Monthly Archives: January 2012

Checkmate

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It’s not often our curators and preparators get to “play” with our objects, but the team who recently moved Gianni Toso’s Chess Set, a whimsical work that is a favorite with our visitors, got to learn a little bit about chess.

The chess pieces are made in the form of Jewish and Roman Catholic religious figures. A Jewish rabbi and a Roman Catholic bishop (kings) join a group of holy men and women holding Judeo-Christian symbols of faith, including crosses, Torahs, menorahs, and single candles. Each chess piece has the appropriate costume, hairstyle, and accessory of its rank. Learn more about this object.

The artist does not dictate where the pieces should be placed on the chess board, so the team chose to set it up to show the Fool’s Mate, also known as the Two-Move Checkmate. This is the quickest possible checkmate in chess. See how it worksImageImage.

Flanked by a material

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by DH McNabb

     There is light.  It exudes from the lamp; shadows and reflections are cast upon the wall.  My eyes follow a blinking line, a cursor.  We have to name everything.  In making all things definitive what is left to define?

 

     The cursor blinks, my eyes glance through a material, my reflection is faint upon a screen.  A transdimensional occurrence is evident, the threshold between me and the blinking is proof.  The screen is flat and still except for the cursor and the words that follow.  My hands rummage at the bottom, scurrying to portray this as a cohesive thought.

 

     Making is about transference, from my eyes, to my brain and then executed through my hands.  I am a glassmaker so it’s not just about my eyes and brain and hands but those who collaborate with me, those I work for or with.

 

     Glass is a communicative endeavor, a struggle.   It’s not something you get in a year or five or ten.  It is about being an ambassador and a translator for a material.  The process of conveying and informing others through the making of glass things is at the forefront of a practice.  Action as statement, object as question.  What are these transferences?

 

     Material integrity: it’s not about what one can make but what one can expose.

 

     I reach for a glass.  It doesn’t matter if it is half full or half empty, I made it. Beer is fresher in the glass, the pouring from keg, pitcher, can or bottle releases the flavor. The frothy head floats, the bubbles too.  A liquid suspended in a liquid.

 

     I, you, we live in a Glass Age.  A reflective world where mirrors are not always present but a lens might be.  We have a necessity to communication, the interface is the material – think about the internet, think of your phone, think outside and through the window, be aware of the light that is on and above you.

 

CMOG-

For the 2300° at the Corning Museum of Glass I wanted to produce pieces that utilized the space.  Corning has a unique feature with the fused silica window in the glory hole, or reheating chamber.  The video camera that peers in through the window allows a view into this usually secluded space.  Thus rendering the happenings of the glory hole’s 2300 degree environment to the public through the use of overhead projection. By melting and cooking batch, the raw state of glass, and then making a small vessel out of it I am able to freeze and exhibit the process that yields the clear material that we are accustomed to.  Next I folded an airplane out of sheet glass, this shows the transferences of one material to another, paper to glass.  It is also reminiscent for me of learning to fold paper airplanes from my father on the air base he worked on when I was a kid.  Next I slumped a goblet that I made to show the slumping process.  This was witnessed by the audience through the use of the glory hole camera.  The cups contorting and flattening out was rendered observable.  Lastly, I made a cone and dipped fresh molten glass on it in order to show the materials rigid and organic capacity.

I greatly appreciated the help and support I received during this demonstration.  The most important thing I hope people can take home from this or any glass demonstration is that glass is a collaborative medium and a material that is essential to our everyday lives.

See more photos of DH at 2300°: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjwRGzLT

Glass of Columbus

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As Digital Asset Specialist at the Museum, I have the pleasure of working with our Research Scientist Emeritus, Dr. Bob Brill, as he digitizes some of the materials in his personal archive.  Dr. Brill’s history with the Museum stretches back almost 40 years, and he has traveled all over the world for his work conducting chemical analyses and other scientific investigations of ancient glass.  It should come as no surprise, then, that he has shared some incredible materials and stories with me.

One such gem is this slide (bib no. 127878). At first glance, it may not look like much – four green glass circles.  These aren’t just any pieces of glass, however.  These are four green glass beads excavated from San Salvador Island, the Bahamas, from the site of Christopher Columbus’s first landfall in the New World.

