ISGB Twentieth
Anniversary

glass conference

 

 

This year marks both the twentieth Gathering of the International Society of Glass Beadmakers (ISGB) and the fiftieth anniversary of American studio glass. Makers of blown cane beads or furnace-wound beads mostly came out of the studio glass movement, so there is a distinct link between these makers of art glass. Formed in 1993 as the Society of Glass Beadmakers, this group first met in Prescott, Arizona, where it also had its first exhibition at The Bead Museum, under the auspices of the late Gabrielle Liese. Ornament covered that event, and six others over the years, with the author serving as Keynote speaker at several of these conferences. Here we show some visual history of past Gatherings. Ornament has been writing about contemporary glass worldwide since 1980 to the present time, publishing over one hundred articles pertinent to modern glass ornaments (see William Glasner and W. Brad Pearson in this issue).

Lampworking has grown enormously since the early 1990s, spreading worldwide, as seen in the recent Glass Line competition, of which the author was one of the jurors. Besides pushing glass beads and related objects to higher levels of excellence, those in the glass movement now eagerly share technical information, usually through workshops, not practiced by glassworkers until the late twentieth century. Contemporary glass beadmaking benefited and drew upon diverse artists in this medium, including those working with flat glass/stained glass, fused glass and borosilicates, achieving a vitality that may not have been possible without such different backgrounds and inputs. Sadly, a number of these excellent glass artists using very different techniques and materials are no longer practicing.

by Robert K. Liu
issue 35.4

 

 

This article in its entirety appears only in the print magazine.

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