I love art glass, I love the colors, I love the infinite shapes and I love that there is so much gorgeous art glass to choose from. Until recently when I thought about art glass, the city of Seattle came to mind. While Ohio has long been a center of glass production on an industrial scale it was in Toledo Ohio where the american studio glass movement got its start.
Harvey Littleton was a ceramic artist in-spite of the wishes of his father a physicist who developed Pyrex glassware. In the late 1950's Harvey had the opportunity to spend several months in Spain and Italy. While in Naples and later in Murano he discovered that the glass factories used little demonstration furnaces to craft things for tourists. This convinced Harvey that a single artist could melt and work glass in a studio setting.
When Harvey returned to the US he began using his ceramic kiln to melt glass. He spent a number of years convincing universities and artists of the feasibility of studio glass making. Finally in 1962 he was offered the
use of a shed on the g
use of a shed on the g
rounds of the Toledo ( that's Toledo Ohio) Museum of Art. With the help of chemist Dominick Labino, Harvey offered a weeklong glass blowing workshop. His new career as teacher and evangelist for glass was off and running.
Harvey's ceramic work and early glass work were beautiful vessels and bowls. However he is known for his glass sculptures which stretched the known boundaries of glass blowing.
| Littleton Vase 1965 |
| Littleton Lemon/Red Crown |
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