glass at hocking

Working with glass for the first time was rather enjoyable. At the start of the semester when we were being first introduced to it I was mildly worried. I thought maybe I would bleed a lot but in the end I didn’t bleed at all. Learning about the different types of glass was very interesting and helps me understand the material a little better. Being an interior architecture major we work with glass a lot in our designs. This experience I think has now given me a new outlook on glass and it abilities. The different techniques were also very fun to learn. My favorite had to be the glass mold blowing. That process really helped me understand what it takes to get different forms and pieces of art. I think glass is a medium that takes a lot of time to do and understand fully. Flat glass work was fairly easy to get a hold on and understand. The more I did it the better I got at cutting the glass and the faster I could get done with a piece. All together this glass experience was very enjoyable and I would love to learn more about it and maybe even a few more techniques. -Alex K-

My Glass Experience at Hocking (Petersilge)

My experience with glass was love at first sight. Prior to this class, I had seen my sister work with it before in the reenactment village where she works, and always wanted to try it for myself. The moment my hands touched the first shards of Bullseye that we worked with, I immediately felt a connection. I couldn’t put it down, so I spent much of my time at Hocking completely immersed in working with it, obsessing over every little detail. I couldn’t get enough of it. I wanted my pieces to get to the next level. I have always had an affinity for engraving (hence the printmaking major), so the fusing project was a great way for me to start out, combing scraffito techniques with the mosaic quality of glass shards.

The challenge for me came in trying to predict what the frit would do. Hardly a coincidence, I noticed a strong similarity to the process of developing glaze recipes. I wish we had made test tiles of the frit to see how it would behave, as it caused me to have to re-fire my piece multiple times to get the line work outlined correctly. Even that turned into an engaging, problem solving experience for me. Through multiple firings, I was able to accomplish the line quality I desired, while also capturing the piece in the color hues I was searching for.

I know that this will not be the last time I work with glass. Next year I will be in graduate school at Kent, whose facilities I can utilize as well as the University of Akron, where my friends frequent the glass studio. This experience has opened up so many venues for my work to take, and I can’t wait to see where it goes. 

Glass

Working with glass was something I was looking forward too for a while.  Once I got comfortable with the tools and glass it came rather easily.

I thought that there were many disadvantages to this experience.  Being that it was in Hocking, it was very difficult to get out there, once for class and outside of class, and I believe that it did not help my work.  I also think that there were too many people for the amount of machines that are in the room.  Maybe if it were in OU it would be better so that more people could get into the use the machines more often as well as at different times so that it was not as crowded.

However, I think that it was a good learning experience.  I think that the process was cool to learn and to watch. But, it would be nice to have been able to do the processes rather than just watch.  It was fun to use the tools that we were aloud to after the glass cooled down.  I think future classes should continue to do this and hopefully the weather will not get in the way as much so it will be a smother process.

Fiber Game

Artists using traditional process to create sculptural work, first show how an artists it is important to understand the root of sculpturing work, which gives there art meaning and story for the journey of their work. It also indicates appreciation of other artists who started the traditional process and the respect of keeping their methods alive at the same time taking advantage of that knowledge to incorporate in their own work in interesting methods.

Sculpturing with fiber requires skill, mostly wrap and weft used in weaving; advancing the skill of weaving into 3 dimensional craft is very entertaining and interesting. Although the process practiced is craft, which is a hand-exercised skill, it produces amazing artwork using a material  (fiber) that is broad and could be manipulated creatively.

The knowledge learned from weaving shows any material could be creatively used to fulfill the craft of weaving. The materials could range from, straws, ribbons, paper, garbage bags, newspaper, cables, and cardboard, wire, wood, hair and more. With the wide range of materials it gives and artist the opportunity to work broadly in creating all kinds of thought-provoking artwork.

 The work can become evolving tapestry, in different scales. I think artist are taking advantage of weaving since it’s a very traditional process and bring the unimaginable to life. They are making it physical and giving it meaning, connection, this is taking craft to the next level instead of functional, it is visual appreciated with words, vision and touch of texture and feel.

This is what are is about and therefore evolving craft into remarkable art to tell a story makes it valuable and encouraging for the generations following to take advantage of the knowledge and skills, using them to make better art through craft.

Glass Experience

My experience of working with glass clearly made me think of it as a very distinctive material compared to any other materials I have used ion my projects.  I really enjoyed the experience of working with glass because, it gave me the opportunity to be creative and be able to imagine beyond one different state of matter, which is glass can be transformed in to liquid and solid, this alteration makes the experience of working with glass easy and effective.

