21 May 2014

Trash or treasure?

 

Found in an accumulation of glassware at an auction several weekends ago.  I wanted to get a certain glass kitchen item, but the bidding was for the entire "flat" containing 6-7 pieces.  The other objects in the flat were ordinary juicers and bowls, but this one was unusual.  It appears to be some form of art glass.  The bottom shows no maker marks -


- so I presume this is some home-crafted hobby work in which the artist has painstakingly applied many hundreds of colored glass rectangles to a preformed vase.  The result is visually striking -


- but we have no use for it.  Before bundling it with the other glassware and taking it to Goodwill, I thought I'd show it to the more artistically-inclined readers here to ask if this item conforms to any particular style of American handcrafts.  I'm not under any illusions of it being a valuable piece of studio glass.

9 comments:

  1. Big BoppaMay 21, 2014 at 11:21 AM

    My mother taught art & crafts for the Chicago Park District from the mid '60s to around '90 or so. I remember this being one of the things she did with her classes. The glass pieces were glued one by one to make the pattern and then the'd use tile grout to fill the seams and fix the pieces in place. Projects like this were usually made to be used as candle holders but a flower vase would work too. My sister probably still has a bunch of them in her crawl space.

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  2. kenjuMay 21, 2014 at 3:57 PM

    I love that. I would place it in or near a window so that the light could stream through the colors.

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  3. AnonymousMay 21, 2014 at 5:35 PM

    I have a container that looks exactly like that, but in shades of blue. It came from the dollar store, and has a sticker on the bottom calling it a candle holder. Made in China.

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  4. fdgMay 22, 2014 at 11:45 AM

    It looks as though it is made up of loads of LCD screens from calculators and the like

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  5. WhiteBearStudios@gmail.comMay 28, 2014 at 9:12 AM

    yep, it is just mosaic on glass. you use a silicone glue, and grout over it. mosaic is about a thousand tomes easier than tiffany technique and it wonderful for using up your scrap glass. the same can be done with tables or any manner of objects. but i have always thought the key to truly beautiful mosaics is to have a specific design in mind and do several custom cuts, and mosaic the scraps around it.

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  6. WhiteBearStudios@gmail.comMay 28, 2014 at 9:17 AM

    And yes, it is probably Chinese. A meticulous artist would never leave the glue in such a sloppy mess.
    When I was selling on ebay, they were stealing my designs faster than I could create them. One listing from China actually used the very photo of my item taken in my own back yard. FRUSTRATING.

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