Topic: Seguso?

[ardy]

Yes David see what you mean but it has some of the strength of Seguso and not so much of the fine work of B & T from what I have seen. I am reasonably sure it is A.S. and here is a similar shaped piece claimed to be A.S. but could be SvdA.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/370838067611

BTW Love your bowl

[TxSilver]

I've been pondering for a couple of days whether to mention anything about the sfumato techniques. Sfumato, of course, means smoke. It is used in two different ways when it comes to the art forms. To painters the term means the gradual shading from one color to another, so that there are no distinct lines. It is what makes paintings looks so different to coloring books. In art glass it may also be used to describe the glass that is exposed to smoke to give it a smoky gray appearance. Barbini is thought to have developed this technique when he was at VAMSA. It (or a descendent of the technique) is still in use today to make much of the "grey effect" that we see. I have to say that "grey effect" is so common now that it may be made using a simpler technique. I don't know.

In her book on Archimede Seguso, Pina describes Arhimedes' polveri pieces as sfumato. There is nothing wrong with that, because the technique does fit with the painter's definition of the term. I prefer to use the word polveri, because it is more descriptive of the technique used. I reserve the word "sfumato" to pieces that were made using smoke. Because I'm not sure if all "grey effect" is made using smoke, I simply call it "grey effect" so I don't have to figure it out.

Gold foil is not polveri or sfumato. It is just a whisper thin sheet of gold rolled onto the gather before the glass is expanded. Polveri is actually ground (pulverized) colored glass. Gold foil is often used with the colored glass to help richly blend the shades, but itself is not "polveri."

[TxSilver]

I just thought of a special circumstance where gold could be put into glass, then the glass be pulverized. In this case, the color would indeed be polveri.

I think I'll go back to my safe zone of not discussing techniques now.

[ardy]

Thanks Anita and it is an area of confusion. When I bought my first Seguso piece and you (or someone here) mentioned pulveri I went looking for a description and it seemed that it was as you say a powder, although I thought it was gold, added to the glass. My understanding of Sfumato is a description of the smoke like trails of gold or other things in many A.Seguso and other makers pieces .

It would be good to get a clear understanding of these techniques but where do you stop? There are hundreds of them I suppose.