Glass

Yet the most recently recognized media by the fine

art market is not Lucite, it's Glass. Glass has been used to

fashion beautiful items for centuries, but not until the very

recent work of one man, Dale Chahuly, did glass rise to

prominence within fine art circles. Dale Chahuly proved

detail and soulful brilliance could be brought to light through

glass and qualify it as a fine art media.

Glass as a general rule is a huge challenge to work

with. It lends itself to less detail than bronze or acrylic while

at the same time has a much higher melting

temperature than acrylic but a much lower melting

temperature than bronze. In order to sculpt glass a

powerful blast furnace known as a Glory Hole must be

used. The Glory Hole keeps the glass hot enough for the

artist to work while fusing elements and color into the glass.

Often, an artist will have assistants with blowtorches to help

with intricate details of a particular area or to keep the glass

from cooling to fast and cracking. And as many glass artists

will tell you, "the difference between blowing a glass

goblet or glass dinnerware to creating glass

sculpture is like the difference between walking

across the Grand Canyon or flying over it."

The most legendary glassworks come from Murano,

Italy and later on in this tour we'll take a quick trip to

Murano and visit the local glass hot shops on this little

island, just off the coast of Venice.