About this Site

I put together this website to display my work and, hopefully, excite you about the inherent beauty of glass blowing. The art pieces you see on this website reflect unique, successful works which are grouped under Series titles. No two pieces are exactly alike–they each have a story of their own.

If interested in purchasing my work, or just learning more about glass blowing, please let me know:

contact@kenwoodstudioglass.com

About the Artist

In the midst of a professional career in the field of psychiatry, I received a handblown glass paperweight as a gift from my brother. I was drawn in by its beauty, and soon wanted to know more about how it was made. I began seeking out glass galleries, museums, and exhibitions and, in the process, I became a passionate contemporary glass collector. I enjoyed speaking to and learning from glass artists in person and in their studios, reading books about glassblowing, as well as watching many teaching and demonstration videos.

When I retired, I ventured into the hot shop as a student, and I have been challenged by learning new technical skills and thinking like a glassblower. I now have worked at four different hot shop studios in Chicago as well as taking classes at Corning Museum of Glass and Pittsburgh Glass Center. Blowing glass requires eye/hand coordination, dexterity, strength, agility, and a willingness to stand in front of a 2,250 degree furnace and an 2,300 degree glory hole. There are many factors that determine success or failure: maintaining the appropriate heat in the glass, fighting the constant pull of gravity (e.g., keeping the glass centered while simultaneously turning the blowpipe at all times), maintaining a rhythm and constant focus, and having the right tools easily at hand. A lapse of focus, concentration, or timing can result in a loss of control over the glass and can result in a shattered piece (which I reluctantly refer to as my floor samples!). There is no such thing as taking a time out while working with molten glass!

As with the practice of psychiatry, glass blowing requires active engagement with at least one other person. We must work together in a coordinated and collaborative way, maintaining communication, all the while focused on executing a planned design. Sometimes it can take up to 2 hours to make one glass piece.