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Forthcoming
Book Showcases
New International Lampworked Glass
Formed
of Fire: Selections in Contemporary Lampworked
Glass is the newest book by Bandhu Dunham, one
of the founding members of the modern movement
of artistic lampworkers. "Lampworking"
(also sometimes called "flameworking")
is the technique of shaping glass rods and tubes
in a torch flame. In ancient times, the glass
was melted over the flame of an oil or paraffin
lamp, hence the traditional name. In the last
20 years, lampworking has evolved into a thriving
branch of the Studio Glass movement. Everything
from tiny beads and marbles to paperweights to
huge architectural installations can be and is
made using lampwork methods. This book will showcase
the work of established and emerging artists in
the lampwork field, from the United States and
around the globe.
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Formed of Fire: Contemporary Selections in
Lampworked Glass
by Bandhu S. Dunham
128
p. 22.3 cm.
Signed Copy $35.00
plus shipping
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Formed
of Fire begins with a foreword by Tina Oldknow, Curator
of Modern Glass at the Corning Museum. There follows
a brief historical introduction which gives context
to the artist pages that fill most of the volume. One
or two pages per artist display recent work with descriptive
text and a commentary by either the author or by the
artist him- or herself. Dunham's position as a respected
colleague of the featured artists gives him a distinct
perspective on the subject as well as unique access
to the artists and their process. Several of the lampworkers
allowed themselves to be photographed while executing
a piece, and the sequence of photos illustrating their
creative process adds to the reader's understanding
and appreciation of the work shown. An illustrated glossary
of lampworking terminology concludes the text, making
this a valuable reference for anyone interested in lampworked
glass.
Over
75 artists are represented in full color throughout
the book. They include a number of exciting newcomers,
but also the most respected figures working in the field:
Shane Fero, Kazuyo Hashimoto, Dina Hulet, Kristina Logan,
Robert Mickelsen, William Morris, Roger Parramore, Sally
Prasch, Ginny Ruffner, Paul Stankard, Césare
Toffolo, Gianni Toso and many others.
The
author, Bandhu Dunham, has been a lampworker for over
27 years, and has taught lampwork technique all across
the United States and internationally. His work is in
the permanent collection of several museums, and he
is the author of the how-to text, Contemporary Lampworking:
A Practical Guide to Shaping Glass in the Flame. This
two-volume text, now in its third edition, is universally
regarded as the "Bible" of its field. The
new book, Formed of Fire, is equally ambitious and definitive.
(The following is an excerpt from the
historical introduction. The text of this entire release
is on the enclosed disk. PDF and EPS files of the cover
also included.)
Introduction
Lampwork is fascinating territory in the greater world
of glass art. Its unique technical and aesthetic opportunities
command the attention of a growing number of artists
and appreciators around the globe. Every method of manipulating
glass-whether "hot," "warm" or "cold"-brings
out a different aspect of this amazing material. While
lampworking shares some methods with other hot techniques,
it is set apart by the primary use of a focused, directional
heat source: the torch flame. This makes a unique vocabulary
of techniques available for detailed work. It also lends
itself to the assembly of component pieces into larger
objects. As Ginny Ruffner has pointed out, this gives
lampwork a typically additive or linear quality. Artists
using this technique are therefore challenged to make
the best use of this quality, or to transcend it in
an internal aesthetic confrontation.
By
its nature, lampwork manipulates or alters glass that
has previously been shaped by some other method. This
is perhaps the foundation of that "additive"
property of the technique. In this book, you will see
how artists have taken tubes and rods and transformed
them into the objects of their inspiration. In some
cases the original form of the material is unrecognizable.
In others, the starting shape has been allowed to assert
itself, like white space on a page. This is just as
true whether the raw glass was first shaped a moment
earlier at the gaffer's bench or in the maw of a mechanical
crucible at a far-away factory.
Lampwork,
to my mind, is inherently clever in that it takes a
given and does something else with it. This is fundamental
to the artistic impulse, of course, but lampwork is
perhaps uniquely blessed, among glass techniques, in
its ability to do this. Lampworkers are always taking
things a step further, and we can perhaps see this in
a kind of witticism that appears when lampwork methods
are brought to bear on projects using other techniques.
