Corning Glass Museum

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

Ferenbaugh Campground

Corning, NY

                     Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY

This beautiful glass sculpture greeted us at the admission desk to the Museum of Glass.  

This was Becky's favorite in the Modern Art Gallery   Lino Tagliapietra (born Italian 1934) Created this piece in Seattle, WA in 1994 blown and hot-worked filigrana.  Born and raised near Venice, Lino Tafliapietra developed his craft on Murano, the glassmaking island of the Venetian lagoon.  Today, he is widely recognized as the best glassblower in the world.  Over the course of his career, he has produced objects that have become more complex and technically difficult.  This sculpture, inspired by a nautilus shell, represents glassblowing at its most challenging.  

There were many glass blowing demonstrations.

It was interesting to find out that the Corning Cookware was discovered by accident.  The Glassblower forgot his bowl in the furnace overnight and figured it would just be a blob of melted glass.  It turned out to be extremely hardened glass that wouldn't break. This tower was corning baking dishes from clear to white, produced in temperatures from 1200 to 2100 degrees.

We caught a demonstration on glass blowing a decorative dish.  He started with a glob of molten glass, spinning, blowing, rolling it in colored sand, heat again, until it becomes the shape he wanted.

The vase is kept spinning at all times so it does not drop and become uneven as the material is very soft.

He added Red colored sand that was melted in the furnace to the top to add color.

The colors are obtained by mixing in the right chemicals to make that color.  For example, gold would turn the glass red.  This all glass fruit bowl was a good example of color mixing.  It is an art just like painting.  By the way, this bowl is over 4 ft. in diameter with the center pear about 3 ft. tall.

Glass art is very beautiful.  This miniature was all made with glass.

Even music can come from glass.  This glass harmonica spins and you can play different notes by putting your fingers on a bowl.

The museum had examples of glass art that dated back as far as 2000 BC.  Glass forming has been an art form for centuries. 

This glass table was very impressive.

Glass Beads over the centuries.

Stained glass windows...

Paper weights...

Glass curtains.  Many things can be made with glass.  Thomas Edison's first light bulbs were blown by the glassblowers in Corning until the light became so popular that they couldn't keep up with the demand.  They eventually discovered a way to make thousands of bulbs an hour.

The Art Gallery was fun to explore.  There is an entire building devoted to Glass Art Classrooms.  You can also make your own glass art.  We got there too late to take part in that endeavor.

As you can see everything is still pretty green.  The hills have very dense forests that I bet will be beautiful as the leaves change color.

We are camped just west of Albany, NY.  There is a frost warning for tonight so we will probably be seeing some changes in the near future.  Our next stop is in the Boston area.  More to follow....

Becky and Lonnie