Dave Strock

Archimede Seguso

2011-09-27T09:30:00.001-07:00

As far as glassblowers go, Archimede Seguso has got to be one of my all time favorites. He developed many innovative cane working techniques. While staying in Venice I made it my goal to try to find some original cane worked vessels made by the maestro. I spent the good part of a day scouring all of the antique glass shops I could find on the island, and I finally stumbled upon this piece- a square bottle done in the merletto technique. I guess it might not look like anything special to most people, but for me this is gold. I would have liked to take it home with me, but it understandably had quite a hefty price tag... Luckily, the woman working at the gallery was nice enough to let me take some pictures.

Archimede's old studio on Murano.

A tribute to the maestro. I'm pretty sure it says: "In everlasting remembrance of the maestro Archimede Seguso. In this place he taught his art from 1948 until 1999."

Murano Glass Museum

2011-09-27T09:29:00.001-07:00

Some of the objects I liked from the museum on Murano...

Murano

2011-09-27T09:28:00.001-07:00

Well, I finally made it to Murano.
For some reason I thought that because I work with glass and I can speak some Italian I would have a better chance of getting into some of the factories. This was unfortunately not the case. Maybe it was the time of year, or maybe its because of the economy, but most of the furnaces seemed very closed to outsiders.
Fortunately, I was able to get into Davide Salvadore's studio, and his son Marco was kind enough to arrange for me to visit a couple of other studios. Davide was still in the US when I dropped by, but I got to hang out and watch his sons do some cane rollups for a little while. They are nice guys and have a really cool studio.
One of the studios that Marco contacted for me was a chandelier factory, which was interesting to see. All of their chandeliers were constructed from many separate glass components assembled over a metal base. While I was there they were making the parts that go around the lights (not quite sure what the technical term for that is) as well as some ornamental flowers parts. There was a guy whose job was just to set up the gold leaf, and they were shredding through packs of it like it was nothing.
I also got to visit the studio of the maestro Silvano Signoretto, brother of Pino Signoretto. He was making some designs for a Belgian painter. I forget his name, but he was a really friendly guy. He was having Silvano blow some big plates with sculpted flowers attached to the faces of them. I actually got to see the technique sometimes referred to as "snorkeling" done for the first time, which is when you have an open colored tube of glass on the end of a blow pipe and you suck glass out of the furnace to make a solid core.

The lighthouse.

Silvano at work.

Some old red brick ovens.

A giant glory hole from Silvano's studio.

The gate for Pino's studio has glassblowing tools welded into it, along with glass inlays. Pretty fancy.

One of the few studios where the public could watch for free...

Not sure if anything at this shop was actually made in Murano, or even Italy for that matter... I have my doubts.

Aarhus

2011-09-27T08:23:00.001-07:00

While going through my photos I realized that I had images of some really interesting work I saw my last time here in Denmark.
The work was on exhibit at the Natural History Museum in the nearby city of Aarhus. The artist's name is Karen Lise Krabbe, she is Danish, and all the pieces are glass. Most of the objects seem like they were at some point kiln formed using sand molds, which I think gives them a really nice surface quality.

Update

2011-09-27T08:19:00.001-07:00

I've been back in Ebeltoft for a little while now, and it looks like I'm going to be staying here and assisting Tobias and Trine until mid December. I'm really excited that I'm getting the chance to stay here and learn even more, although I wasn't exactly planning on being in Denmark during the wintertime when I packed my clothes last April... I think I'll be alright.

Some work Tobias made

2011-07-17T22:32:00.001-07:00

I'm really grateful for all that I was able to learn in the two months I was there...

Lino at the Glass Museum

2011-07-04T00:33:00.001-07:00

Figured I'd post some more photos from my time in Denmark...
The maestro Lino Tagliapietra came to demo for the 25th anniversary of the Glass Museum in Ebeltoft. It was an honor to meet him; he seems like a really nice person.

He pulled some cane and made a vessel out of two vertical cane pickups layered on top of each other.

Finally getting to watch him work in person was great. I also picked up a couple of new tricks from the demo, which is always good.

