This is your resource for exploring various topics in glass: delve deeper with this collection of articles, multimedia, and virtual books all about glass. Content is frequently added to the area, so check back for new items. If you have a topic you'd like to see covered, send us your suggestion. If you have a specific question, Ask a Librarian at our Rakow Research Library.
In the second half of the 19th century, many glass firms used experimental techniques to create decorative art glass. In 1878, the Mt. Washington glass company introduced Sicilian glass. As part of their marketing, the company claimed to have used lava, that is, molten rock spewed out by volcanoes,
Watch as William Gudenrath demonstrates the Reticello technique. Reticello (Italian, "glass with a small network"), is a type of blown glass made with canes organized in a crisscross pattern to form a fine net, which may contain tiny air traps.
Glassworkers made ring-shaped decanters as early as the Roman period. Due to their novel shape, much like buoys, the personal flotation devices carried on ships, decanters in the early 20th century were called "lifebuoy decanters." Watch as William Gudenrath demonstrates the technique.
Glass makers throughout history have gone to great lengths to eliminate all bubbles from glass. But here, we see bubbles purposefully put into the glass for their decorative effect. In this paperweight, the bubbles surround another gather of glass with twisted canes of colored glass. Watch as
Artist Josh Simpson and his wife, Cady Coleman, a renowned astronaut, provide a joint lecture. Simpson creates wondrously detailed imaginary "planets" and "worlds" in glass. Coleman spent six months on the International Space Station in 2011. They will discuss their unique
"I want the viewer to expereince the process of blurring boundaries between cultures by looking at my work." Song studies ornamental styles across time periods and geography, and her work explores how certain attributes of glass can be used to create ambivalent objects: objects that don&
As a Corning native and the younger brother of a glassblower, Dane Jack was exposed to glass from a young age. Jack took Dan Mirer's Glassblowing, Design, Production class with the assistance of the Celebrity Cruise Scholarship fund. Learn more about the Celebrity Cruise Scholarship fund: www
Philadelphia-based artist Christopher Lydon makes organically inspired sculptural and vessel forms as well as works with intense color contrasts that reference street art and anime. At 2300°: Blues in March 2012, he made a glass guitar modeled on BB King's signature guitar, Lucille.
Anne Gant is one of the few glass artists to work on paper. Watch as she uses hot glass to make prints and drawings in a fascinating combination of glassblowing and printing or drawing with glass. First, two glassmakers sculpt hot glass into shapes and lines. While the glass is still scorching hot
Mathieu Grodet is a French-born artist living and working in Canada. He creates thin and elegant glass objects in classic Venetian style, engraved with imagery that addresses modern-day ideas and issues. In his March 2012 Residency at The Studio, Grodet will use the Museum's Rakow Library to