Corning Workshop with Josh Simpson and Gabriele Kuestner - results

I spent the last two weeks in Corning, New York in a workshop with Josh Simpson and Gabriele Küstner at the "Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass".  The workshop was entitled "Mosaic Glass" which is pretty open ended.  Here is the course description - "Students will begin by pulling their own canes, fusing glass mosaic plate and bowl forms, and doing pick-ups in the hot shop.  Students will then integrate typical Venetian style surface treatments, such as battuto, incisi, and velato, with work made during the first week. Cold-working equipment, including diamond and stone wheels, horizontal flat mills, belt sanders, and sandblasters will be used."

This really was two different workshops in one two week session.  Josh focused on creating various complex canes which can be further combined into even more complex canes or cut into murrine.  These would then be used in fusing projects or as rollups in the hot shop.

Gabi's portion was two-fold.  First, she introduced us to a technique of using China paints on clear cane and then fusing that into various forms.  Second, she showed us various surface treatments.

So enough of the background - here is what I made.  I'm not going to post pictures of the 50+ pounds of cane that I made but of a few of the finished pieces.

First, here is the plate I made using the cane painting technique.  It is about 10" by 12" in size and half an inch thick.  This is the view from the top.

 

And here is a side view giving a more realistic perspective.

 

 

Here is a simple plate I made from some simple canes I made the first day.  This one reminds me of a 1950's TV Dinner tray I remember from my childhood!

 

Here is a simple vase (about 8" tall) that I made way back in 2004.  There were some surface defects so it never was as nice as it could be.  I used this piece as a test of some of the cold working techniques that Gabi demonstrated.  It turned out quite well, but it was a great deal of work - cold working is a time consuming activity.
 

Finally, here is a simple slumped bowl that I made out of some Bullseye cane.  It is quite small - only about 6" across and less than 2" high.  Quite delicate and the lip/edge really sets this off.