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<p><font size="+1">Google News Alert for: <b>glassblowing</b></font></p>
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Hot on the glass trail across Pennsylvania</a><br>
<font size="-1"><font color="#666666">Pittsburgh Post Gazette -
Pittsburgh,PA,USA</font><br>
The artists, Magan Stevens and David Szish of RKS Studios in Reading,
used a Venetian <b>glass blowing</b> techniques called encalmo in
which each piece is created <b>...</b><br>
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<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08279/916980-37.stm">http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08279/916980-37.stm</a><br>
<big><br>
<b><big>Hot on the glass trail across Pennsylvania</big></b></big></div>
<div class="story_lastupdate">Sunday, October 05, 2008</div>
<div class="story_byline">By Marylynne Pitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<br>
<br>
</div>
<div class="story_image_box_size_2">
<div class="story_image"><img
src="cid:part2.03070308.03010301@glassblower.info" alt=""
class="image_size_2"></div>
<div class="story_image_byline">RKS Glass Studios</div>
<div class="image_byline_caption_box" style="width: 330px;">
<div class="story_image_caption">This series of an alabaster bowl,
vases and a sphere combine olive green and alabaster. The artists,
Magan Stevens and David Szish of RKS Studios in Reading, used a
Venetian glass blowing techniques called encalmo in which each piece is
created with two glass bubbles that are joined together.</div>
</div>
</div>
<!-- end story_image_box_size_2 -->
<div class="story_body">
<p>READING -- If you're hitting the road this fall for color, try a new
perspective: glass.</p>
<p>A collegial fraternity of artisans awaits on the Pennsylvania Glass
Trail, an arts venture established in 2006 that connects the
GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in Reading -- the largest and most
comprehensive interactive arts center of its kind in the country --
with numerous glass studios along Route 222 or side roads from
Lancaster to the Lehigh Valley.<br>
</p>
<p>Next year, five more artists in nearby Bucks County and Philadelphia
may be added to the trail.</p>
<p>Next weekend and on the first weekend in December, tourists can
watch artists work in their studios, purchase glass and learn about the
various techniques used to create art from a hot, soupy liquid or
fusing strips of glass together in a process called slumping and flame
working, which is done with a lamp.</p>
<p>The best place to start on the trail is the GoggleWorks, a large
campus of six brick buildings that house a hot glass shop, a darkroom,
a ceramics studio and a kiln.</p>
<p>The center's name comes from its earlier life as the Wilson Goggles
factory, which made optical glass for eyewear, including sunglasses,
safety goggles and high-altitude oxygen masks for military pilots.
After it closed in 2002, Al Boscov, the department store founder,
decided that restoring the brick buildings could spark a renaissance of
Reading's blighted downtown.</p>
<p>Five years ago, Boscov took Diane LaBelle, who was running an arts
center in Bethlehem called the Banana Factory, on a tour of the
buildings, which offer 145,000 square feet of space.</p>
<p>"He saw what the Banana Factory had done to revitalize South
Bethlehem," said LaBelle, who holds a degree in architecture from
Carnegie Mellon University.</p>
<p>After a $15 million restoration, the GoggleWorks opened in 2005. Its
rooms crackle with activity as 300 children arrive for classes and 34
artists work in second- and third-floor studios that they rent.</p>
<p>From the GoggleWorks, here are some other high points on the trail.</p>
<p>Drive east from Reading to the picturesque community of Boyertown
where Will Dexter works at his hot glass studio Taylor Backes.</p>
<p>An amiable man with a youthful face, blue eyes, red hair and an
engaging grin, Dexter has blown glass since 1974. His studio created
600 basket weave style glass blocks for the lights at the new Kodak
Theater in Los Angeles, where the Academy Awards are handed out each
year.</p>
<p>"They didn't understand the word budget. It was so cool," he said.</p>
<p>Dexter makes large, sculptural pieces in rich blues and greens that
echo his boyhood by the water.</p>
<p>With a team of three full-time assistants, he is creating 138
architectural glass blocks for Aliana, a new, 2,000-acre community
