<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<font size="+1">Google News Alert for: <b>glassblower</b></font>
<div style="font-family: sans-serif;">
<p style="width: 600px;"><a moz-do-not-send="true" style="color: blue;"
href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071118/LIVING/71116029/1004/NEWS05">
Burlington couple share love of <b>glassblowing</b></a><br>
<font size="-1"><font color="#666666">BurlingtonFreePress.com -
Burlington,VT,USA</font><br>
By Sally Pollak Rich Arentzen, graduate school dropout, moved to
Vermont in
1990 to seek his fortune as a <b>glassblower</b> — a trade he'd never
tried or even <b>...</b><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ncl=http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article%3FAID%3D/20071118/LIVING/71116029/1004/NEWS05"><font
color="green">
See all stories on this topic</font></a><br>
</font></p>
<p style="width: 600px;"><font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071118/LIVING/71116029/1004/NEWS05">http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071118/LIVING/71116029/1004/NEWS05</a><br>
</font></p>
<hr size="2" width="100%"><br>
<table align="right" border="0" bordercolor="#ffffff" cellpadding="0"
cellspacing="0" width="310">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff" valign="top" width="10"> </td>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff" valign="top" width="300"><!-- ARTICLE SIDEBAR -->
<table align="right" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff" valign="top"><!--MAIN PHOTO calls ArticlePicture.pbo--> <a
href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/misc?url=/misc/zoom.pbs&Site=BT&Date=20071118&Category=LIVING&ArtNo=71116029&Ref=AR&Profile=1004"
target="popup"
onclick="window.open('','popup','scrollbars=yes,width=680,height=460,left=5,top=5,resizable=yes')"><img
src="cid:part1.03020401.05000103@glassblower.info" border="0"
vspace="0"><br>
</a>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
width="300">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="150"><a
href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/misc?url=/misc/zoom.pbs&Site=BT&Date=20071118&Category=LIVING&ArtNo=71116029&Ref=AR&Profile=1004"
target="popup"
onclick="window.open('','popup','scrollbars=yes,width=800,height=600,left=5,top=5,resizable=yes')"><img
src="cid:part2.00050108.03070506@glassblower.info" align="top"
border="0"></a></td>
<td width="150">
<div align="right"><a
href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=PHOTOWEEK"><font
color="#990000" size="1">THIS WEEK IN PHOTOS</font></a></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>
A bowl sculpted by Rich Arentzen is removed from the 2,100-degree
furnance.<br>
RYAN MERCER, Free Press<br>
<hr noshade="noshade"><!--ADDITIONAL FACTS AND PHOTOS calls ArticleParagrpah/2.pbo--> <a
href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/misc?url=/misc/zoom.pbs&Site=BT&Date=20071118&Category=LIVING&ArtNo=71116029&Ref=V1&Profile=1004"
target="popup"
onclick="window.open('','popup','scrollbars=yes,width=680,height=460,left=5,top=5,resizable=yes')"><img
src="cid:part3.04040302.00090305@glassblower.info" border="0"
vspace="0"><br>
</a>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
width="300">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="150"><a
href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/misc?url=/misc/zoom.pbs&Site=BT&Date=20071118&Category=LIVING&ArtNo=71116029&Ref=V1&Profile=1004"
target="popup"
onclick="window.open('','popup','scrollbars=yes,width=800,height=600,left=5,top=5,resizable=yes')"><img
src="cid:part2.00050108.03070506@glassblower.info" align="top"
border="0"></a></td>
<td width="150">
<div align="right"><a
href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=PHOTOWEEK"><font
color="#990000" size="1">THIS WEEK IN PHOTOS</font></a></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>
Examples of the glasswork produced by the Burlington couple.<br>
Courtesy photo<br>
<hr noshade="noshade"><a
href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/misc?url=/misc/zoom.pbs&Site=BT&Date=20071118&Category=LIVING&ArtNo=71116029&Ref=V2&Profile=1004"
target="popup"
onclick="window.open('','popup','scrollbars=yes,width=680,height=460,left=5,top=5,resizable=yes')"><img
src="cid:part5.05020009.07050809@glassblower.info" border="0"
vspace="0"><br>
</a>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
width="300">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="150"><a
href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/misc?url=/misc/zoom.pbs&Site=BT&Date=20071118&Category=LIVING&ArtNo=71116029&Ref=V2&Profile=1004"
target="popup"
onclick="window.open('','popup','scrollbars=yes,width=800,height=600,left=5,top=5,resizable=yes')"><img
src="cid:part2.00050108.03070506@glassblower.info" align="top"
border="0"></a></td>
<td width="150">
<div align="right"><a
href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=PHOTOWEEK"><font
color="#990000" size="1">THIS WEEK IN PHOTOS</font></a></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>
Glass artist Rich Arentzen rolls a bowl he is shaping onto wet paper.
