Topic: Tiny, yet beautiful yellow ochre vase

[Beege]

Hallo all.
This vase is a delight! It is tiny (4.25" tall) and very light in weight. It seems almost crudely made (the top rim is slightly irregular) yet has a wonderful elegance.
One of the attached images shows me holding it up to the light: the colour 'comes alive' with the light shining through.
Has anyone seen one of these before? I should be interested in ideas around age and what the possible use for this vase was.
Thank you.
Jack

[chopin-liszt]

I suspect the work of the rather amazing Ed Iglehart here.
Here is his website. Have fun.
http://tipiglen.co.uk/gallery.html

There are other folk who make similar - there's stuff coming out from India that can be mistaken for his work, but you wouldn't, if they were side by side - Ed's work doesn't have such a shiney surface, it tends to have rough patches. He makes his own colours from old fuse wires and such-like, which give rise to weird and wonderful effects. The Indian stuff is just dull swirly browns.
Tom Young is another (much younger) lampworker who makes similar, and I suspect he trained with Ed. His work doesn't seem to have such intense colours as Ed's.
The front inside cover of Hadhamach's 20th Century British Glass is an Ed Iglehart lampwork mushroom.

[Beege]

Thank you Sue.
What an interesting man and web site. I will seek more of Ed's work to see possible likenesses to my little vase. I find the colours wonderful and the piece is so very delicate. Thanks...

[Beege]

Found some of Ed's 'mushrooms' on the internet...colours so similar to my vase. Brilliant!

[chopin-liszt]

  We cross-posted.

I've got a pair of Wizard cone lamps, (my first purchases from Ed. after seeing them in the Scottish Glass Society Exhibition in 2000. The one exhibited had already sold. I got all upset and asked somebody for Ed's contact details, and he very kindly made me the cones.) oil lamps, mushrooms and little bottles like yours.
I've even been to visit him. It was a lot of fun, but we didn't do anything with glass - we just listened to him telling us about his life in the beautiful forest spot he's living in.
He'd had to move his bed. There were swallows nesting above it. 
I've attached a flash photo of some of his mushrooms.

[Beege]

How lucky you were Sue...his work is very enchanting.
Does Ed still live there? Maybe worth a visit on my next trip to Glasgow.
My vase cost me £1 from a charity shop!! :=)

[chopin-liszt]

He's still in Palnackie - you won't shift him from there, he considers it to be the centre of the universe. His website says he's retired from glassmaking to be a full-time tree-hugger, but there may well be other glassmakers working there. Contact him first to see if there's something to watch going on.
He's been heavily involved with things like Glass in Action, giving demonstrations and teaching students. 
We took a bit of a detour on our way home from Ireland once, to pop in on him. I'd had some lovely correspondence with him over the making of my lamps and really wanted to meet him.
I turn into a bit of an overawed teenybopper when faced with a glassmaker I admire.
It's a bit embarrassing.

[Beege]

Made me smile...I was not so dissimilar when I corresponded with a 'word hero' of mine, Leonard Cohen...though I saw him a few times, sadly I never met him.
Yes...I read about Ed's 'tree hugging' career. If I am able to organise...I will visit. Thank you for all the information Sue.

[chopin-liszt]

I was lucky enough to have been to a Cohen concert in the '70s. He was funny and self-depreciating as well as able to bring tears from the beauty of his words and music.
I have his poetry books too, been a fan for a long time. You have good taste.
If you ever suffer from broken glass, remember;
"It's the crack that lets in the light."

[Beege]

A good quote Sue, from a beautiful song.
Like you, I have been a keen follower for a long time...since the 1970's! He sent me a signed photograph some years ago, which I keep safe.
I fear we are taking up space on a glass message-board with poetical reflections!