Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Paperweights => Topic started by: Pip on May 03, 2006, 04:11:25 PM
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Hiya, today I bought a beautiful irridescent glass paperweight with trails - it's signed to the base with 'OBG'. I don't know very much about paperweights but bought it because it's so decorative and wasn't particularly expensive. Can anyone tell me anything about the company, period of manufacture etc? I'll post some photographs later when little'un is in bed and I can get my camera out. Thanks ...
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Hi Pip,
OBG = Ornamental Blown Glass, Lynnwood, WA, USA. :D
Maybe some of the American members can give you a bit more information.
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Thanks Della - that gives me something to start with. I'll post a picture of it here as well in a min (Tinypics wasn't working properly yesterday) - it's a beautiful blue irridescent finish, like the colours of a dragonfly and I do love glittery, shiny things.
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"Ornamental Blown Glass" (OBG)
Lynnwood, WA, USA
"Ornamental Blown Glass" or "OBG" is a hot glass blowing studio--located in Lynwood, WA, just outside of Seattle--that has had some very well-known artists on their staff over the years, mostly as they have been coming up and before going out on their own. Some of them are listed here:
Mariusz Rynkiewicz: Now famous glass blower, Mariusz Rynkiewicz, accepted a position of gaffer at Ornamental Blown Glass. He worked there from 1989 until 1995. During this period, Mariusz looked for ways to further develop his glass-blowing artistry. In 1992, he studied with Dante Marioni at the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington; and a year later, with Lino Tagliapietra at Pratt Fine Art Center in Seattle. Also in 1993, Mariusz became an instructor of glass blowing at the Pratt Fine Art Center. In 1995, Mariusz fulfilled his lifelong dream by becoming designer, gaffer, and owner of Studio Rynkiewicz in Everett, Washington.
Jack Pine, well-known for his glass pumpkins, worked for Ornamental Blown Glass in Seattle and Maytum Glass Studio in Boulder, Colorado. Jack originally worked in several mediums. When choosing glass as his favorite, Pine founded his own studio, Jack Pine Studio.
Surely there are others, but this is what I could find on-line without investing an inordinate amount of time.
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I visited the factory once in the 90's. At that time they were also making lots of Christmas Balls. I also had a brochure of theirs but sold it a couple of years ago. At that time they had unique electric furnaces that were powered by sending the electric directly thru the glass and not using silicon carbide or moly elements to heat it with convection/radiant heat. At that time they told me they were buying electricity for about $.03-,05/KW. I think there were quite a few glassworkers that were there for different intervals of time. That was the time that the Seattle glass community really expanded.