Best Wishes for 2011

The artists & instructors of the Washington Glass School wish everyone good health, happiness and creativity in the coming year -
Happy New Year!

Jobs Available at Washington Glass Studio

Two Part-Time Art Positions At The Washington Glass Studio

Come join one of the most nurturing and successful art communities in the region.

Position #1 – Project Coordinator for Short Term Architectural Installation and Production

This person will use deep bas-relief dry plaster casting techniques to help cast glass tiles for a building project. The technique is simple, and we will train the candidate to perform the tasks required, which include:

~ Casting Individual Tiles
~ Cutting Glass Tiles To Size with Tile Cutting Saw
~ Some Lifting of heavy panels
~ Adhering Glass Tiles To Metal Frame
~ Assisting With Installation At Site

This position will take place on Mondays, Wed, and Fridays from 10am to 5pm each day. The pay is $10 per hour. The job is estimated to last approx 3 months in early 2011. During that time, the candidate will have access to the studio and may produce work here.

Position #2 - Small Scale Clay Sculptor

We are looking for a person who is able to sculpt realistic figures of clay. These figures are approx. 3"- 4 “. This is an ongoing project that will continue for sometime. We pay $50 per figure, and go thru many dozens each year. This is perfect for the artist who wants a small money-making job on the side. You just must be proficient with your sculpting abilities.

During the times that you are sculpting, you also will have use of one of the best and most well equipped glass studios in the country.


The most important quality for each of these positions is reliability.

Please contact Tim Tate with a statement of interest & artist resume to: washglassschool@aol.com

What Compels An Artist To Buy Art

DC based artist Sean Hennessy - writes in his blog "Paint and Plaster" insights on how he and his wife - artist Rania Hassan - actively collect artwork and how they seek out work from local artists.

I wanted to share something very personal to me. our art collection. not pictures or anything, but the artists that we collect. My wife Rania and I have, over the last few years, been trying to collect works of DC area artists. We're pretty committed to promoting and supporting local art and we have a lot of great friends that happen to be great artists. Place and community and important to us. We also want to shape our collection into something very personal and a narrative of sorts or our life, people and things that we want to be close to. Our collection is one venue and outlet for our creativity. I've talked to a number of people recently that want to collect DC art but were uncertain where to begin. I hope this helps those people... as well as just serving as a list for me to remind myself to buy art... and yes, its 100% subjective...

It is great that these artists choose to support the local art scene. I encourage everyone to go to local shows, galleries and artfairs - there are many ways to support the artistic life of your community.

Click HERE to jump to Sean's list of artists and what compels him to purchase the works.

Foundry Gallery's "Celebrate Gay Marriage" Exhibition

The Lovers by Michael Janis
kilncast glass, steel 19"W x 37"H

photo by AnythingPhotographic

Foundry Gallery celebrates DC's historic passage of the same-sex marriage bill with a timely show called 'Celebrate Gay Marriage' in January 2011. The gallery had invited artists to submit art work for a juried show that depicts and celebrates gay marriage. Awards for the best pieces will be presented at the Opening Reception on January 7.

The gallery will present a talk titled 'Artistic Representation of Gay Life', by Dr. Jonathan Katz associate Professor at the University at Buffalo, and director of its Doctoral Program in Visual Studies, as well as Guest Curator at of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery’s (and now controversial) Hide/Seek:Difference and Desire in American Portraiture exhibit at the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery. The special guest lecture will be held at the gallery on January 15, 2011, starting at 4 pm.

The following artists were juried into the show:

David Amoroso, VA Michael Auger, MD Jill Bateman, MD Kathy Blakeslee, DC Matthew Duffy, MD Michael Janis, DC Michel Jantzen, DC Rebecca Kallem, VA Margaret Kroyer, DC

Tom Hill, MD Stephen Honicki, NY Julia Latein-Kimmig, MD Mark Monteleone, NY John Paradiso, MD Susan Singer, VA Bill Travis, DC Bea Riley, MD

The Foundry Gallery
1314 18th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036

Celebrate Gay Marriage Exhibition
Exhibit Dates: January 5- Jan 30, 2011
Hours: Wednesday – Thursday 1 to 7 pm; Saturday & Sunday 12 – 6 pm
Show Dates: January 5 – 30, 2011
Opening Reception: featuring The Gay Men’s Chorus Potomac Fever January 7, 6 – 8 pm
January 15, 4 pm talk by Dr. Jonathan Katz, co-curator of Hide/Seek

Warmest Holiday Wishes From WGS

Seasons Greetings to all Our Family & Friends
from the Washington Glass School

& Best Wishes for the New Year!

