The art of art glass

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Resources

AAA Kartak Glass and Closets 13214 Fourth Ave. W. Everett 425-438-8000 kartakglass.com

Covenant Art Glass 3232 Broadway Ave. Everett 425-252-4232 www.covenantartglass.com

Unique Art Glass 2008 196th St. SW, Suite B Lynnwood 425-481-6046 www.uniqueartglass.net

What is art glass?

Art glass is more than stained. It’s slumped, sandblasted and painted. It can be melted, shaped, textured, formed and colored. Art glass falls into two general categories: vessels and architectural glass.

Here are some of the most common techniques for creating art glass:

Glassblowing: Vessels are created with this technique, which involves gathering molten glass onto a pipe. The artist blows through the pipe, creating a bubble that becomes the vessel. Glassblowers can also create sheets of glass.

Glass painting: The artist uses a brush to apply fine particles of glass to a sheet of glass. The glass is then fired in a kiln.

Sandblasting: Using pressurized air, the artist shoots sand at a sheet of glass, etching the surface.

Slumping: The artist lays glass on top of a textured mold and then heats it. The glass sinks into the mold.

Story by Debra Smith

Herald Writer

Photos by michael o’leary

Herald Photographer

A few years after Phil Ruggiero and Phyllis Grand-Ruggiero built their Edmonds beachfront home, a house sprouted up next door.

The couple always expected someone else to build on the lot. What they didn’t anticipate was how much privacy they would lose.

From the neighbor’s house perched high up on a slope, it was possible to peek into the couple’s master bathroom and downstairs dining room.

Some curtains or blinds might have done the job, but the couple didn’t want to block the sunlight or their sweeping view of Possession Sound.

So they called Mark Olson, a Lynnwood glass fabricator and designer. Olson created stained glass windows for both rooms that provide privacy while preserving the view.

Now bamboo bends gently in the wind along a set of curved windows in the dining room. The organic design fits the home’s Asian-influenced look.

Upstairs in the master bathroom, an abstract design graces a set of windows above a marble soaking tub. The glass, accented delicately in pale pink, suggests moving water and offsets pearly pinks in the room’s decor.

The textured glass in the windows provides privacy, obscuring the neighbor’s house. In both rooms, the windows’ designs fade to clear glass, allowing a view of Whidbey Island across the Sound.

“We’re in the business of privacy,” said Olson, owner of Unique Art Glass. “People want art, but they also want security.”

Homeowners also increasingly want a focal point that’s functional as well as beautiful, and they’re turning to glass as another way to add value and beauty to the home.

Art glass is ornamental glassware created in textures and colors. And while incorporating art glass into homes isn’t new (think Victorian stained glass), the way it can be used today is only limited to a homeowner’s imagination and wallet.

A homeowner can specify any of a number of features, such as frameless shower doors, glass kitchen backsplashes, floor-to-ceiling glass panels, cabinets, ceiling domes, and elaborate windows in a rainbow of colors and textures.

Stained glass windows gained popularity in American homes during the 1890s after artists John LaFarge and Louis Tiffany developed new techniques for creating it, according to the Art Glass Association, a nonprofit organization that supports the art glass industry.

Stained glass in the home fell out of favor in World War I and continued to decline in popularity through the middle of 20th century.

Nearly 30 years ago, art glass took off as artists began to experiment with new techniques.

Today there’s more to art glass than staining it. Glass can be beveled, sandblasted and slumped. There are dozens of techniques for manipulating its appearance.

Olson has created custom art glass since he began learning the craft as a teenager in 1977.

“I hung out at all the local studios probably driving them nuts, just soaking up everything I could,” he said.

He studied under some of the best at the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, including contemporary glass master Dale Chihuly and German artist Ludwig Schaffrath.

At his modest studio tucked into a row of professional offices, he fabricates custom leaded and beveled glass.

As in every avenue of home decor, styles in art glass have changed over the years. When Olson began designing glass creations in the late ’70s, customers wanted “very cartoon-y looking” stained glass.

In the 1980s, consumers wanted more traditional, Victorian looks, and in the late 1990s Craftsman designs became popular.

Organic designs such as the one Olson created for the Ruggieroes are popular now, he said.

Homeowners have thousands of colors to choose from and more than 50 glass textures. Olson keeps square samples of textured glass in a box at his studio with names like “Crocodile,” with a design like reptile skin, and “Digital,” which has the texture of a computer chip. His pieces are fabricated from a combination of hand-blown and manufactured glass.

Olson designs each project to fit the style and decor of the home and the customer’s wishes.

At the Ruggiero home, for example, he chose more abstract designs.

“The house is contemporary,” Olson said of the Ruggiero home. “Whatever I did couldn’t be literal. It needed to look like something flowing.”

One might expect the artist to go wild incorporating glass art into his own home. But Olson has modestly and tastefully incorporated only a few glass panels into his 1970s Bothell rambler. A textured abstract design in and around the door brings light into the front entryway.

Two vertical rectangular windows flank his fireplace. The design, a grapevine twinning its way up the window, repeats a grape motif in tile on the fireplace.

“We didn’t want something out of step with a rambler,” explained Olson’s wife, Terre.

Custom glass art isn’t cheap but it’s also not out of range for the typical homeowner, Mark Olson said.

Although many of his clients would be considered affluent, more ordinary folks are seeking his services. “When these individuals do it they are passionate about their projects,” he noted.

Most of his projects range from $1,000 to $7,000 and he charges between $150 to $500 a square foot. The more pieces of glass and curved lines, the more expensive the art glass, he said.

An explosion in the remodeling industry has helped fuel an increase in customers seeking higher-quality glass features for the home, said Mark Petersen, the vice president of sales at AAA Kartak Glass and Closets in Everett.

Petersen started working at the company a decade ago as a craftsman and during that time he said business has increased 10-fold. The business specializes in installing glass doors, mirrors and custom closets.

Unlike a typical shower door, these don’t have a metal frame, creating a seamless look. Glass doors come in a variety of textures and some are curved. The glass is thicker too, and Petersen said it’s apparent “at a glance” the difference in quality.

A flat glass shower door costs about a $1,000 while a curved model could cost as much as $8,000.

Frameless shower doors aren’t a new item, but more average homeowners are purchasing them.

“The general public knows about them,” he said. “Public awareness has gone up and if people can afford it, they want it.”

Glass backsplashes in the kitchen are increasing in popularity too. They cost anywhere from $20 to $150 a square foot, he said.

Petersen expects the next hot trend to be floor-to-ceiling glass partitions. He has seen these used as sleek room dividers in high-end office buildings and vendors are beginning to stock the hardware for them.

“I think people want a lot more visually appealing features in their surroundings,” Petersen said. “People have a lot more money to work with.”

Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.