I was fortunate to work with glass in liquid form and solid form and I would admit it is easier to work with glass in its liquid state. When glass is solid it is a fragile material but it’s not easy to sculpture it takes time and more practice to learn the process skillfully, once one is comfortable it becomes enlightening and the results are worth the hard work.

I also enjoyed the fact I could manipulate glass into different objects and color; the best part is the effect of fully transparency. It was easy to clean and just enjoy the process with out much fear of making mistakes with the material. It was also interesting how glass came indifferent shapes and forms and made it interesting to manipulate.

As much as I praise and adore glass as a material, its unfortunate I didn’t get to learn more about it or I was as well skilled into using the material therefor the work wasn’t perfect, but Its nerve racking that it is a fragile material and very delicately handled since it could be hazardous.

Working with glass

I really enjoyed working with glass this semester. It was a great experience to be thrown into a
medium that you are not used to working with. Though with the first project i was kind of lost and hesitant to work with glass as a material. The mold blowing project helped me better understand the limits and advantages that glass can have. One advantage of working with glass, for me, was because I use glass alot within my thesis, and being able to utilize and create with the actual substance allowed me to further develope my thesis work. However working with the hocking glass department also presented its challenges. Working with a large class did not allow a lot of room for individual time with the mold blowing project. The glass taking so long to prep and blow the mold only allowed for each piece to be blown a couple times. For further projects with glass I would like to include color glass within my mold blown object as well. -T.m.

I think I made a successful first run at glass, I am very happy with my blown mold brains and spinal cord. I am very excited to put them together and have a final piece to show. I did not like working with the sheet glass, there were just to many issues for me. I found my experience working with glass very frustrating because I found myself feeling very useless at times because there was nothing more we could do but watch them hit our molds or pour the glass. It would have been a bit more interesting if we could have been involved more in those aspects. I feel that I only learned a little bit about what glass can really do, but that’s hard in a 7 to 10 week span. I would defiantly like to learn more about glass blowing and even the blow molds. So I really hope they are able to get the glass blowing class up for us soon. I think that would really be interesting as far as my style of work goes. I’ve always had an appreciation for glass as a craft but now I think I have even more respect for it as a craft and the craftsman.

Kelly Johnston

working with glass

I really enjoyed working with glass for the first time, it was actually one of my favorite things we have done in an art class so far. I wish that OU would end up having a class all about glass in the following semesters because I feel like we should not be done working at Hocking plus it is so interesting. One of the major drawbacks I found when working with glass was the delicateness of the glass. Everyone knows that glass is fragile but when you are trying to manipulate it into something you really get to see how delicate it is. Another drawback was no matter how much thought and time you put into it we were never going to get it to look exactly how we picture. There may be other artists who would be able to but with our little experience and time that was not possible for us. The main advantage I found with working with the glass was the uniqueness of our art. I am using a lot of my pieces for my senior thesis project and my professors are impressed because it is not something they have seen before. It also helps that we are the first class at Ohio University to be able to use the glass lab at Hocking.

The Fiber Game

This article talks about two past ideals regarding fiber art.  The first had to do with the position of the “designer-craftsman” and how craft was thought of as a laboratory for industrial production.  The second ideal involved the development of realizing fiber art could be used to create three dimensional shapes.  At first weaver created three-dimensionality by distorting the pattern of the warp and weft while the piece was still on the loom.  Due to a considerable amount of exhibitions and publications in a three-year span from 1969 to 1972 American weavers working in the sculptural mode grew and was about to be recognized in the public.

Ed Rossbach is a fiber artist and looked at the two ways fiber art seemed to be growing and decided to look at it from a different angle.  He published an article called “The Fiber Game” commenting on how fiber art should remain in the hands of the weaver.  He did this by talking about string games many people played as children like cat’s cradle.  I thought it was interesting how Rossbach focused his work on found materials he did so in a way that it did not make a political statement or try to compete with the image-making power of mass media.  Leo Steinberg called it the “flatbed aesthetic” meaning that the artwork becomes a ground for experience around it.  I was interesting how he managed to learn all of these processes in order to be able to deal with all of the materials he would work with.  At the end of this section he compares fiber to things like architecture saying that an architect builds a building then calls in a fiber artist, never the other way around.  He likes that this happens and says it puts fiber in relation to him.  I thought this last statement was interesting because it’s true, it would be a bit ridiculous to build a building around a textile but it was an interesting concept to consider while reading this section.

