The Glass Insulator

Blue Colored Hemingray CD257 “Mickey Mouse Ears” Glass Insulator

The Hemingray Glass Company operated between 1848-1972 and was the largest manufacturer of glass insulators in the world. This five inch high cable-style insulator by Hemingray was produced from 1910 to 1940. It was used in secondary power distribution and had a voltage rating of 6,600 volts. They were produced in two versions: a regular saddle groove (as shown) and a wide saddle groove for heavier gauge wire. It was patented on June 17, 1890.

Richard Satava

Richard Satava: Glasswork, The Jellyfish Series

Richard Satava, a master glassblower, was introduced to glassblowing in 1969 while attending Ocean High School in Pacifica, California. He was then educated at the College of San Mateo and California State University. He eventually opened Satava Art Glass Studio in Chico in 1977. Using ancient techniques to create original designs in handblown glass, Satava creates works of art, individually crafted, by carefully combining the highest degree of technical skills and artistic creativity.

Glass-in-glass is a centuries-old art form that consists of a glass sculpture inside a second glass layer, oftentimes called a shroud. The inner glass sculpture is formed first and then it is dipped into molten glass, encasing it in a solid outer glass shroud. Before it cools, the shroud is malleable so the artist can manipulate it into any shape he so desires.

Fred Kaemmer

Glasswork by Fred Kaemmer,

Glass artist Fred Kaemmer likes to use the traditional decorative elements of glassblowing–frit, glass cane, metal leaf–in unorthodox ways. He often uses these elements on a piece’s interior surface to create unusual textures or patterns, rather than adding them to the surface or sandwiching them between layers of glass.

Kaemmer’s approach to glassblowing works against the grain of conventional glass decoration. By working on the interior surface, Kaemmer creates unusual vessels that fully engage the viewer, and the results edge the piece away from its utilitarian and traditional foundation toward a more sculptural work of art.

After graduating from college, Fred Kaemmer began working with glass as a distraction from the nagging question of “what now?” He took several summer workshops and eventually enrolled at The University of Wisconsin-River Falls to further explore hot glass. This was over ten years ago, and he now works full-time with hot glass in a studio that he built in St. Paul, MN.

Vintage Neon Gas Station Signs

Georges Claude patented the neon lighting tube on Jan. 19th, 1915 – U.S. Patent 1,125,476.

In 1923, Georges Claude and his French company Claude Neon, introduced neon gas signs to the United States, by selling two to a Packard car dealership in Los Angeles. Earle C. Anthony purchased the two signs reading “Packard” for $24,000.

Neon lighting quickly became a popular fixture in outdoor advertising. Visible even in daylight, people would stop and stare at the first neon signs dubbed “liquid fire.”

Preston Singletary

Glassworks by Preston Singletary

Preston had more than a decade of experience working on the teams for various master glass-artists before he began to make works that combined his own Tlingit heritage and traditional objects with blown glass. He has occupied a unique position as an aboriginal artist who trained solely in glass.

Singletary has traveled extensively to study international glass techniques, including visits to Sweden and Finland. He is considered the bridge-artist between glass blowing and Northwest Coast art, which are the two dominant art forms of the Pacific Northwest. Singletary has worked with many other aboriginal artists now interested in the glass medium and who have recognized the potential of the glass medium as a possible new direction.

Today, his work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is included in such collections as the Seattle Art Museum, the new National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution, and the Museum of History and Art in Anchorage.

His solo-exhibition “Preston Singletary: Echoes, Fire, and Shadows” was unveiled at the Tacoma Museum of Glass in 2009 and is currently touring to major institutions across North America. This collection is documented in a book by the same name and is published in the United States by the Tacoma Museum of Glass and in Canada by Douglas & McIntyre Publishers.