Steam rises during the process. The bowl is illustrated with drawings
by his daughter, Nea, a present for her 10th birthday.<br>
RYAN MERCER, Free Press<br>
<hr noshade="noshade"><!--MAIN FACTS BOX-->
<table bgcolor="#ffffff">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><font face="arial" size="2"><b>If you go</b></font>
<hr size="1"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><font face="arial" size="1">
WHAT: AO! Glass Art<br>
WHERE: 225 Church St.; entrance in back, off Maple Street<br>
HOURS UNTIL CHRISTMAS: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday; noon-4 p.m.
Saturday; by appointment, 540-0222<br>
WEB SITE: <a href="http://www.aoglassart.com" target="_blank">www.aoglassart.com</a><br>
PHONE: 540-0222<br>
PIECES AVAILABLE: At their studio; Frog Hollow in Burlington,
Middlebury and Manchester; Turtle Gallery in Deer Isle, Maine<br>
<br>
<b>Special studio events</b><br>
<u>GRAAL</u> demonstrations, in which artists
demonstrate how illustrated vessels take shape, noon-Saturday and Dec.
1. <br>
<u>CHILDREN</u>
to age 10 are invited to make drawings on paper for glass design. Bring
the drawings to AO! Glass before Dec. 7; artists will blow two winnings
designs, 12:30-2 p.m. Dec. 8. All participants get a prize.<br>
<u>HOLIDAY SALE:</u> Noon-4 p.m. Dec. 15<br>
<u>LADIES LATE AFTERNOON:</u> 5-6:30 p.m. Thursday,
with wine, appetizers and glass demonstrations<br>
<u>LUCIA FEST:</u> A Swedish holiday celebration with
glogg (spiced wine) and gingerbread, 5-6:30 p.m. Dec. 13 <br>
<br>
<b>By the numbers</b><br>
<br>
A look at glassblowing, by the numbers: <br>
* Temperature of furnace: 2,100 degress<br>
* Temperature of cool-down furnance: 950 degrees<br>
* Puffs per workday: 892<br>
* Glassblowers in region of Sweden where glass artist Tove Ohlander
comes from: 400<br>
* Hotter jobs in Vermont: 0 <br>
* Languages spoken in the studio: 5 <br>
* Pieces that glass artist Rich Arentzen has made in his career: More
than 35,000<br>
* Prices: $15-$1,000<br>
* Price of neighborhood vase or bowl: $50 to $100<br>
*
Pricing system: Passed down from Rich Arentzen’s grandmother, who owned
a fish shop with her husband. The last time she saw Arentzen she
advised: “Don’t give away the fish.” When Arentzen and Ohlander discuss
the price of their pieces, they repeat: “Don’t give away the fish.”<br>
<br>
Source: AO! Glass Art
</font></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>
<!--RELATED PHOTO GALLERIES--><!--RELATED MULTIMEDIA ASSETS--><!--RELATED ARTICLES--><!--RELATED EXTERNAL LINKS-->
<table bgcolor="palegoldenrod" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><font face="arial" size="1"><b>On the Web:</b></font>
<p><font face="arial" size="1"><b>• <a
href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071116/VIDEO/71116028"
target="_new">Watch video of glassblowers at work</a><br>
</b></font>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>
<!--RELATED THEME LINKS--> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff"><!--StoryChat-->
<table style="border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153);"
bgcolor="#fcfcfc" border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><!-- enable comment on for this story -->
<hr color="#cccccc" noshade="noshade" size="1"><br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div align="center"><font color="#999999"
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1"><img
src="cid:part7.02050007.00020901@glassblower.info" height="5"
width="300"><br>
A D V E R T I S E M E N T</font><br>
<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
OAS_AD('ArticleFlex_1');
//--> </script><img
src="cid:part8.09050707.00030909@glassblower.info" height="0" width="0">
</div>
<br>
<!-- TOPIX RELATED ARTICLES -->
<!-- SOURCE CALL TO SET JAVASCRIPT VARIABLES --><!-- Get Related Links from Topix -->
<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
// preset the variables to keep from getting js errors if the get content fails
var topixcats = [ ];
var topixcrawled = 0;
// Retrive js variables from topix
var topixcats = [
];
var topixcrawled = 0;
//-->
</script><!-- SCRIPT FOR PRESENTATION OF HEADLINES. The values below can be modified -->
<!--Important: Make sure to update the var topixID= with your site's TopixID-->
<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
var topixID=7088;
if ( topixcats.length > 0 )
{
document.write('<br><br><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td bgcolor="#000000"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="4"><tr><td valign="top" bgcolor="#DDDDDD" class="facts"><span class="topix-head"><b>Related Headlines from the World-Wide Web... </b></td></tr><tr><td valign="top" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class="facts"><p>Latest headlines by topic:<br>');
for( i = 0; i < topixcats.length; i++ )
{
