|
Seekers presents the work of Robert Deeble, whose
original creations in handblown glass include vases, bowls, perfume vials and
other works distinguished by optical brilliance and elegant, contemporary
shapes.
Deeble blows each piece freely, without the use of molds, primarily from
glass he has formulated and made himself. He achieves a color palette that
ranges from subtle to bold, using various formulations of metallic oxides and
rare earth elements such as silver, cobalt, gold, copper and others blended into
the molten glass.
Using traditional glassblowing methods that are thousands of
years old, he creates each piece at the end of a five foot long metal blowpipe,
working the glass at temperatures in excess of 2000 degrees F.
His Faceted Vase
series involves a teardrop shaped vase, usually executed in a transparent color,
that has been encased in a thick layer of crystal. After the vase has been
blown, it is "annealed" in a special furnace overnight, in which the
temperature is slowly lowered to bring the piece down from 2000 degrees F to
room temperature. (Without annealing, the piece would shatter due to the
stresses caused by extreme heat and temperature change.) Once annealed, Deeble
cuts a facet on the front of the vase, using a diamond saw; he then polishes the
facet with a series of progressively finer grits of polishing belts, finally
ending with a cork belt that creates a mirror surface.
Deeble earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Goddard
College, VT. He has worked as a glass artist since 1970, and is largely
self-taught in the medium. He works alone in a studio nestled in a pine forest
in rural Vermont. His work has been shown at galleries and juried exhibitions
throughout the United States.
|