being built south of Houston, Texas. Aliana will have eight residential
buildings, two golf courses, the Houston Polo Club and commercial
office buildings.</p>
<p>He and his team also are making 68 glass lantern panels with the
letter A. By day, the A in the glass blocks will be yellow and
surrounded by aqua; at night, the A will turn gold and be surrounded by
a field of pink.</p>
<p>These optical effects are created by dichroic glass, which was
invented for NASA and used in the aerospace industry. Dichroic glass
has a transmitted color and a different reflected color because certain
wavelengths of light pass through ultra-thin layers of metal oxides
inside the glass and the hues change depending on the angle of your
view.</p>
<p>Drive about an hour north and east to Bethlehem to meet Peter Wayne
Yenawine, whose broad, handsome face is topped by a mane of silvery
hair. Founder of Crystal Signatures, Yenawine started his career as a
designer for Steuben, where he insisted on learning to blow as well as
design glass.</p>
<p>"Process was very critical to me," Yenawine said, adding that he
knew he could not become an accomplished designer unless he worked with
glass.</p>
<p>He eventually went to work for Baccarat and the Franklin Mint. He
has created pieces for most of the fine crystal companies in the world
and seven White House administrations.</p>
<p>"Crystal is alive. To me, crystal is the only material that's truly
kinetic," he said, because it reflects light through prisms.</p>
<p>The Lehigh River flows through Bethlehem and you must cross it to
reach South Bethlehem. Pittsburgh's South Side attracts the young, hip
and creative; so does South Bethlehem.</p>
<p>That happened after the Banana Factory, a restored banana warehouse
that's now a mecca for artists, opened in January 1998.</p>
<p>Famed for its First Friday evening open houses, the Banana Factory
opened its glass shop in 2006. It features a 350-pound pot inside a
natural gas furnace, three work benches, large cylindrical reheating
chambers, four annealers that are used to cool glass and a kiln for
slumping and fusing glass. A jewelry studio just opened at the factory
and there are 28 artists in residence on the building's second and
third floors.</p>
<p>Be Smart, a program for 100 middle school students, teaches
youngsters ceramics, glass blowing, graphic design and video
production. Four interns from Temple's Tyler School of Art arrive each
year to learn how to teach, run a glass studio, care for equipment and
acquire college credit.</p>
<p>"Our main goal is to cultivate future glass artists," said John
Choi, who manages the Banana Factory's glass studio.</p>
<p>At its fire and ice gala on Oct. 17, the Banana Factory will
highlight the work of Paul Marioni, a cerebral Seattle artisan whose
work is inspired by his dreams.</p>
<p>Jeff Parks, president of ArtsQuest, which owns and operates the
Banana Factory, likes the concept of a glass trail, although awareness
about the effort appears to be limited.</p>
<p>"I cannot honestly say we have seen a marked number of people coming
to the Banana Factory because they have heard about the glass trail."</p>
<p>But there are artists well worth your time, such as the stained
glass work of Karen Lesniak at the GoggleWorks; Greenwood Stained
Glass, which makes glass for churches and buildings in its Topton
studio; and Neff-Chattoe Co., founded in 1903, the oldest stained glass
studio in Allentown. Stephen Rich Nelson, whose studio is called The
Glassman, is known for jewel-toned art glass and stunning glass
goddesses.<br>
</p>
<p></p>
<div class="story_box_right"
style="margin-left: 9px; margin-bottom: 6px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt;">
<div>
<hr color="#999999" size="3"></div>
<div
style="text-align: center; font-size: 110%; margin-top: 12px; font-weight: 700;">If
you go: Pennsylvania Glass Trail</div>
<p>The Pennsylvania Glass Trail stretches across Berks, Lancaster,
Lehigh, Montgomery and Northampton counties. All information is
available at its Web site <a name="#http://www.PAGlassTrail.Org">www.PAGlassTrail.Org</a>,
which includes a list of artists, addresses and phone numbers. If you
wish to visit a particular glass artist, call ahead to make sure he or
she will be in the studio.</p>
<p>If you need help planning your trip, call the Greater Reading
Convention & Visitors Bureau at<span fn_index="1" isdynflag="1"
info="Call +18004436610;1;+18004436610;0;"