The Fiber Game

I found Rossbach and Rauschenbergs use of icons and materials interesting in relation to craft. These artists were using kitsch icons and symbols within their craft works. These symbols represented within craft create a sort of abstract kitsch expression of the idea and meaning of the original icon or object used. The article made a good point in regards to limitation within craft. The works of Abakanowicz and Sheila Hicks expanded the limitations that were bestowed upon fiber arts and tapestry crafting. Their large tapestry's broke free from expectation of what a tapestry can be, transforming it into a large scale idea that challenged the ideas of loom process and the infinite life that an artwork can posses.
      I always enjoy craft works that expand upon the limitations of a material and process. Works like the Crochet Coral Reef by Christine Wertheim and Margaret Wertheim expand upon that same idea of limitation on material and process. Their coral reef has taken on a life of its own, growing far beyond its original size to one of great scale that includes other sub-reefs. To me craft becomes fascinating when it is able to take on a life of its own, changing and growing over time.
     However, Abakanowicz and Hicks faced scrutiny from the Americans for their works transitioning to sculptural pieces rather than staying in the confines of the fiber world. Abakanowicz and Hicks did abandon the traditional loom process, due to its limitation in size, and used different processes of weaving and knotting. I don't mind the use of non-traditional process within creating their works. To create the work that they wanted to on that size and scale it did force them to give up traditional process, but I do not think that it discredits their work in any way, or makes their large scale tapestrys less a piece of the fiber arts community. -T.M.

The Fiber Game

Fiber Art- "The Fiber Game"

This article includes ways how artists are using traditional processes to create sculptural work.  Weaving is a traditional process that they used, starting off two dimensional, then figuring out that they could create three- dimensional forms.  It was a difficult transition, but they figured out that just changing the structure of the warp would enable them to do so.  What became largely recognized and used in the 1970’s was, “An oft-lampooned popular craze for macramé knotting, the procedure used by many of the sculpture weavers attests to the degree of the fiber hangings penetration into public consciousness.”  Museum exhibitions called it “the first time” that fiber was equal to clay. 

         Rossbach used the cat’s cradle process to make works, describing it as a repeated rhythmic progression of movements.  Rossbach included breastbone and ribs, as well as bundles of wood to make the pieces. Rossbach talks about all of this in his article, “The Fiber Game”, and also discusses sticking to the basics for the process, and using materials that were stumbled upon, “food wrappers, garbage bags, newspaper, cardboard, masking tape, plastic tubing, and even kitsch plastic trinkets.”

         Also discussed in this article is works made by hand and tapestries woven to look like a painted cartoon. These weavers worked by weaving off the loom, knotting, crocheting, quilt stitching, braiding and knitting, as well as sometimes on the loom.  As well as “Women’s Work”, and the factors about and leading up to the Womanhouse. Finally, the article ends with discussing Anne Wilson and Fiber art as a dead end.

Value Judgment

     I agree with the article Value Judgment to some extent. When I initially think of the word "craft", I do think of something that is handmade. But, if our world is evolving with technology, who is to say that you cannot integrate craft and technology into one medium? Both technology and craft take skill; one mistake in either craft or technology can ruin a piece of work.
     The Article quotes, "Skills have disappeared all around, as technologies change the rules of engagement." I believe as a human being if a person applies themselves they can acquire any skill they desire. Technology does change the game of art and craft, but that does not mean hand crafting and skills will be obsolete. The article also says, "If, as a society, we are losing the appreciation for craftsmanship, with its skills and this support for it, it is craftspeople that must be at the forefront of the resistance." As an artist I still have appreciation for craftsmanship, and I do not think that people are loosing this appreciation. On the other hand, if I view craftsmanship from another persons perspective, this might be the case. If this is the case, I believe many people are taking for granted the craftsmanship that exists around us.
     If one is to look back to ancient Greek, Roman, or Egyptian architecture, they will see that those people were truly the masters craftsmanship. Our generation will probably never reach that level of perfection, even with technology. That being said, generations have come a long way with technology. Maybe it is time to give what we call "craftsmanship" and/or "technology" a new name.


Jackie Brumfield
Crafting Content

Value Judgment

Craft is considered normal in the society, or same as art, clearing gearing individuals towards art and design. Therefore with out the society understating craft in depth, the imagination, the process and the execution of the end result it would impossible to appreciate Craft. Clearly very few crafters are succeeding in this industry even the government and education is not giving the craft area interest or proper attention.

Therefore with more encouragement and support to crafters, it will motivate them to go beyond themselves possible beyond art and design. This will help the society view craft as extra ordinary, and when something is view, as unique people want to know more about it and embrace it on all levels.

Also support and promotion will encourage students to appreciate craft and learn more about it, even the definition of craft portrays creativity in itself. If the society had many students participating in craft, the more awareness will be spread out and the more support the craft will get.

With support craft could be pushed to the limit and it can be everywhere, Its sad the society embrace craft through the names of big artist while local artist are going above and beyond for what could be new presentation of our future.