No-one likes general adverts, and ours hadn't been updated for ages, so we're having a clear-out and a change round to make the new ones useful to you. These new adverts bring in a small amount to help pay for the board and keep it free for you to use, so please do use them whenever you can, Let our links help you find great books on glass or a new piece for your collection. Thank you for supporting the Board.

Author Topic: Pauline Solven  (Read 21454 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline josordoni

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 1693
  • Gender: Female
  • Location: Swinging London
    • United Kingdom
    • Josordoni Collectables
Pauline Solven
« Reply #40 on: August 31, 2006, 02:57:05 PM »
You could tie the arms together through the loops....
Thank you very much!

Lynne
x
Josordoni Collectables - eBay Store

Offline Pinkspoons

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 3233
  • Gender: Male
    • UK
Re: Pauline Solven
« Reply #41 on: November 27, 2008, 10:19:20 PM »
I noticed that Paul hasn't posted since March, but if he's still about... do you have a photograph of the Solven piece in question? It's vanished from the thread.

I acquired my second of her vases today, an early piece from 1968 (my first is from 1979, so it's as old as I am), and I'm really quite taken by the divergence of style during that time - so I would love to see other examples of her work.

Offline chopin-liszt

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 14462
    • Scotland, Europe.
Re: Pauline Solven
« Reply #42 on: November 28, 2008, 10:00:00 AM »
 ;D

Here's my lovely little piece of history, Nic.
Pauline Solven, R.C.A. 1967
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/chopin-liszt/PaulineSolvenRCA67.jpg

Did Paul not emigrate somewhere, although that shouldn't prevent him access to a computer and the web, surely?
Sue.x
ps, I've shown you mine, can I see yours? >:D
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

‘For every problem there is a solution: neat, plausible and wrong’. H.L.Mencken

Offline Pinkspoons

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 3233
  • Gender: Male
    • UK
Re: Pauline Solven
« Reply #43 on: November 28, 2008, 10:10:11 AM »
Oh, that's really nice - I was expecting it to be something lumpy, like my 1968 vase (which looks like a bizarre tri-finned fish - photos to follow ASAP).

This is my 1979 piece - Pauline Solven RH 195 - 1979.

(I've not yet managed to find out what/where 'RH' is. My early piece is helpfully marked 'London', so I assume it was executed just after she graduated at RCA that same year, and before her tenure at Glasshouse the following year.)

Offline Pinkspoons

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 3233
  • Gender: Male
    • UK
Re: Pauline Solven
« Reply #44 on: November 28, 2008, 10:36:19 AM »
I just took a couple of speedy snapshots of my latest buy - without studio lighting, so they're not the best.

I'm not sure that I actually like this vase, as it is decidedly lumpy and bizarre - but it is interesting and the design is quite fun.

Pauline Solven, London, 1968:


Offline chopin-liszt

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 14462
    • Scotland, Europe.
Re: Pauline Solven
« Reply #45 on: November 28, 2008, 10:48:11 AM »
I think mine must be pretty early - the hot glass facitities at the RCA only became into being in late '66. I'm not a good photographer, and it's a difficult piece to show properly - there are 4 sets of "double-bubbles" around it, formed into yin-yang shapes, with silver salts which give rise to the bluey-yellowy irridescent appearance in reflected light, while turning the amethyst to amber when the light comes through it.
There are quite a few unintentional bubbles - it's a wonderful combination of a sophisticated idea appearing through a struggle to master the metal.

According to Pauline's statement in the booklet which accompanied "The Glasshouse and it's Tree" ( page 10) exhibition last year, she set up a studio in Gloucestershire in 1975, while continuing to show at the Glasshouse, and;-

"Three years later, Harry and I established Cowdy Glass Workshop for which I designed functional work, selected for the Design Centre, and then founded Cowdy Gallery where I have curated numerous glass exhibitions over the years."

According to Graham McLaren, "Studio Glass 1960-2000", p.14, her first studio in 1975 was in Ravenshill. Perhaps that's your RH.

This is a very nice little booklet, published by Shire, loads of lovely pictures.
ISBN 0 7478 0527 X. It cost £4.99. www.shirebooks.co.uk
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

‘For every problem there is a solution: neat, plausible and wrong’. H.L.Mencken

Offline chopin-liszt

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 14462
    • Scotland, Europe.
Re: Pauline Solven
« Reply #46 on: November 28, 2008, 10:56:19 AM »
 :thup:

Thanks!

I can see a real similarity/development between the '67 and the '69 pieces!
(just checked the website for the booklet - it's gone up to £5.99, but still seems to be available.)
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

‘For every problem there is a solution: neat, plausible and wrong’. H.L.Mencken

Offline Pinkspoons

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 3233
  • Gender: Male
    • UK
Re: Pauline Solven
« Reply #47 on: November 28, 2008, 11:06:59 AM »
Thanks for the details, Sue. Ravenshill does seem to cover the RH - I'll investigate further!

I didn't realise that Shire books were still on the go - I've one of their older publications on pressed glass. I'll definitely look into acquiring the McLaren title.

There is a similarity of form between our early vases, although, oddly, yours seems a little more accomplished from the photograph. My later piece I -really- like, probably because it reminds me of Per Lütken's glass of the same period.

Offline chopin-liszt

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 14462
    • Scotland, Europe.
Re: Pauline Solven
« Reply #48 on: November 28, 2008, 11:43:28 AM »
 ;D

I thought yours was slightly more accomplished, mine a bit more ambitious!

It seems to have been worked from the inside, rather than the outside. The "strap" which is on the outside of yours is on the inside of mine, and I'm not even sure it's meant to be there, but is an artifact of producing the effect. The rim of mine is a bit lumpy and uneven, with a biggish dent from a tool mark, the glass iteslf is full of tiny bubbles as well as bigger ones.
Although it's smooth on the outside, it's really lumpy on the inside - tool marks, excess trails of glass....

Given Pauline's incredible instinct as well as talent for working with this metal, I can only assume mine must have been a very early attempt indeed.

Did you know she worked solo:o :hiclp:
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

‘For every problem there is a solution: neat, plausible and wrong’. H.L.Mencken

Offline Pinkspoons

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 3233
  • Gender: Male
    • UK
Re: Pauline Solven
« Reply #49 on: November 28, 2008, 11:55:35 AM »
I read on here that she worked solo - an amazing feat!

Mine's also full of bubbles - thousands of very tiny ones, so much so that I thought it was actually dust on the interior when I first got it, and a couple of very large ones. There are also a few (but not many) tooling marks and excess trail marks where the glass has been too thin or not hot enough to cling to the exterior properly, but has left a kind of scratch-line where it's come away.

 

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk
Visit the Glass Encyclopedia
link to glass encyclopedia
Visit the Online Glass Museum
link to glass museum


This website is provided by Angela Bowey, PO Box 113, Paihia 0247, New Zealand