document.write('• <a href="http://www.topix.net/' + topixcats[i].node + '/?p=' + topixID +'&s=PB&co=1">' + topixcats[i].name + '</a> <br>' );
}
document.write('<b>-- News from the www powered by: <a href="http://www.topix.net/">Topix.net</a> --</b></span><br><img src="/graphics/spacer.gif" width="290" height="1"></td></tr></table></td></tr></table>');
}
//-->
</script><br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff" valign="top" width="10"> </td>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff" valign="top" width="300"><br>
<br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<!-- Article Xsendmail global variables--><!-- ARTICLE HEADLINE --> <span
class="topstoryheadline"><b>Burlington couple share love of
glassblowing</b><br>
</span><span class="style5"><b>A marriage of technique and beauty</b><br>
</span><br>
<font color="darkred" face="arial" size="1">Published: Sunday, November
18, 2007</font><br>
<!--ARTICLE BODY TEXT-->By Sally Pollak<br>
Free Press Staff Writer<br>
<br>
<span class="articlebody">Rich Arentzen, graduate school dropout, moved
to Vermont in 1990 to seek his fortune as a glassblower — a trade he’d
never tried or even seen practiced.<br>
<br>
He thought Burlington would be a cool place to live. He figured he’d
find a glassblower. He hit the streets.<br>
<br>
In
a downtown jeweler’s shop, Arentzen was directed to the waterfront. At
a bookshop near the lake, he was told about a woodworker around the
corner. At the woodworking shop, Arentzen was pointed to a potter.<br>
<br>
The
potter’s neighbor, it turned out, was a glassblower. The craftsman,
Alan Goldfarb, happened to be hiring. Arentzen got the job.<br>
<br>
It’s
a tale that would make a wonderful children’s book: an
artisan-to-artisan treasure hunt, improbable and with a happy-ending.
You can picture it illustrated by Arentzen’s wife, Tove Ohlander.<br>
<br>
The
bookmaking will have to wait. Arentzen and Ohlander are occupied making
glass art at their Burlington studio, AO! Glass Art, and raising three
children.<br>
<br>
The two have lived and worked together since 1994,
when they met in a part of Sweden known for its glassmaking. Arentzen
was on a cultural tour of the area, his glassblowing odyssey having led
to Scandinavia and the work with a Danish glassblower. Ohlander, who is
Swedish, was studying at Orrefors Glass School. It was summertime in
Sweden, with midnight light and a shared aesthetic.<br>
<br>
“That was that,” Arentzen said of their meeting.<br>
<br>
The couple for many years had a studio with other artists outside Oslo.
They’re settled these days in Burlington.<br>
<br>
Their
studio a few blocks south of downtown, at the corner of Church and
Maple streets, is a fascinating workshop where Ohlander and Arentzen
design and make (with help from apprentices) a selection of vessels,
vases, objects, wine glasses and more.<br>
<br>
Ohlander, 37, an
illustrator and glassmaker, is interested in a technique called graal,
in which illustrations are etched on the glass piece before it takes
its final shape, and melt in during the sculpting process. She makes
tall vases decorated with fiddlehead ferns. Bowls hold a series of warm
and lively quick-sketch vignettes: kids bouncing a ball and jumping
rope; a child perched on a parent’s shoulders; couples dancing and
walking hand-in-hand.<br>
<br>
Arentzen, 40, uses a centuries-old
Italian technique to make multi-colored wine glasses with air-blown
stems. Other glasses are sculpted in a more contemporary style, and
feature stems in figurative shapes.<br>
<br>
He also shapes and churns
out everyday objects, including a recent series of apples and pumpkins
to celebrate Vermont fall. Working with an assistant the other day, who
delivered a bit of hot glass on the end of a pipe, Arentzen with a curl
of his wrist sculpted an apple leaf.<br>
<br>
“Nice leaf,” Ohlander said.<br>
<br>
“Thanks,” he said. “I got the leaf down.”<br>
<br>
Leaf to lamp, bird to bowl, the shelves of the studio where they work,
display and sell their pieces, offer an array of objects.<br>
<br>
There
are hand bags in many shades, vessels in many shapes, and sculptural
works. On the light-hearted side, Arentzen has crafted a clear-glass
rendering of the two-fingers-up, fist-waving sign of approval. (If the
Hannah Montana crowd is into high-end crafts, this could represent a
growth market for the studio: Arentzen’s brother Jamie plays lead
guitar in her band.) You can find also Ohlander’s lovely “neighborhood”
bowls and vases — her ode to Burlington’s community feel, with its
cluster of houses and gray-blue sky.<br>
<br>
“I think there’s a lot of
very pretty work here,” said Kory Rogers, associate curator of the
Shelburne Museum. Rogers, whose expertise is contemporary design,
looked at images of the work on AO!’s Web site (<a
href="http://www.aoglassart.com" target="_blank">www.aoglassart.com</a>).<br>
<br>
The wine glasses, he observed, are reminiscent of Venetian glasswork.
