Topic: Studio versus Factory

[BobKegeles]

How would people define the difference between a glass studio, and a glass factory.

Number of employees? Continuous reproduction of same pieces?

Robert Held, Orient and Flume, Lundberg are all Studios, but all have employees, and make the same pieces over and over.

Just curious what people think.

[glassobsessed]

Tricky question, I would add ethos to the mix.

John

[chopin-liszt]

I thought it sort of depended on how big the pots were.
Studios have one or two wee pots, factories have huge ones.

I consider Studio glass to be something individually made by the artist themselves, but there are pieces I know of, in Wroclaw Museum, which could well be described as early Studio glass, being individually made, one-offs, but made within a factory setting, using the factory facilities.
Then there was the short lived Dartington Studio, attached to the factory, and there are also a load of Caithness "Studio" style limited edition pieces.

Factory is more where you have a designer (who often doesn't make the glass) and craftsmen churing out lots of pieces to the design.

I think a lot of studios are pretty much turning into factories, nowadays. They need the income from little, standard, cheaper, more mass-produced items.