[PA-NJ Glassblowers] Article about Michael Schunke and Josie Gluck (Vetro Vero Studio) in today's newspaper

Tony Patti gaffer at glassblower.info
Fri Nov 7 22:33:13 EST 2014


Big article on the front of the Home & Design section of today’s
Philadelphia Inquirer (pages D1 & D3), Friday November 7, 2014.

 

http://www.philly.com/philly/home/20141107_Duo_makes_beautiful_and_functiona
l_artwork.html

 

See also: http://www.vetrovero.com/ 



 


Tucked into an ordinary-looking building just outside the sleepy center of
West Grove, there's a high-stakes process underway.

Josie Gluck and Michael Schunke are making goblets, which are just about the
most difficult project glass artists can undertake. Each one is made of very
thin, delicate parts, and the glassmaker only gets one shot to put them
together perfectly - or ruin the entire thing.

"That's one of the things I like about glassmaking," Schunke says. "There
are a lot of now-or-never moments."

Their willingness to embrace those is what sets apart Vetro Vero, their line
of ruthlessly precise and elegantly wrought functional artworks in the form
of jewel-colored, two-toned vases, crystal decanters adorned with gold leaf,
and their trademark, intricate goblets.

>From their unlikely design hub in Chester County, Schunke, 45, and Gluck,
36, regularly ship to high-fashion retailers such as Barney's and Bergdorf
Goodman, and land placements in design publications such as Vogue, Elle
Décor and Dwell.

They're also showing at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Contemporary Craft
Show, which runs through Sunday at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Despite the company's acclaim, it remains a two-person business, located in
a 19th-century creamery building that Schunke transformed into a glass
studio, next to the house they share. Schunke and Gluck said that will never
change: After all, their partnership is a perfect harmony - and its
seamlessness is reflected in the precision of their work.

Schunke had his own glass studio when they met in 2008. He was teaching a
class at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine, and Gluck was his
teaching assistant.

Gluck, who had worked in the studios of Dale Chihuly and Lino Tagliapietra,
was his teaching assistant again at another class at another craft school.
That's when the two began collaborating in the studio.

"We just kind of fell into step," she said.

Now, they fall into step on a daily basis in their studio, where their
glassmaking practice is a pas de deux that moves fluidly between various
furnaces and the work bench where the glass is blown, molded, trimmed, and
adjusted as it cools.

Making each piece is a two-person job that can take 12 minutes or all day,
depending on the complexity of the project.

On a recent morning, Gluck began gathering a bit of molten glass from a
heated crucible, the first step in making stemless wine glasses, each with a
ball coated in gold leaf embedded in the base. There was no discussion as
she brought more molten glass over to Schunke, who was counting on her to
bring it over at just the right temperature, and blow just the right amount
of air into a long pipe to transform it into a clear balloon, while he
shaped it into a goblet.

"We're not really interested in the organic nature of the material or
letting the glass decide what it wants to be," Gluck said. "A lot of the
time you hear that from artists, that they're interested in embracing the
moment. We're more interested in controlling the outcome."

That outcome has attracted commissions from collectors, and from the gift
shops of museums including the Barnes Foundation and the Museum of Art and
Design in New York. Their pieces sell for $150 to $1,800; goblets are about
$300 each.

The work also has drawn interest from glass-art centers around the world.
They regularly invite the couple to teach their glassmaking techniques, and
to talk about their design practice, which alternates between hand-sketching
(which is his preference) and computer-based design (which is hers). Schunke
is red-green color-blind, but selecting colors is also a collaborative
process.

Next year, they'll lead classes at the Pilchuk Glass School in Washington
State.

"They have such a fine-tuned sense of design," said education coordinator
Becca Arday, who invited them to Pilchuk. "They're combining different
techniques in the glass world in unique ways. They're definitely influenced
by historical design work such as what you'd find at the Venini factory in
Murano. But they're combining Italian, Swedish, and what looks to me like
Japanese aesthetics. Their forms are timeless."

They're also role models for a growing number of young people looking to
launch careers in glass making.

"I can think of maybe a handful of artists that are doing successful
business in the high-end craft world," Arday said. That's partly because the
overhead for a glass studio is high, and partly because it's just a lot of
work. "People do it because it's what they love. It's definitely a passion."

 



 

Enjoy,


Tony Patti
  
www.glassblower.info
  
gaffer at glassblower.info

 <http://www.glassblower.info/qr-code.html> QR Code for Tony Patti -
www.glassblower.info

 

 

 

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