Art glass is becoming a favorite medium for ornament artists.
Carl Rintz is the owner of 20th Century Glass Pottery Collectibles and has been kind enough to share a little with Ornaments.com about several premier ornament artisans that are using art glass in their designs.
You will find more featured artists and art glass hanging ornaments for sale at Carl’s 20th Century Glass Pottery Collectibles and you won’t want to miss the Christmas figurines and collectibles. The menu on this website is very organized, and you will be able to easily find art glass Santa figurines, angels ornaments, dog ornaments, cat ornaments, nativity scenes, tiles, paperweights, and a host of other art glass items.
20th Century Glass Pottery Collectibles started as a small online store by a husband and wife team in 1998. They put together a collection of ornaments and other art glass items by different individual artists and shipped the products from their home. Their featured ornaments became so popular that they soon outgrew their first location and moved to a house with a very large basement which became their warehouse and shipping department. They outgrew that as well and rented warehouse space where they managed their business until even the warehouse was not large enough. At that point, the husband and wife decided to retire and they sold the business to their nephew who continues to operate it. Carl says that he loves all of the ornaments, but his favorite is the Krivsky Friendship Balls. Below are some of his other choice designers.
Atlantis Design – Specializes in Handcrafted Fused Glass Art. These ornaments have been featured in the Seahurst Art Gallery, the Burien Arts Gallery, and the Burien Spring Art Stoll and Fall Art Walk.
Charlotte Behrens - Kiln fired and lamp worked glass art. All of her ornaments and other works are hand-crafted originals and are noted for the quality of their material, color and composition.
JK Designs - Handcrafted glass balls painted on the inside!! Artist, Joe Kohlbeck, figured out how to paint the balls from the inside where the color would never wear off. Thin layers of pigments and chemicals are applied inside the clear glass ornament through the neck with specially adapted brushes. Multiple firings stabilize them or else they take weeks to dry. Further details are a production secret. He paints each ornament himself. Production time is 30 minutes to 1 1/2 hours each. There are no two exactly alike.
Krivsky Glass Ornaments – Czech Republic Glass
Here you will find friendship balls, witch balls, glass hearts and glass eggs. Mr. Krivsky studied glass making in Glass institute in Novy Bor. His first apprenticeship was in the famous Moser Glass factory in Carlsbad. Later on he worked in the Jihlava Glassworks. He studied glass making in Southern Bohemia. Following that he worked in Bavarian Valentin Eisch. Upon return to Czech Republic he realized his lifelong dream and opened his own Glass shop. His work is exported to many countries in Europe and in the USA.
Swinsky Hanging Ornaments - Starting with a mold and liquid porcelain slip, Pat handcrafts each porcelain hanging ornament using 50 plus colors of porcelain. After firing and polishing, each piece is ready for decorating. With a lathe to hold the piece, she uses a tool resembling a hypodermic syringe to apply the glaze design and fire it again. If the design has gold accents, they are added after the second firing and the piece must be fired a third time. All designs are applied freehand, no patterns are used. Each piece is one of a kind and signed. Each piece is individually gift boxed with a hang tag describing her work. She has been working in this medium for 35 years and does all the work herself.
Article and images used with permission from artglass-pottery.com