I didn't get any photos of the piece near the end, I was too busy watching...

Time to update my blog...

2011-07-02T15:47:00.001-07:00

I finished my internship in Ebeltoft at the end of May and I've been traveling around for about a month now. The last few weeks leading up to my departure were spent making travel arrangements, so unfortunately my blog was once again left neglected. In addition, time to sit and write, along with free Internet access, have both been scarce while hopping from city to city. I have decided it would be best to start writing entries on the trains and posting them when I have access to Internet, in order to eventually bring the blog up to date.
I am excited to report that I have been invited back to work in Denmark for the month of September, so I have had to alter my plans slightly. Between now and September I will also be volunteering on a couple of organic farms in Italy through the WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) program. I've heard many good things about the program, and I think that it will be a good opportunity to learn about something else that I'm interested in while I await my return to Denmark.
I've been to seven countries so far, and I still have a little more traveling to go before I start working on the farms. Right now I am in Florence, Italy. I've had a long day of seeing all of the things I learned about in Art History and eating the best Italian food I've ever had. Florence is a pretty amazing place. Tomorrow I leave for Rome, from where I will be catching a flight to Chania, Crete. It's getting close to 1 AM here. I'm going to sleep now.

Graffiti in CPH

2011-04-26T13:44:00.001-07:00

Saw a bunch of graffiti I liked, figured I'd post some...

Most of this is from the walls outside Freetown Christiania.

København

2011-04-26T13:17:00.001-07:00

Last week I had a couple of extra days off for Easter, so I took a trip to Copenhagen.

One of my favorite aspects of the city was all of the oxidized copper.

On the Nyhavn canal.

Rosenborg Castle.

The Venetian glass collection at Rosenborg was ridiculous.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but these are some of the tightest retticello plates I've ever seen... And there is a whole other wall of them.

They even had retticello cutlery...

Some nice old buildings.

What a great city.

Ebeltoft

2011-04-17T09:57:00.001-07:00

It's been 10 days now, my jet lag is finally gone, and life is good. Trine and Tobias are super friendly people, as are the rest of the glassblowers I have met here. Ebeltoft is a nice little coastal town with a glass museum and several glass studios. They lent me a bike, and it is about a fifteen minute bike ride to the studio from where I am staying.

Ebeltoft on a cloudy day:

From the front steps to my flat:

The studio:

I had never seen a Danish furnace before... They are egg-shaped, which makes more sense for efficiency. I think they're really cool looking.
This is my friend Leif's furnace, he had just lit it for the first time:

When I arrived, I found out that the Maestro Lino Tagliapietra will be coming to demo at the glass museum the second week of May. This is very good news!

Hello again

2011-04-06T16:07:00.000-07:00

Here I sit, in the Toronto airport, in the middle of a five hour layover on my way from San Francisco to Aarhus, Denmark. I must admit that I haven't exactly been keeping this blog updated. Ok- I haven't touched it since it's creation in early August... But seeing as how I still can't bring myself to partake in any of the Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter stuff, it probably comes as no surprise.
Well, since my last post I've pretty much just been working, volunteering as a teaching assistant at CSU Chico, and most importantly: blowing glass.
Now the time has come, and I am finally about to begin my project for the 2010 Windgate Fellowship. I'll be using this blog to post photos and keep people updated on what's going on with my travels.
I would like thank everyone the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design for giving me the opportunity to make this all happen, and to Tobias and Trine for letting me come out to their studio. I'd also like to thank all the faculty at CSU Chico, especially Robert Herhusky and Cameron Crawford, who really pushed me to apply for the Windgate Fellowship.
That's all for now... More to come!

Welcome!

2010-08-04T08:42:00.000-07:00

I'll be using this blog to record the progress of my project for the 2010 Windgate Fellowship. For those who don't know- my project consists of a 2 month internship with Tobias Møhl in Denmark, as well an expedition of sorts to five other European countries, each with rich traditions in glass. My internship has been pushed back to April of 2011, so in the meantime I will be posting updates on my work, workshops, opportunities, and other glass and art related inspiration.