified bunsen burner, the bench top was hardwood with all it's burns to show for it, the tools were now rusted steel, not stainless.
So I sit and I think, do I need this tool or that? Do I need a bigger torch? Did Rudolf Blaschka teach anyone any glass techniques? If you happen to be related to him would you acquire some of that knowledge through genetics? And I have to stop myself and realize that there is no substitute for time at the torch and a good teacher is without equal. Each one of us has that responsibility as a human being to become as good as we possibly can given the tools, media and direction one is working in. Wait it also appears a true vision of the 'it' that one wants to do is necessary to start the engine inside and make this all possible in the first place.
And then I remember seeing these at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/on_exhibit/the_glass_flowers.html
http://www.designmuseum.org/design/leopold-rudolf-blaschka
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/12.14/16-glassanimals.html
http://www.journalofantiques.com/Feb04/featurefeb04.htm
I look at these and wonder. I am actually in a state of awe. How in the world did these guys, Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka, make these in the late 1800's? I saw the work bench, the tools, the torch they used. Harvard has these items there. Today they have no value other than their historic presence because of what was made with them. You would not buy any one of these tools at a rummage sale for a nickel. It looked like a pile of garbage or some stuff that needed to go to the recycler. And yet, here are the glass objects this father and son team made with them. I would Love to know how, even the the 'how on earth could one ever?' part of the how. It does not seem physically possible that one could have made this form of art, I suppose their contemporaries called it crafts, given the restrictions of the tools and glass and enamel and kilns available. The torch was a glorified bunsen burner, the bench top was hardwood with all it's burns to show for it, the tools were now rusted steel, not stainless.
So I sit and I think, do I need this tool or that? Do I need a bigger torch? Did Rudolf Blaschka teach anyone any glass techniques? If you happen to be related to him would you acquire some of that knowledge through genetics? And I have to stop myself and realize that there is no substitute for time at the torch and a good teacher is without equal. Each one of us has that responsibility as a human being to become as good as we possibly can given the tools, media and direction one is working in. Wait it also appears a true vision of the 'it' that one wants to do is necessary to start the engine inside and make this all possible in the first place.