Jessamy Kelly in UK Times

Sometimes you come across articles that state that glass making is a dying art, this is one of them. Previous posts in this blog include a video on Murano hot shops losing business, and a semi-serious article on the top jobs you should go see being performed before they are lost (including glassblower and elephant washer). "There are very few studios left in [Scotland]," Kelly says in the article. And visiting glass artist Karel Novak lamented to me that several large glass factories had closed recently in his country, the Czech Republic, putting a lot of glassblowers out of work. Those involved closely with glass don't see it as an anachronism, with several U.S. cities, towns and regions adding glass as a tourist attraction (Tacoma, Louisville, Hampton Roads) glass is all but a dying art here. However, the growing number of glassblowers and glassmaking facilities doesn't preclude inferior technique, skill, and innovation. A surface glance of glass here in the U.S. would show that glass is flourishing, but a deeper look, such as this article takes in only a few paragraphs, is necessary.

2009 Rachel Devine:

"It’s a rare thing to look at a cocktail and be equally seduced by the shapely glass as the liquid it holds. Jessamy Kelly’s designs, however, are the kind of glasses that could throw a party all by themselves.

Simple and elegant in style, each piece of “art glass” is a limited edition — the sculptural and sensual forms are inspired by the contours of a soft landscape and the curves of the human body.

“It’s all about the material for me,” says Kelly. “I’m very focused on the qualities of material and how I can bring out the best in them.”

Kelly, 30, took her bachelor of arts degree in glass and ceramics at the University of Sunderland before studying for her master of design degree at Edinburgh College of Art in 2002, which included a valuable placement at Edinburgh Crystal as a student glass designer and apprentice.

“There are very few glass blowing studios left in the country,” she says. “What I picked up at Edinburgh Crystal really cemented my passion for glass making.”

Last week she handed in her PhD on glass practices, a comprehensive study of traditional and contemporary techniques, which should make her a “doctor of glass” by the end of the year. She has also been appointed artist-in-residence at Edinburgh College of Art where she will pass on the skills she has learned to other students.

Already a specialist in her field at such a young age, Kelly’s clients include Edinburgh Crystal and the television designer Kevin McCloud’s homeware brand Place.

It’s not difficult to see why her unique, high-end designs are so much in demand. She uses traditional techniques such as kiln casting, fusing and glass blowing to create the complex scultpural [sic]forms.

Kelly channels light by cutting away or manipulating the materials to expose the inherent qualities of glass and ceramics (she often combines the two materials in one piece). The refining process is also a mix of traditional handcrafted techniques such as engraving, diamond cutting and sandblasting.

“Glass and ceramics are materials with many common qualities; processed in similar ways, they are transformed into functional or decorative objects,” she says. “They are however, not often combined in artistic practise. The translucent blend of glass and ceramics intrigues me, when light passes through the materials to reveal an inner beauty and luminosity.”

These are techniques that are slowly dying out, but Kelly hopes her published research and artist-in-residency will help pass them on to a new generation of glass makers.

“A lot of the techniques are very specialised and can be very time consuming when you’re first learning them,” she says. “Unfortunatety, the crystal glass industry has been dying for a while and all those techniques are in danger of being lost. But a few people are still practising and I keep going with it because I enjoy it so much. I’m very much about sharing.” "

Devine, R. "Glassmaker's cutting edge design for life." The Times Online. October 11, 2009. Accessed October 12, 2009. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/architecture_and_design/article6869312.ece

Glassblowers, Lantern Makers, and Elephant Washers

2009 Jamie Rhein:

"With Labor Day approaching, as we think of work, consider the culturally significant jobs in the world that may not be around in the future. Here is a look at seven that are hallmarks of particular regions.

First up. Traditional Glass Blower. In one of the furnace rooms at Cam Fornace in Murano, Italy, a short water bus hop from Venice, is a black and white photo from the 1920s (or thereabouts). In the photo, young men are blowing glass the way that glass blowers in Murano have blown glass for hundreds of years.

One of the men in the photo is the father of the master glass blower in this shot that I snapped two weeks ago when he was demonstrating how to make a vase. This master glass blower has been working at Cam Fornace ever since he was 14-years-old when he started there as an apprentice. Now he is 62.

According to our tour guide at our factory visit, traditional glass blowers are becoming a dying breed. In the past, the art was passed on through generations as sons learned from their fathers. These days, Italian sons are not particularly interested in their fathers' glass blowing life. Our guide suspects that in twenty years, it will be hard to find a traditional Italian glass blower.

This doesn't mean there won't be glass blowers, but there won't be many--if any-- people who will be doing the art the way it's been done for centuries. Cam Fornace will not be the same.

Traditional glass blowers aren't the only jobs that are becoming a rarity. I've thought of others based on what I've seen in my travels. Each are jobs that are impacted by economics and cultural shifts. Here are six more jobs you may want to see people do before it's too late."

The other 6 include: Cyclo driver, Bybee Pottery maker, Horse carriage driver, Traditional lantern maker, Coconut Shell Rope Maker, and...Elephant Washer.

Rhein, J. "Seven jobs that may soon disappear." September 1, 2009. Gadling blog. Accessed September 3, 2009. http://www.gadling.com/2009/09/01/seven-jobs-that-may-soon-disappear-travel-to-where-they-are-whi/