Wearable Art and Fine Crafts

Handblown glass Megaplanet 3.5" diameter with a small flattened bottom

Josh Simpson contemporary glass sculptures are in galleries and museum throughout the U.S. and worldwide.

Gallery Five has a small collection of small hand blown glass planets and other spherical glass art sculptures, paperweights, and perfume bottles.   Pictured here is an an imaginary planet with filigrana cane and precious metals, an original Josh Simpson design.

Artist Statement

Evolution is an apt word to describe the trajectory of my work — it is an organic process that happens over time and is full of trial and error. Thirty years into my career as a glass artist, I can look back and see the branching in the evolutionary family trees of my work. In the moment, when I am in my studio, I don’t think about where I’ve come from, I merely ask the next question of myself and the glass and move toward its answer.

Thirty years ago, I started out focusing on making goblets because to me they represented the ultimate challenge for a glass artist. I spent seventeen years seeking the perfect goblet. But that wasn’t all I did during that time. With the goblets and then planets, vases, and iridescent glass, as with all my work, I have always learned by experimenting and doing. I usually work at something until I’m satisfied I’ve got it right. I always seem to have more ideas than I’ll ever have time to make.

Inspiration

The last thing I do before I go to bed is walk out to my studio to check the furnaces. Seeing an aurora borealis, or watching a thunderstorm develop down the valley, or just looking up at the sky on a perfect summer night inspires me to translate some of the wonder of the universe into my glass. That wonder comes out in my work, not in any purposeful way but slowly. My work evolves in such incremental steps that I often don’t recognize the natural influences until someone points them out to me.

Along with the natural world, my motivation comes directly from the material itself. Glass is an alchemic blend of sand and metallic oxides combined with extraordinary, blinding heat. The result is a material that flows and drips like honey. When it’s hot, glass is alive. It moves gracefully and inexorably in response to gravity and centrifugal force. It possesses an inner light and transcendent radiant heat that makes it simultaneously one of the most frustrating - and one of the most rewarding – materials to work with. I attempt to coax it; all it wants to do is drip on the floor. Most of my work reflects a compromise between me and the glass; the finished piece is the moment in time when we agree.

Josh Simpson contemporary glass

Gallery Five is where you can find limited edition, handcrafted in the USA, unique gifts: ceramics, glass, fiber, metal and wood – and wearable art: clothes, accessories and jewelry.

Month of June – Dads and Grads SALE 15% OFF selected featured items at GalleryFive.com.

Each of LaserGlass Art’s Inner-Glow Collection shells is comprised of 45% leaded crystal, compared to the 38% component found in Austrian crystal. The shells are individually hand-cast using their own adaptation of a casting method originally developed by the ancient Egyptians to make gold jewelry. The crystal shells are molded from actual seashells and exhibit all the fine detailing of nature’s originals. The use of the more expensive 45% leaded crystal permits the capture of such definition.

Glass Artist, Geoffrey Caplette, B.S., California Polytechnic University, is a dichroic glass specialist, with 23 years thin film experience. He creates dichroic glass by evaporating precise thicknesses of refractory oxides onto glass in a carefully controlled vacuum. His exacting techniques produce colors of a purity unmatched by any other methods.

Glass Artist, Patricia Caplette, B.A., University of California, Berkeley, has been a sculptor for 20+ years and has won numerous awards for her work. She has also been a glass designer for the past ten years, with extensive experience in glass casting and slumping methods, and knowledge of glassblowing techniques.

Browse the Gallery Five collection of Patricia and Geoffrey Caplette’s LaserGlass Art’s Inner-Glow Collection as well as more  Glass Art.

The main characteristic of dichroic glass is that it has a transmitted color and a completely different reflected color, as certain wavelengths of light either pass through or are reflected. This causes an array of colour to be displayed. The colors shift depending on the angle of view.

A plate of dichroic glass can be fused with other glass in multiple firings. Due to variations in the firing process, individual results can never be exactly predicted, so each piece of fused dichroic glass is unique

A Gallery Five online collection of handmade fine crafts showcases ceramics, wood, glass, metal, fiber, sculptures, wall art, and functional art by prominent and promising craftsmen throughout the United States.

February 14th is Valentines Day – a worldwide celebration of love and romance, marked by giving red roses and hearts or giving unique gifts and by sending valentines.

Gallery Five has a collection of unique gifts and art-to-wear jewelry handcrafted by prominent and promising artisans.

glass hearts by Lisa Aronzon

metal clocks by Hays-Cash

heart rattles by Caroline Koons

LaserGlass Art spider conch

Dichroic glass art crystal paperweight sea shells by Patricia and Geoffrey Caplette make unique, well priced and unusual  gifts for the holidays and any occasion.  Gallery Five has beautiful and varied collection.

