Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: brewster on May 26, 2017, 12:04:32 AM
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This unusual object came from a local market, where the seller described its origins as "the fellow from Byron". I take it he meant glassblower Colin Heaney of Byron Bay, which is a town nearby. The outer blue iridescence does suggest that source. The item is only roughly ground off at the base, which suggests it may be intended to be part of some larger sculptural work, and that may add to the evidence for a local source. The top is chipped a bit, but whether that made it a second, or that damage happened outside the studio, there is no way to tell.
The oceanic design is cut into the surface, I presume by sandblasting (that being faster and safer than acid, and the edges are sharp).
Why am I asking here? The item is unsigned, but there is a logo included in the design. I cannot figure it out, although one guess was a monogram of the initials LJ. Someone cleverer than me has suggested I should turn it upside down (as in the last photo), where I will see a volcano over the ocean framed by ionic columns (with the sun and moon looking down). That suggests the Mediterranean rather than the east coast of Australia.
Does anyone recognise the logo?
Trevor
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Darn, the last photo didn't invert. Here is another go.
Trevor
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that's gorgeous.
Is the interior layer multi coloured?
m
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Thanks for looking, m.
Yes, there are streaks of blue on a white background inside. The blue and white layer is below the surface even where the outer layer is cut away. It seems there is another layer of clear in between (although that clear intermediate layer is frosted by the etching).
I forgot to say, the ball is about 15cm diameter and slightly taller than that because of the base and top.
Trevor
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Trevor Hokitika have a 'volcano' :) in their logo (except it's part of the glass furnace :) )
I don't think they make this kind of glass though.
https://www.hokitikaglass.co.nz/
However perhaps what you are seeing a volcano might be representing a furnace instead? A furnace near the sea, greek columns? night and day representing the furnace always burning?
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oh and have you checked out Gordon Studio glass?
I'm sure they or someone in the family, does cameo glass.
mm, having checked I was thinking of Alasdair and Rish Gordon but I think their work is hand carved so perhaps not them. But do have a look at their work which is very beautiful :)
http://www.gordonstudio.com.au/engravers/engravers/folio.html
The iridescence is beautiful and reminds me of Norman Stuart Clarke's iridescence.
Shape wise it reminds me of a boule/knop on a stair case bannister :)
This was my Sarah Cowans (during Moorcroft ownership) for Okra paperweight - the fish and seaweed was iridescent and it had a mottled layer. I've seen the mottled layer on other Okra pieces as well and also the blue iridescence.
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,39471.msg218679.html#msg218679
m
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The "volcano" in the Hokitika logo looks like a fume hood over the furnace. Perhaps the "water" in my logo is meant to be a pool of molten glass, suggesting the furnace by its contents. The sun and moon fit nicely with the "day and night" imperatives of a glass furnace, as you say. Without the volcano in the logo, my focus is coming closer to home again. (I still need to interpret those "ionic columns", though.)
The etching does not have the fine detail or exquisite finish of any of the Gordon family (Alasdair, Rish or Kevin).
Your suggestion of its domestic use as the knop on a bannister reminds me that I have seen photos taken inside Colin Heaney's house, where there were many outrageous structural and decorative elements in glass. Now where...
Trevor
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did you see my Sarah Cowans for Okra link and info?
Yes I agree not Gordon work or Lisabeth Sterling or Terri Colledge or Kelsey Murphy or Chris Carpenter.
The closest I've seen is the Okra suggestion
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and also Colin Heaney photograph of giant boule sculpture here
https://www.byronnews.com.au/news/apn-colin-to-shape-new/141011/
and more pics here of the house
https://www.northernstar.com.au/news/the-house-of-heaney/1827941/#/0
I can't see anything by Heaney that appears to be sandblasted cameo
however this piece does have that multi coloured mottled interior layer
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/COLIN-HEANEY-CAPE-BYRON-HOT-GLASS-CYLINDER-IRIDESCENT-VASE-/291976127049?hash=item43fb222249:g:b4kAAOSwImRYV0yX
Sean O'Donoghue does sand-etched work (at least I think it is)
http://seanodonoghue.com.au/index.php/image-gallery/10-tree-of-life
http://seanodonoghue.com.au/index.php/image-gallery/7-vases
(waiting up for one of my kids to come home from a party so having fun browsing glass :) )
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Hi m, I've come full circle to think it is from Colin Heaney's studio. The logo goes the second way up and the components most likely have the meanings we've suggested. Now we've been forced to think harder about it, we hazily recall seeing the logo on a board out the front of the studio in Byron Bay. There's nothing of it left now, as can be seen from the Google Street View of 6 Acacia Street.
Thanks for all the data including the house photos and the internally mottled piece. This latter bit of evidence is significant, I think, because the mottling is so similar. At its peak, there were 15 people working in his studio, and there was lots of experimentation going on. It is quite conceivable that someone or a combination of people had the skills to do this. The Heaney operation did commissions for Saudi palaces, so some way-out pieces would have been attempted.
He sold the house a couple of years ago. The listing is still on the agent's website:
https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/property-house-nsw-byron+bay-119552843
Yes, I've seen the Sean O'Donoghue sand-etched pieces. He showed us the machine when it was new and he was experimenting with it.
I did look at your Okra link. I got badly sidetracked by the question "What is cameo glass?". I agree with your broader use of the term, perhaps with suitable qualifiers where necessary for clarity. For those who insist on a narrower definition of "cameo", I note that some writers say the word refers to carving that reveals white figures on a dark background!
Trevor
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Here is another piece to the puzzle. She who is cleverer than I has been on a search and turned up the following page of Colin Heaney works with what appear to be sand-carved patterns. These items are in the series he called Vitrolith, and are considerably more modern than the iridescent piece with which I started this thread.
http://www.colinheaney.com/ceramics/
Our own much more modest pieces of Heaney Vitrolith were shown earlier on the GMB here:
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,50150.msg283418.html#msg283418
Thanks again, m, for your contributions to the ingredients - and for stirring the pot!
Trevor
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Some of those pieces have patterns that are very much in a similar design theme to your 'boule de escalier'
m