Almost twenty years ago, when I was in England, I visited a glassblowing factory for the first time, and - I'm sorry, but I have to say it - I was blown away. The factory had a small library which included some books about the history of glassmaking, and I bought one or more, and thus began a journey which eventually led me to spend a couple of days visiting the Corning Glass Museum and its incredible library; to spend another day visiting a professional glassblower whose kiln was in his back yard*; to try my hand at blowing glass myself... and to write my first children's book, set in 1574 on the glassblowers' island of Murano, off the coast of Venice. And that's all I'm going to say about it for now, because (1) I'm dead tired, and (2) I have to leave most of what I want to say about Murano for six posts from now, when we get to M!
* For years, I've been struggling to remember the name of this lovely man, who 18 years ago (I was pregnant with my daughter), along with his wife, hosted me for an afternoon and let me shadow him in his glasshouse. Last night, his name suddenly came to me: Larry Roff. I just googled him, and here is his website: http://www.accentgallery.com/roff_larry.htm. Isn't his work beautiful? A true craftsman!
love your blog susan
ReplyDeletefrom Sandra in australia
Ooooh, Sandra! I love yours too (and signed up to follow it)! Thanks so much for visiting from halfway around the world!
DeleteI watched glassblowers in Venice once and it really was impressive. ~MPL
ReplyDeleteYou should see what they were producing there in the 16th century. To me, it puts all modern glass art to shame. Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteShould you ever find yourself in the pacific Northwest, the Seattle area is a (sorry) hot-bed of glass arts. There are numerous hot shops in the area, the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, and The new Chihuly Museum at Seattle center. I live a mile from 2 hot-shops. You can hardly through a rock around here without hitting one.
ReplyDeleteWell, aren't you the queen of glass-related puns! (I'm assuming that your reference to throwing a rock was intentional.) Thanks for the invite! When will your house be ready for my arrival? In other words, how long will it take you to move the pandas out of the guest room?
DeleteI've always thought glass blowing was a beautiful trade.
ReplyDeleteI went to a glass-blowing place in Bermuda years ago... I still have a little rabbit from the visit.
ReplyDeleteYvonne
Just one little glass rabbit? Have you checked on it lately? Could be in the thousands by now...
ReplyDelete