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Flower GlasswareTom Stoenner, glass blower, considers himself a craftsperson. This Rhinebeck, New York resident, focuses on functional art. 的t's expression, but it's also skill. I would rather be Paul Revere than Celine," he says. "I believe that a handmade glass makes the act of drinking something more pleasurable. I think of that as craft rather than art. I'm not doing anything fancy." "I really design the vases to have flowers in them. It should help the flowers; not overwhelm them. I try to get the shapes good for flower arranging. I designed a bud vase for my tree peonies -- they're a really big flower with a short stem. It's hard to make a bouquet with them. I designed the bud vase to be a very sturdy thing because it's a footed vase similar to a candlestick to get the flower up off the surface." Stoenner has been blowing glass and selling his work for nearly 30 years. He sold really bad work almost immediately, he says, and sold good work later. He worked for another glass blower for a couple years, managed a gallery for a few, then opened his studio in 1982. 的've been a self-employed glass blower making all my income from my work." And that's not easy with the cost of propane these days. 溺ost studio glass blowers tend to build their own equipment," he says. 的 have a furnace (several thousand pounds of cast ceramic) with a crucible that holds 160-170 pounds of molten glass that's the consistency of honey." He dips into the crucible with a blow pipe (a four and a half-foot long steel pipe), gathers glass on the other end and manipulates it with various tools -- a paddle to flatten, shears to cut -- all done while turning the pipe. 典he whole piece is hot and glowing," he says. Every minute he reheats the piece back up in a special furnace for reheating that's good for about 30 seconds. He repeats that process until the piece is finished, usually up to an hour but sometimes several depending on decoration. 的t's better if it's done quickly. The aim is to reheat the piece as few times as possible. Each time you work on a piece the form won't be as clean and the decoration won't be as crisp. For instance, I do production work. I try and replicate that piece and do it over and over again because I learn things like I should heat it longer or not as much. I usually like a piece after making it multiple times. I do it a thousand times and then I learn what the piece is about." When Stoenner makes colored pieces, he melts clear glass (scrap from a West Virginia factory) in his furnace. He puts a chunk of colored glass on his pipe and then puts clear glass around it. His iridescent vases have five to seven layers of powdered color and chips and threads of clear glass on the outside and a titanium glaze luster. They cook at 1,300 to 1,400 Fahrenheit for a day 的t's very difficult. You can never master it. You have to keep it turning all the time and you cannot stop. It's a dramatic process. There's always something more -- another skill I can learn. I have tandem things of expression as well as technical mastery. I'm going after both of them." ** All photos courtesy of Tom Stoenner |
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