The Caplettes LaserGlass Art “Inner Glow” series of  sea shells is comprised of 45% lead crystal and are molded from actual sea shells. Each one is hand casted using their own adaptation of a casting method originally developed by the ancient Egyptians to make gold jewelry. Their specialized dichroic coating combined with the high lead content in the crystal is what enables them to make such a high quality product with such definition.

LaserGlass Art grand murex

The shells contain a specialized dichroic coating which gives them their unique inner glow. Dichroically coasted glass is an excitingly different material first developed to provide superior reflectivity to mirrors in industrial laser applications. It is manufactured by evaporating extremely thin layers of metallic oxides, in precise thickness, onto glass in a carefully controlled vacuum. The artistic combination of natural shapes and optical coatings characterize Laserglass shells.

Patricia received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Berkeley. She has been a sculptor since 1989 and has won numerous awards for her work. She has been a glass designer and assistant to her husband Geoff in the hot shop for the last seven years. Geoff received his Bachelor of Science from California Polytechnic University as a dichroic glass specialist. He has 20 years of “thin film” experience. He creates dichroic glass by evaporating precise thicknesses of refractory oxides onto glass in a carefully controlled vacuum. His extracting techniques produce colors of a purity unmatched by any other methods.

We are grateful for our customers and the pleasure it brings us to shop for you. Have a wonderful holiday season and visit us often.

Paul and Paula, Gallery Five
will take new photo next month!

One of our customer favorites is our handblown glass pumpkins by Corey Silverman and Horace Marlowe – for holiday gifts and all-occasions year-round.

Handblown Glass Pumpkin Set by Corey Silverman and Horace Marlowe

C&H Glassworks is a partnership between Corey Silverman and Horace Marlowe, combining their experience and talents in the art of glass blowing. They combine techniques that are over a thousand years old with modern colors. They are able to create intelligent and classy art for everyone that appreciates blown glass.

The exquisite cluster of hand blown glass pumpkins are rich variegated colors with raised golden ribs, iridescent satin finish, and long, golden metallic curly glass stems. Every piece is individually hand blown.

Hand blown glass art has a rich and fascinating history. While glass was being made for many thousands of years, possibly as early as 2500 BC, the art of glass blowing wasn’t invented until around 50 BC. Prior to that time, glass pieces were shaped by wrapping heated glass around a clay core, which was later removed, creating a vessel. During this period, making things from glass was not an artistic so much as a practical endeavor. Glass was not commonly owned and used in those early days, with only the very rich able to afford it.

Around 50 BC, it was discovered that glass could be formed by blowing, opening up a whole world of possibility for creating glass pieces. Blowing glass was a much more efficient way of making vessels, and glass became more common during the days of the Roman Empire. It was during this time that glassmakers began to experiment and become much more creative and intricate with their glass designs, elevating this utilitarian task to a true art form. In addition to creating useful objects, blown glass artists began creating decorative pieces, as well.

Glass Goes Underground
Production of glass pieces slowed during the dark ages, but by the Middle Ages, glassmaking began to resurface, primarily in the form of stained-glass windows. Blown glass art was less common, but Italian artists continued the tradition. Glass artisans in Venice eventually came together to form The Venetian  Glassmakers’ Guild. Unfortunately, the Venetian glassmakers were exiled to the island of Murano in 1291, partly to keep their techniques for glass blowing secret, and partly to remove the danger of fires in Venice caused by glassblowers’ furnaces.

Demystifying Glass
The blown glass art industry continued to thrive, but the art was still practiced in strict secrecy. That changed in the 17th century, when a book entitled L’Arte Vetraria (The Art of Glass) was written by Italian priest Antonio Neri. Neri’s book became a bible for glassmakers, revealing recipes for making glass, the equipment used and the glass-blowing techniques. Now any glass blowing artist could adopt the techniques that had been perfected by Italian artisans.

Glassblowing studios spread throughout Europe and the art was brought to America by the early settlers of Jamestown. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, glass production became somewhat industrialized, and glass was used for artistic, practical and scientific purposes.

By the early 20th century, glass artists once again began to be recognized for their contribution to this fine art. Glass artists such as Emile Galle, Eugene Rouseau and Maurice Marinot became quite well known for their blown glass art. During the 1960s, the studio glass movement saw great experimentation in glass design and glass blowing techniques. Even today, glass blowers around the world are continuing to experiment, creating new and exciting techniques and designs in hand blown glass.   -Jenney Cheever