Christopher Columbus’s journal entry from October 12, 1492, records that land was (finally) spotted on the horizon at sunrise.  This land is now believed to be San Salvador Island.  Columbus’s ships sailed around the island later that day, and Columbus noted that local inhabitants rode out in boats to greet them.  The European sailors traded small trinkets with them, he wrote, including small glass beads, shoe buckles, snippets of coins, and bits of broken crockery.  While these items had little value to the Europeans, to the native inhabitants of the Bahamas, who lacked glassmaking technology and metallurgy, such things would have been remarkable.

Almost 500 years later, in the 1970s, an excavation was underway at San Salvador Island.  At the place traditionally held to be Columbus’s landing site, archaeologists uncovered small glass beads, including the ones shown in Dr. Brill’s slide; coinage that was later dated to 1472; and shoebuckles.  The lead in the glass beads was shown to have come from Spain.

Although four green glass circles don’t seem impressive at first glance, these beads actually have incredible historical significance – they were likely among the first items ever traded between residents of the New World and the Old.  And they’re also a reminder to never judge an image (or a slide!) by your first impression.

Taking down The Glass Wall, Part 2

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With team work and good planning the de-installation of Brian Clarke’s The Glass Wall went off without a hitch!

Removing the glass panes one by one

In three days our team of three preparators, one collections and exhibitions manager, two conservators, and two outside contractors removed all 245 panes of glass, and all of the hanging hardware and steel support structures. Most of the work was carried out by our outstanding preparators who had to climb on ladders and scaffolding to reach and release all of the glass components.

Each large section of the window is made up of 35 smaller sections held in place with hardware and various set-screws. To dismantle, one person supports the adjacent glass panes, and the other loosens the set-screws. Once released, each panel is then handed down to another person and placed into specially constructed slotted crates. What makes it particularly difficult, is all of this is done some 30+ feet above the floor level!

Stephen hands off a glass pane

Most of the panes were in excellent condition, although they were extremely dirty. There were about a dozen panes with loose cames which will need to be reattached. One pane had an old break in it. It had been repaired previously, but needed a little clean up in the lab.

The glass panes are packed for safe transportation

One thing we hadn’t thought about in our extensive planning was that the panes would be slightly loose in the slotted crates. We realized it quickly and improvised with small squares of volara (closed-cell polyethylene foam) and acid-free board tucked around the panes to prevent them from rattling while they were moved. We also found that some of the panes were slightly wider than others. Luckily the difference was not a big enough to be a problem.

Now that the panes are safely in our offsite storage facility, the next step is to clean them and repair the loose caming.

See more photos of taking down The Glass Wall: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjy8cdZ4

by Warren Bunn, Collections and Exhibitions Manager and Astrid van Giffen, Assistant Conservator

Carder Steuben: Color Cut to Clear Tableware

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Steuben Glass, under the direction of both Frederick Carder and Arthur Houghton, accepted special orders from customers. The Rakow Research Library has 13 watercolors of a blue cut to clear tableware set that was created by Steuben founding director Frederick Carder for a customer at the Milwaukee firm, George Watts & Son. The designs are documented through correspondence between Howard Watts at the high-end store and Steuben, dated from May 22, 1934 to October 31, 1934, . The designs are not dated, but the ware mentioned in the correspondence matches the designs.

Watts and his customer requested various items for the set, often with measurements, including:

Sherry glass #267

Sherry glass #267

Tapered sherry glass #249

Tapered sherry glass #249

In one letter, Watts wrote: “Our client should also have a sherry glass as well as the other items ordered. She has not admitted it yet, but it might be well for you to send us a drawing of what you would suggest for this use in the pattern, for we think with a little proper salesmanship we might get that item added to the order.”

There is an additional design for a tapered sherry glass.

On May 22, Howard Watts wrote that the “tall champs” will best serve the customer’s purpose. However, there were three other designs for champagne glasses, including a hollow stem champagne, a low bowl champagne, and a conical champagne.

Center Bowl #312

Center Bowl #312

To meet the request for a center bowl, Steuben sent a drawing in June 1934 with an asking price of $175. Watts responded: “The price of the bowl was not such a shock to us but it was obvious that the price for the making of it would make the price absolutely prohibitive.” Perhaps a drawing for a second bowl was sent; we only know that the customer did order a bowl on July 2, 1934. We have only the one drawing of a bowl – and don’t know if it is the center bowl or a requested oval flower bowl.

Compote #253

Compote #253

On July 2, 1934, the customer ordered a pair of compotes; she preferred that they be oval, rather than round.

