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Celebrate good times with glass!

The stoic bank examiner, Mr. Carter from the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life, made it clear to George Bailey that he wanted to spend Christmas with family in Elmira, New York. That’s just down the road from The Corning Museum of Glass. Do your holiday plans include visiting folks in the area? If so, we’d love to help you fan the flames of fun. This holiday season we’re offering a special Celebrations! tour daily at 11 am and 1 pm. Each object on the tour celebrates something special in a unique and glassy way!

Here’s a sampling of what you might see:

*Virtue of Blue*, Jeroen Verhoeven, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, designed in 2010, made in 2016.
© Jeroen Veroeven. 2016.3.8.

The Red Vase, part 2

This is the second in a two-part series. Read The Red Vase, part 1.

Vase (detail), K. & K. Fachschule
fuer Glasindustrie Haida (Designer),
Karl Meltzer & Co. (Manufacturer),
Bohemia, Novy Bor (Haida), 1914-1920.
Gift of Roberta B. Elliott. 2017.3.55.

The story of the red vase continues in America.

Having survived World War II and flight from Europe, Franz Engel settled into a new life in Washington, D.C. Changing his name to Francis Elliott, he was soon married and, four years later, they had a daughter, Roberta. For the next 50 years, the vase remained safe in their home.

A practical woman by nature, Roberta’s mother, Esther, thought the vase was too straight and narrow for displaying flowers and consigned it to the back of a cabinet, where it was largely forgotten. In 2001, when Roberta inherited the cabinet and all its belongings, the vase remained hidden where it was. Her cherished childhood memories of staring at the endless lines in the unique cut glass pattern had all but faded. Read more →

The Corning Museum of Glass Surveys Global Contemporary Glass in Special Exhibition Opening in May 2019

Today The Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG) announced that 100 artists—representing 32 nationalities and working in 25 countries—have been selected to exhibit in New Glass Now, a global survey of contemporary glass and the first exhibition of its kind organized by the Museum in 40 years. The show, which will be on view from May 12, 2019, through January 5, 2020, will include works ranging from large-scale installations and delicate miniatures to video and experiments in glass chemistry, all of which demonstrate the vitality and versatility of this dynamic material.

Sarah Briland
United States, b. 1980
Problematica (Foam Rock)
United States, Richmond, Virginia, 2016
Foam, Aqua Resin, glass microspheres, steel, concrete stand
With stand: 96.5 x 52 x 45.7 cm
Photo: Terry Brown

In spring 2018, CMoG welcomed submissions of new works, made between 2015 and 2018 in which glass plays a fundamental role, for consideration by a panel comprising Susie J. Silbert, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Glass at CMoG, and three guest curators, including: Aric Chen, curator-at-large, M+ museum, Hong Kong; Susanne Jøker Johnsen, artist and head of exhibitions at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, Denmark; and American artist Beth Lipman. More than 1,400 artists, designers and architects working in 52 countries—from Argentina, Australia, Indonesia and Japan to the United States, United Kingdom, and beyond—submitted works, which draw upon flameworking, glassblowing, casting, neon, carving, and kilnworking techniques, among others. Read more →

Rethinking the Origins of Glass

The case known as the “Primary Case” in the Origins of Glassmaking area is one of the first things visitors see when they enter the 35 Centuries of Glass Galleries. We know from visitor tracking studies and anecdotal observation that most guests and tour groups stop and look at this case. It serves as the introduction both to the gallery and to the history of glass.

The Origins of Glassmaking primary case before updates.

When I took over responsibility for the Ancient and Islamic Glass collection at the Corning Museum of Glass in summer 2017, I knew that one of the first things I wanted to do was to update the objects and labels in the Origins Primary Case. This case does a lot of heavy lifting: it introduces the first 15 centuries of glass history, represents almost a dozen ancient cultures, and showcases a wide range of glassworking techniques. Some techniques, like core-forming, were dominant for several centuries but eventually vanished. Others, like mosaic canes, persisted for thousands of years and are still used by contemporary glass artists. As a specialist in Hellenistic glass (the period immediately before the invention of glassblowing), I also wanted to draw attention to this important moment in glass history and its extraordinary products. Read more →

The Studio announces 2019 Residencies

Today, The Studio announced the 2019 Artists-in-Residence recipients: twelve artists from around the world who will each spend one month at The Studio, researching and experimenting with new techniques to further their work. Additionally, two artists and two scholars have been selected for the David Whitehouse Research Residency for Artists and the David Whitehouse Research Residency for Scholars, respectively. These recipients will spend up to three weeks in the Rakow Library, utilizing the vast holdings to inform their practice or area of research. Each resident will provide a public Lunchtime Lecture during their time at the Museum, describing their inspirations and work at The Studio and the Rakow Library.

2019 Artists-In-Residence at The Studio

Shinobu Kurosawa & Jim Butler
February 24-March 24; Public lecture on March 14

Translated literally, the Japanese word tonbodama means dragonfly ball. Since 2000, flameworker Shinobu Kurosawa has been making tonbodama beads that depict traditional Japanese landscape and nature scenes in glass.

In her March 2019 residency, Kurosawa will use The Studio’s resources to continue her research on tonbodama and expand her flameworking skills as she explores new possibilities in Japanese beadmaking.

The Corning Museum of Glass Surveys Global Contemporary Glass in Special Exhibition Opening in May 2019

Photographing glass, part 3: Lighting techniques for transparent glass objects

This is the third in a series of blog posts addressing photographic lighting techniques for transparent glasses. It builds on the techniques discussed in the first two posts, Photographing glass, part 1 and Photographing glass, part 2.

In the first two posts, I used colorless engraved glasses to demonstrate how we can reveal detail by exploiting the ways glass interacts optically with its surroundings in a carefully controlled lighting environment.

In this third post, I use two different objects without engraving to demonstrate how the same lighting principles can be used to capture more subtle elements like tooling marks and optic ribbing. I also present a few techniques used to define edges and introduce controlled reflections. My goal is to capture details that provide insight into the process of making the objects as well as the properties of the glass itself.

As with the first two posts in this series, all objects are photographed on a translucent white acrylic surface (PlexiGlas 2447 with a P95 matte finish). Read more →

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