“This is really stunning and quite elegant,” Rogers said.<br>
<br>
“They
obviously are very dexterous in their ability to manipulate this glass,
which is extremely fickle and difficult to work with. It’s a very
unforgiving material,” he said. “You have to be very intuitive, and
very in tune to what you’re doing in the understanding of the material.
It’s an amazing process that I marvel at.”<br>
<br>
He called glassblowing a “spectator sport.”<br>
<br>
In
fact, Ohlander and Arentzen hope very much to turn glassblowing into
spectator sport — even a participatory one — in Burlington.<br>
<br>
They
envision creating a small-scale version of what has long existed in
Smaland, the part of Sweden where Ohlander grew up: A place where
glassmaking is culturally significant; an educational arts and resource
center where students can learn the craft and visitors can observe it;
a studio where the objects that are produced are “culturally
sustainable and meaningful.”<br>
<br>
“We look at ourselves as much as
cultural workers as artists,” Ohlander said. “We’re continuing an old
trade and keeping it alive. And we’re devoted to sharing the whole
culture of glassblowing.”<br>
<br>
A visit to AO! Glass can be a
mesmerizing event, centered around the intrigue of a fast and physical
act that produces a work of fragile beauty. The action buzzes around
the bright glow of the 2,100-degree furnace.<br>
<br>
Arentzen is up and
down, moving quickly between furnace and work bench, shaping a bowl
whose enchanting illustration of an underwater scene was made by the
couple’s daughter, Nea. He takes split-second care not to distort the
images, but says he has gotten “a lot less precious” with the
technique. “I allow it to do its thing,” Arentzen said.<br>
<br>
He played sports a lot as a kid, and says he likes glassblowing for its
mix of aesthetics and athletics.<br>
<br>
“It
incorporates the work of the mind and the body,” Arentzen said. “You
work in teams with other people. It’s quite an immediate and
improvisational pace. You can’t make a mistake.”<br>
<br>
If there’s an
immediacy to the making of each piece, Arentzen thinks in terms of a
long and evolving progression when he considers the artistry of the
endeavor. Each piece leads to and informs the next.
<br>
<br>
“People have expectations of a body of work,” he said. “That process,
there’s really no rush to that.”<br>
<br>
As the process unfolds, Arentzen and Ohlander hope to share it with a
growing number of Vermonters.<br>
<br>
“The
fact that I exist and I try to make a living doing creative work,
people find fascinating,” Arentzen said. “People come down and interact
with us and get interested in the process of glassblowing. It’s very
rare that you can go to an artist’s studio and talk to the artist.”<br>
<br>
What’s
there to do in wintertime Burlington, Ohlander said, except go to the
Y, visit ECHO, or hang out with your neighborhood glassblower?<br>
<br>
<i>Contact Sally Pollak at <a
href="mailto:spollak@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com">spollak@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com</a>
or 660-1859.</i>
<br>
<br>
<b>A little bit of ‘whimsie’</b><br>
<br>
At the end of the workday in glass factories, after a shift spent
making glasses and bowls, glassblowers would use leftover material to
make objects of their own fancy, pieces known as “whimsies.”<br>
<br>
This
was a time to be creative, to show off your ability, to win bragging
rights among fellow craftsmen, said Kory Rogers, associate curator of
Shelburne Museum.<br>
<br>
The Shelburne has a large collection of
whimsies, including more than 100 glass canes, Rogers said. Other
whimsies in the museum’s collection are glass trumpets, rolling pins
and a chain. The pieces were made in the late 19th and early 20th
century at major glassmaking centers.<br>
<br>
A local glass studio, AO!
Glass Art, makes chains among the pieces it produces. Rogers noted this
piece when he looked at the studio’s work online. He singled it out for
its technical prowess and relation to the museum’s collection of
whimsies.<br>
<br>
“You’re not going to tether your bike with a glass chain,” Rogers said.
“It’s very artistic and an example of their skill.”
<br>
</span><a
href="javascript:NewWindow(300,400,'/apps/pbcs.dll/misc?url=/misc/Xsendmailpopup.htm&GPUBDATE=20071118&GCATID=LIVING&GARTNO=71116029>ITLE=Burlington%20couple%20share%20love%20of%20glassblowing');"><br>
</a></div>
</body>
<br />--
<br />This message has been scanned for viruses and
<br />dangerous content by
<a href="http://www.mailscanner.info/"><b>MailScanner</b></a>, and is
<br />believed to be clean.
</html>