Even with the availability of common glassware, hand blown
or lampworked glassware remains popular for its artistry.
Some artists in glass include Lino Tagliapietra, Rene Lalique,
Dale Chihuly, and Louis Comfort Tiffany, who were responsible
for extraordinary glass objects. The term "crystal glass",
derived from rock crystal, has come to denote high-grade colourless
glass, often containing lead, and is sometimes applied to
any fine hand-blown glass.
Someone who works with hot glass is called a glassblower
or lampworker, and these techniques are how most fine glassware
is created. Glass that is manipulated in a kiln is called
warm glass, and traditional stained glass work is commonly
called cold glass work. Glass can also be cut with a diamond
saw, and polished to give gleaming facets.
Objects made out of glass include vessels (bowls, vases,
and other containers), paperweights, marbles, beads, smoking
pipes, bongs, and sculptures. Colored glass is often used,
though sometimes the glass is painted; notable examples of
painted glass include the work of contemporary artists Judith
Schaechter and Walter Lieberman. Innumerable examples exist
of the use of stained glass, such as those by John La Farge
in Boston's Trinity Church, or the life-sized sculptures among
the fine art of Jim Gary.
The Harvard Museum of Natural History has a collection of
extremely detailed models of flowers made of painted glass.
These were lampworked by Leopold Blaschka and his son Rudolph,
who never revealed the method he used to make them. The Blaschka
Glass Flowers are still an inspiration to glassblowers today.
See the Harvard Museum of Natural History's page on the exhibit
for further information.
Stained glass is an art form with a long history; many churches
have beautiful stained-glass windows.