The artist seems to say "Ah, look, I can add more
detail now," or "See, I can take a goblet
and make it do this."
One
of my favorite things about lampwork is the way it bridges
worlds. For example, the technique is ancient and traditional,
but it has always been at the forefront of material
culture. In ancient times, to shape glass at all required
special furnaces that seemed magical (even demonic)
to the common people. Early lampworking torches were
similarly placed at the cutting edge of technology in
their day. New techniques of scientific glassblowing,
used to fabricate experimental apparatus for the advancement
of technical knowledge, are often pressed into the service
of art in novel ways, even today.
Lampwork
has an ongoing relationship with science, more so than
other glass fields. The first microscope lenses were
formed by lampworking, and countless crucial developments
in chemistry, physics and other sciences have depended
on apparatus made of lampworked glass. The techniques
and vocabulary of science are therefore more familiar
to branches of lampwork, and some lampworked glass can
be seen as a dialogue between art and science. The development
of neon and plasma sculpture is an excellent example
of this conversation. While strict technical guidelines
must be followed to make the enclosed gasses glow, the
sensual, atmospheric luminosity that results makes it
clear that creative inspiration is in the driver's seat.
Indeed, the sensuality of glass itself is responsible
for seducing a number of technical glassblowers into
the circle of craftsmen and artists. It is fun to try
and guess an artist's background while looking at the
lampworked glass throughout this book, although the
true answers can be surprising.
Lampworking
is also "contemporary" in its encouragement
of an individual approach to the medium. Although lampworkers
can and do work together, the typical studio is a one-person
operation. This gives free reign to the individual's
creative inspiration and the development of a personal
language. And while lampworking can be and is a spontaneous
process, it also affords the artist an opportunity to
readjust the form, to refine the embodiment of his inspiration,
in a way that other hot glass forming methods do not.
Undeniably
high-tech, lampworked glass is also high-touch. Although
artists have sometimes felt uncomfortable with the "cute"
associations traditionally given to lampworked glass,
that very quality of smallness or intimacy can be a
great strength and a resource on which to draw. The
techniques of miniaturization and magnification available
to the lampworker (as in mosaic cane work and paperweights)
open unique worlds for exploration.
Beads
and other ornamentation have always been formed by lampworking,
giving an intimate highlight to the humanizing properties
of glass. Using lampwork techniques, artists create
remarkable virtual worlds within solidified drops of
glass, whether as small as a tiny marble or as large
as a composite casting. In the case of literal renderings,
such as floral beads or paperweights, we are not only
entertained, but also drawn to reflect on the beauty
of Nature and possibly to recall, on some level, our
place in it. More abstract encasements, like we see
in marbles and some jewelry, draw us into other kinds
of reveries, dispelling for a moment the mundane limitations
of our physical reality. In either case, we are brought
into momentary contact with something essential, inspiring
or universal within ourselves.
If
the artist's job is to open our eyes to the mysterious
and magical nature of human existence, then the glittering
and enticing qualities of small lampworked objects are
a delightful vehicle by which to accomplish that end.
If that makes them "cute," so be it. In any
case, lampwork is by no means limited to the creation
of small objects, as the images in this volume attest.
There are really no inherent limits to the scale, complexity
or subtlety which can be achieved through lampworking
today.
In
it’s first two editions, Contemporary Lampworking
has been used as a text and recommended by lampworking
instructors across the U.S. and abroad. Widely praised,
the it has become the “bible” in its field.
Revisions in the third edition reflect the astonishing
growth of lampworking. Listings for suppliers, schools
and other contacts have been thoroughly updated.
Recent works by many artists have been added throughout
the text and in two full color Gallery Sections—now
expanded to showcase nearly a hundred artists.
Presented in two conveniently organized volumes,
with larger pages and an improved binding, Contemporary
Lampworking has truly become the encyclopedia of
flameworking technique. Those who own a previous
edition will want this updated version. Future changes
and growth in the field will be documented in additional
volumes, building on the foundation of this two-volume
set.
Two volumes, 512 pages total,including 2 full-color
Gallery Sections of 16 pages each. Full color hardcover,
28 cm tall x 22 cm Square back, concealed wire “O“
binding. |
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