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Seekers® Glass Gallery presents the
work of Christopher Lydon and Ayako Ikeda, who collaborate on a series of
original designs in handblown glass. Christopher and Ayako create very large
freeblown vessel forms using ancient Italian techniques.
In Christopher’s words: “ We create the pinstripe bottle forms using
a double layer of color. By overlaying a transparent color on our opaque base,
we create a deeper, richer color. We use the Italian “cane” technique to add
the stripes to the outside of the piece.”
Christopher and Ayako blow each piece
freely, without the use of molds, using traditional glassblowing methods that
are thousands of years old. They create each piece at the end of a five-foot
long metal blowpipe, constantly spinning and reheating the viscous mass as it
has been done for millennia. When they complete the blowing and shaping process,
Christopher and Ayako remove
the piece from the pipe and places it into an annealing oven, where it will cool
slowly.
In general, the larger and thicker the piece,
the longer the time required for it to anneal. Some very thick or very large
pieces can take several days to anneal. Annealing slowly relieves the internal
stresses caused by the extreme heat at which the molten glass is worked. Without
annealing, the finished piece would shatter in the room temperature air.
The American Studio Glass Movement is a new
phenomenon in the 4000+ year history of glass as an artistic medium.
In 1962 technology was developed that allowed
artists to make glass alone and unaided. Prior to that time, glass art objects
were made only in large factories.
Traditional methods are still in use at
established glass factories like Steuben,
Waterford
, Baccarat, etc. where hundreds of employees work in large teams to mass produce
glass objects.
By contrast, studio glass artists work
individually, completing every aspect of the glassmaking process from design
through signature. The quantity of work they produce is so limited that most
studio glass artists will make fewer pieces in their lifetimes than factories
like
Waterford
will make in one day.
American's studio glass artists are
acknowledged throughout the world as creators of the finest, most innovative
glass art objects being made today. Ironically, most Americans are unaware of
the studio glass movement and most of our glass artists are better known and
collected abroad than here.
Christopher received a Bachelors degree in Fine
Arts from The University of the Arts and Ayako
received her BFA from The Teyama City
institute
of
Glass
and her Masters Degree in design and architecture from University of Shiga
Prefecture.
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