onmouseup="SkypeSetCallButtonPressed(this, 0,0,0)"
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title="Call this phone number in United States of America with Skype: +18004436610"
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class="skype_tb_injection_right" id="__skype_highlight_id_right"><span
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1-800-443-6610</span><span
style="background-image: url(chrome://skype_ff_toolbar_win/content/cb_normal_r.gif);"
class="skype_tb_injection_left_img"
id="__skype_highlight_id_right_adge"></span></span></span>.</p>
<p>Main stops include the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, 201
Washington St., Reading,<span fn_index="2" isdynflag="1"
info="Call +16103744600;2;+16103744600;0;"
onmouseup="SkypeSetCallButtonPressed(this, 0,0,0)"
onmousedown="SkypeSetCallButtonPressed(this, 1,0,0)"
onmouseover="SkypeSetCallButton(this, 1,0,0);skype_active=SkypeCheckCallButton(this);"
onmouseout="SkypeSetCallButton(this, 0,0,0);HideSkypeMenu();"
context="1-610-374-4600" reallyisdynflag="1" fax="0" rtl="false"
class="skype_tb_injection" id="__skype_highlight_id"><span
title="Call this phone number in United States of America with Skype: +16103744600"
onmouseout="SkypeSetCallButtonPart(this, 0)"
onmouseover="SkypeSetCallButtonPart(this, 1)"
class="skype_tb_injection_right" id="__skype_highlight_id_right"><span
class="skype_tb_innerText" id="__skype_highlight_id_innerText">1-610-374-4600</span><span
style="background-image: url(chrome://skype_ff_toolbar_win/content/cb_normal_r.gif);"
class="skype_tb_injection_left_img"
id="__skype_highlight_id_right_adge"></span></span></span>, <a
name="#http://www.goggleworks.org">www.goggleworks.org</a>; and the
Banana Factory, 25 W. Third St., South Bethlehem, <span fn_index="3"
isdynflag="1" info="Call +16103321300;3;+16103321300;0;"
onmouseup="SkypeSetCallButtonPressed(this, 0,0,0)"
onmousedown="SkypeSetCallButtonPressed(this, 1,0,0)"
onmouseover="SkypeSetCallButton(this, 1,0,0);skype_active=SkypeCheckCallButton(this);"
onmouseout="SkypeSetCallButton(this, 0,0,0);HideSkypeMenu();"
context="1-610-332-1300" reallyisdynflag="1" fax="0" rtl="false"
class="skype_tb_injection" id="__skype_highlight_id"><span
title="Call this phone number in United States of America with Skype: +16103321300"
onmouseout="SkypeSetCallButtonPart(this, 0)"
onmouseover="SkypeSetCallButtonPart(this, 1)"
class="skype_tb_injection_right" id="__skype_highlight_id_right"><span
class="skype_tb_innerText" id="__skype_highlight_id_innerText">1-610-332-1300</span><span
style="background-image: url(chrome://skype_ff_toolbar_win/content/cb_normal_r.gif);"
class="skype_tb_injection_left_img"
id="__skype_highlight_id_right_adge"></span></span></span>, <a
name="#http://www.bananafactory.org">www.bananafactory.org</a>.</p>
<div>
<hr color="#999999" size="3"></div>
</div>
<p><!-- RKS Glass Studios
This series of an alabaster bowl, vases and a sphere combine olive green and alabaster. The artists, Magan Stevens and David Szish of RKS Studios in Reading, used a Venetian glass blowing techniques called encalmo in which each piece is created with two glass bubbles that are joined together.
Glass artists work in the studio of the Banana Factory in South Bethlehem, part of the Glass Trail. A restored banana warehouse, the building is a mecca for artists. Second from left is John Choi, glass studio manager.
Banana Factory photo
-->
</p>
<div class="story_end_field">Marylynne Pitz may be reached at <span
fn_index="4" isdynflag="1" info="Call +14122631648;4;+14122631648;0;"
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context="412-263-1648" reallyisdynflag="1" fax="0" rtl="false"
class="skype_tb_injection" id="__skype_highlight_id"><span
title="Call this phone number in United States of America with Skype: +14122631648"
onmouseout="SkypeSetCallButtonPart(this, 0)"
onmouseover="SkypeSetCallButtonPart(this, 1)"
class="skype_tb_injection_right" id="__skype_highlight_id_right"><span
class="skype_tb_innerText" id="__skype_highlight_id_innerText">412-263-1648</span><span
style="background-image: url(chrome://skype_ff_toolbar_win/content/cb_normal_r.gif);"
class="skype_tb_injection_left_img"
id="__skype_highlight_id_right_adge"></span></span></span> or <a
href="mailto:mpitz@post-gazette.com">mpitz@post-gazette.com</a>.<br>
<br>
</div>
<div class="story_first_published">First published on October 5, 2008
at 12:00 am<br>
<br>
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