Topic: BIG amber & clear glass figure ID help!

[steph]

 :cry: :cry: I still can't get anywhere with this piece, can people scratch their heads for some ideas please.  I'm now wondering Italy - CZ?  :hi: cheers steph.

[chopin-liszt]

Could it be....... Blowzone?


There were some very strange things done - my brother has an utterly hideous vase, with a "sexy" fish-face on it - (if you find collagen-expanded lips plastered with revoltingly luminous pink lipstick sexy, that is  ) - I think it's got fairy wings too.
The more I look at it, the more Blowzone it gets. I'm pretty sure it is.

[steph]

 Sue,  but worth some research then.... thanks.

 I saw a blowzone lippy vase on Fieldings that auction is sooooooooo tempting but I have to save for two commission pieces.  I had a bit of a moral dilemma when I started sorting out my glass.   I have a couple of pieces by a woman, Jane Vanderstay-Hunt, she started in Dudley, now working in a gallery selling glass as it costs too much to buy furnace time.    I realised that the newby's really struggle when I visited her studio, which is a very small shed at the bottom of her garden.   :thud:  So now I try and buy the odd piece from Sunderland or The Red cone, from aspiring blowers. I have the utmost respect for glass artists, I once tried making beads down in Dudley at one of the Biennale's -  even that was almost impossible!  :24: :24:

If I refrain from buying every charity shop/boot sale piece of glass that I see the pennies mount up quite quickly, so my collection of studio glass is growing.   :smg: I'm in awe of your collection, bet you like the hammer, fish head piece (not sure of proper name)  in Fieldings auction, lovely colours? It must be very satisfying to become expert in a field.  :hiclp:  cheers steph


 

[chopin-liszt]

 
Always learning, Steph. The more I learn, the more I find there is to learn - that's the joy of it!
I like to support new and current artists too. :thup:
I really do think this is Blowzone - it's the right sort of theme, the right colours,
 - he did a lot of "body bits", it encompasses many of the techniques I've seen used, - colour, etching and clear add-on bits.
I want a multicoloured cut lozenge bit - I'm not so keen on the tall things in Fieldings auction, or body bits.
I was having a right giggle when I saw this post of yours about 2 seconds after I was reading how you wanted a bit of Blowzone in the other thread! :24:

[steph]

 :cry:  Sue, I emailed BZ this a.m. just got this reply from Iestyn Davies.   

Hi Steph , 
glad to hear you have one of our multilayer cut bowls ; that was an excercise that will not be repeated !
Sorry to say I haven't a clue as to who made the mystery piece; definitely not one of mine.
Kind regards iestyn

so it's back to the drawing board - it's not as if she's a shrinking violet is it.  Surely someone must have some ideas....  :hb1:

Anyway, seems I'm lucky to have snaffled up the multi cut bowl when I did....  Thanks for your help anyway... :kissy: cheers steph.

[chopin-liszt]

Grrrrr - it's a mulitilayer bowl I want!
Interestingly,  :angel:  in 1960, Michael Harris designed, cut and engraved a clear glass vase with random lozenges, just like the random cut lozenges on ID's bowls.
It's a very attractive design, isn't it?

[steph]

 :hi:  yes, a brilliant design.  Incredibly time consuming to do, I'm told.  The bowl I've got with its nine layers of colour gets so much attention....and no wonder.  The lozenge cuts that go right through and just leave a single thin skin of the inner colour are all individual little works of art.  A few years ago I watched a student in Dudley attempting her first work on a BZ two layer bowl, she was terrified and it was taking hours just to do a couple of cuts.  I have the utmost admiration for cold and hot glass workers... and not a little envy!  :mrgreen: 

Incidently, amongst my stored stuff I've got a little, what I think is a Medina vase, usual short stubby conical vase, ground base, nice vibrant yellowy inner...but no sig...all my other medina pieces are signed and I've never seen pieces without a sig.... so, is there a general ruling for Medina... some signed? all signed? or hit and miss?   And thanks, I didn't know MH did that type of thing ever!! :thud: :wsh: :t:n time.  cheers steph.

[chopin-liszt]

Tons of Mdina isn't marked, Steph.
Iestyn Davies did a stint training at IoWSG, before going to Stuart Strathearn for a bit.
My brother has a fairly good collection of BZ - including a massive bowl as you describe - three stripes of layers from top to bottom. I'd be happy with something far less complicated.
MH's vase was a straight sided cylinder on a foot - it's on p.8 of Mark Hill's Michael Harris book.

[steph]

 :hiclp: So no sig's on lots of Medina. Wow that's a relief.... I'd just convinced myself I'd not learnt anything over the last few year!!!!! It's def M....just run of the mill - I don't have Mark's book, shall have to get a copy. I've never bothered with the theory, not had time, just bought glass I liked.  But since I was introduced to the GMB my interest has developed.  I have quite a selection of books now.  But my spare time is taken up with studying at Lancaster so time on the GMB or indulging my passion for glass has to be limited.  Now I've learnt how to use my camera and downsize pics the inclination to drop in more frequently - grows.  So much knowledge and entheusiam is fantastic to be around.   :hi: :wsh: time to finish an essay!  :cry:  cheers steph

[chopin-liszt]

I took up glass after graduating - I simply couldn't give up my prediliction for/addiction to research and study. So far it's filled and satisfied the urge for over 10 years - and, as you can see from this thread, I still make loads and loads of mistakes!
Very briefly:- and taken from Mark's book, pp 8-14
MH was fascinated by glass from an early age - when he first encounterd it in Stourbridge as a student, where he got into cold working - he was a very accomplished engraver and diamond point worker, then he went to the RCA in London to study industrial glass design and eventually (after graduating and then teaching graphic design at Southend Municipal college) became tutor in Industrial Glass Design at the RCA.
That was where he met Sam Herman who had come from America to give a lecture on the brand new movement of hot worked studio glass.
He was so taken and inspired by the possibilities that he left the RCA and went to Malta to set up Mdina.

During the period before setting up Mdina, while on a visit to Roguska Slatina or at the RCA (nobody's sure), he had also made a bark-textured vase, with Paul Woods, sometime between '63 and '65, inspired by the work of Timo Sarpaneva.

The early period of Studio Glass and it's origins isn't theory - it's a thrilling adventure story!