[PA-NJ Glassblowers] Taylor Backes glassblowing crucible wins planter competition
Tony Patti
gaffer at glassblower.info
Wed Aug 10 21:38:53 EDT 2016
http://www.readingeagle.com/storyimage/RE/20160809/NEWS/308099937/AR/0/AR-30
8099937.jpg&exactW=700&Q=80&exactFit=crop&RCRadius=20
Taylor Backes art gallery owner Will Dexler and manager Ella Boetger outside
the gallery in Boyertown.
The gallery took top honors in the recent Boyertown Planter Wars
competition.
This was a Google Alert tonight:
http://www.readingeagle.com/news/article/taylor-backes-art-gallerys-entry-wi
ns-boyertown-planter-wars-competition
I had done a web page before about using glassblowing crucibles as planters:
http://www.glassblower.info/glassblowing-furnace-crucible-planter.html
Here is the Taylor Backes article:
Taylor Backes art gallery's entry wins Boyertown Planter Wars competition
By Gabbie O'Grady
Tuesday August 9, 2016 12:01 AM
BOYERTOWN, PA
When Taylor Backes art gallery took first place in Boyertown Planter Wars,
gallery officials assumed it was a planter with some of their glassblowing
pieces.
But to their pleasant surprise, a planter with only leaves took the prize in
the first borough planter competition.
"We've done planters with glass and living vegetation, but this one was
special," said William T. Dexter, store owner.
Planter Wars is a contest held by the Boyertown Main Street Merchants Group,
a part of Building a Better Boyertown. Planters were judged by a Penn State
master gardener on the basis of numerous skills that encompassed beauty,
creativity and health of their respective plants.
The planter outside Taylor Backes, 105 S. Washington St., is filled with
various textures, including fuzzy leaves and vegetable plants, like
artichoke and sweet potato. There is also a papyrus plant in the planter.
The base of the planter is just as unique as the plants.
"We use old crucibles for our planters," said Etta Boettger, store manager.
"We basically had a graveyard of them out back so I said, 'What if we use
them as planters?' "
A crucible is a large bowl used in glassblowing. It's placed in the oven,
heated to 2,000 degrees, then 600 pounds of raw glass is shoveled into it.
Dexter added that this is a far more efficient way to blow glass.
Dexter credited the work between Boettger and Scott Rothenberger, landscape
designer, for the award-winning planter.
"Scott loves to help with our plants," Boettger said. "He's a landscape
designer, so he understands and has a vision."
Boettger has taken interest in the store's facade for many years, going as
far as she needed to get the perfect plants, Dexter said.
Boettger let Rothenberger design the whole planter out of respect for his
art.
"You have to have trust in an artist out of respect," Dexter said.
The vegetation was planted in June and has doubled in size, he said.
"I can't wait to see it grow," Dexter said. "Scott visualized it, now we get
to see what he visualized."
Dexter and Boettger didn't expect to win in Planter Wars at all.
"We were so surprised because competition was so great," he said. "There
were some really gorgeous planters."
But they didn't agree to enter the competition to win.
"When we were asked to do it, we said OK," he said. "We wanted to make the
community look better. We want to beautify the community visually,
culturally and socially."
Tony Patti
<http://www.glassblower.info> www.glassblower.info
<mailto:gaffer at glassblower.info> gaffer at glassblower.info
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www.glassblower.info
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