The video is from Tim Tate's mixed media artwork "Winter Warmth" - the full piece and other companion season pieces were shown on an earlier posting.

Tim Tate Winter Warmth

Blown and Cast Glass, Electronics, Video18 x 8 x 8

Inside are cast glass snowflakes and pine cones. The finial is of holly surrounding a teapot. The video is a cityscape of rooftops with snow falling. Photo by AnythingPhoto.net

Smithsonian Resident Associates Tour Glass Studios

A Day of Glass - All-Day Tour - Saturday, January 22, 2011

The Smithsonian Institution has a Resident Associate Program (RAP)—offering opportunities for education, fun, and community to the Washington, D.C., area. The RAP presents about 750 programs each year, including lectures, seminars and study tours.
The most recent offering includes a tour of work and the studios of some area leading glass artists.
From the Smithsonian RAP website:
A rare opportunity to visit glass artists at work and at home. These local artists will give us demonstrations, invite us to view their art, and explain how they use techniques that run the gamut from ancient to 21st century. Begin at the home/studio of Eric Markow and Thom Norris as see how they bring their disciplines to their complex, enigmatic woven glass sculptures.

Next, visit St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Springfield to meet artists Jimmy Powers and Lisa Osgood Dano.
Powers, a stained glass artist who has lectured and demonstrated at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery and American Art Museum, will discuss how he created a newly installed stained glass window in the church and, with Elizabeth Ryland Mears, 48 other stained glass panels there. Dano combines the ancient art of mosaics with contemporary methods and materials to achieve a balance of texture and movement.
We will also visit St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Burke, where Mears designed the stained glass windows in the sanctuary and chapel.

Conclude the day at Mears’ home/studio, where she will demonstrate the workings of the bench torch by creating a small, solid sculpture in clear glass. The group will have an opportunity to enjoy her glass-filled home, which showcases her work and that of other artists.

A three-course lunch is included. This tour is led by museum education consultant Sheila Pinsker.

Saturday, January 22, 2011, 8:15 a.m. to 7 p.m. by bus from the Holiday Inn Capitol at 550 C St., S.W. (corner of 6th & C Sts.)

Click HERE to jump to the Smithsonian RAP glass tour site.

Float Glass Fun Facts

Molten float glass floating atop liquid tin.

Since the earlier posting about BE's glass forming process, many have asked us about how float glass is made so smooth. The answer is due to the manufacturing process.

The first advances in automating glass manufacturing were patented in 1848 by Henry Bessemer, (of steel-making fame), who developed a steelmill-like, but very expensive process to produce a continuous ribbon of flat glass force under heat between rollers. Another old method formed large sheets of plate glass by casting a large puddle on an iron surface. Both of these processes required secondary polishing.

Then in the 1950s, Sir Alastair Pilkington and Kenneth Bickerstaff created the first successful commercial application for forming a continuous ribbon of glass using a molten tin bath on which the molten glass flows unhindered under the influence of gravity. By floating on the bed of tin, the glass sides are smooth and flat, however the glass does pick up a tin residue - which often needs to be addressed when kilnforming.

Not as motivational as Bullseye Glass' Mitchell Schou's wicked dance moves - but educational.

Click HERE to jump to an industry video about the float glass process.

Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship Program

The Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship Program is now accepting applications for its 2011-2013 term. Hamiltonian Artists offers a competitive two-year fellowship program for new innovative visual artists in all media. All promising visual artists who are currently not represented by a gallery are eligible to apply.

Deadline: Monday, February 28, 2011

This is the fourth annual open call to emerging artists to apply to their two-year Fellowship Program, aimed to aid in the professional development of contemporary visual artists.

Please refer to their website for application requirements, restrictions and forms. The application process will close at 6:00 pm on on Monday, February 28, 2011, and any applications received after that date will not be considered.

Hamiltonian Artists is funded in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

More Glass Fun Facts

Ever wonder how the clear sheets of Bullseye glass are made - how they get that distinctive ripple texture?

Well - thanks to Facebook - we can see exactly the point the glass gets its wiggle :

click on images to jump to video of BE glass rolling process

Apparently, each and every sheet gets its shimmy from the BE staff as it gets pressed from molten glass ladle out and roll-pressed into sheet form.

The Bullseye glass factory is more fun than the Keebler hollow tree.