Candelabra # 231

Candelabra # 231

In May, Howard Watts wrote that the customer was interested in a pair of candelabra. “She wants nothing in the ordinary conventional style, but would like an arrangement whereby it would have a much more unusual arrangement. Her idea is to have each branch of the candelabra different in height so that she will not have a set mass of light at one level.” When Steuben sent a drawing in June, Howard Watts replied: “we are sorry we cannot develop the same enthusiasm as we did for the stemware, for the obvious reasons that the price was such that we were afraid the customer might have a stroke, although she is a sport about paying large prices; also, the candelabra was much more massive than we had suggested and too large for the table and the size of the room.” Watts sent Steuben a drawing and photograph of an imported candelabrum with three arms/lights, at different heights, and a cased-glass receptacle. In a letter of July 2, 1934, Watts ordered a pair of candelabra – but we don’t know the design.

On October 31, 1934, Bob Leavy, manager at Steuben, sent an interoffice memo to Carder. Watts had written to Steuben, asking that Carder send a letter to his firm about the special blue cased stemware set stating that Carder had designed it entirely himself  (“designed to order”) and that the design “is an exclusive thing for the customer alone.” Watts says that going as far as possible along those lines would make the customer feel even greater pride in the beauty of the set, and happier in their purchase, and that it would be of lasting help to his firm.

We have a copy of the letter that Carder wrote to Watts, incorporating Watts’ requests, which concludes with “I feel that she has some of the best work I have done in this line.”

If you are interested in exploring the various facets of Carder, the Rakow Research Library is a great place to begin your research. We can provide bibliographies, and offer interlibrary loans of some of the books, periodical articles, and often microfiche of Steuben catalogs.

Color watercolors of blue cut to clear cut glass tableware done by Frederick Carder for the Milwaukee firm George Watts & Son (Rakow Research Library, Carder Steuben Archives). 

By Gail Bardhan, Reference and Research Librarian

The Juliette K. and Leonard S. Rakow Research Library is open from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Monday – Friday (Extended hours, Sundays from 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m., January 8 – February 5)

Telephone: 607.438.5300 | Email (general inquiries): rakow@cmog.org

Taking down The Glass Wall

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Brian Clarke's The Glass Wall

A new year brings new challenges. One of our challenges this year is to deinstall the very large Brian Clarke window, The Glass Wall. It is currently located just inside the Museum’s western façade along the ramp to the upper entrance of the magic of glass theatre. It is made up of seven large panels each with 35 individual panes with metal supports suspended from steel cables with specially made hardware. The window is 6.3 m (20 ½ ft) tall and 22.4 m (73 ½ ft) long and hangs at the second story level. This is going to be a BIG project!

Brian Clarke's The Glass Wall with the GlassMarket Cafe below.

This spring we are renovating the GlassMarket Café, which sits in the space directly below the window. While the renovations occur (the Café reopens in April) the location is unsafe for the window. Deinstalling the window will also allow us to clean it and repair the loose cames (the aluminum strips around each glass pane) found on some of the panes.  The size and location of the window make any kind of treatment in situ almost impossible. The window badly needs to be cleaned since neither it nor the interior of the building’s windows have been cleaned since it was installed in 2000.

A loose came on the bottom of a pane.

As you can imagine, deinstalling such a huge object is not a process that is undertaken lightly. Dismantling the window requires a lot of planning and preparation. Over the last few months we’ve been having meetings with everyone involved to do just that. This includes the Museum’s conservators, preparators, registrars, and operations managers, as well as an outside contractor who will provide scaffolding and remove the hardware for hanging the window.

The Glass Wall. At the top of the ramp there is about a 2 foot gap between the window and the ramp.

We also had to think about how to store the 245 panes of glass while the window is off display. We had special crates made with slots for the panes which will make transporting and housing the glass safe and compact. The window will be dismantled and taken to our warehouse where we will set up a special area to clean the glass and do any necessary repairs.

Specially made crates with slots to hold individual panes.

The Glass Wall. At the bottom of the ramp there is only a very small gap between the window and the ramp.

After the scaffolding has been put up, the window will be carefully removed, pane by pane, by our preparators. Any loose cames they come across will be temporarily secured with tape. Once all the glass has been safely packed and taken away, the support system can be taken down by our operations team and the outside contractors.

The whole process starts this week!