Steuben Glass
Twenty-five years of master tooling for Steuben
Here are examples of Steuben Glass by various designers, all made in the "sag" shop at Steuben's Corning, NY plant. "Sagging" was Steuben's name for their "slumping" process, where solid blocks of glass were melted inside of plaster/clay molds. This process was uniquely suited to Steuben, allowing them to make large, solid objects of amazingly perfect crystal. [A previous Shop Talk post explains the process a bit more.] These expensive, labor-intensive major works were a signature type of product for Steuben, as stock pieces, exhibition pieces, and special commissions.
For over 25 years I made master patterns, mostly in silicone rubber, that the Steuben sag shop used to generate refractory, one-time-use molds. Those individual molds were sacrificed in the sag process, so one mold was made for every single sagged piece. That's a lot of molds, which is why good master patterns were essential.
Some of these projects came to me in the form of designers' sculptures that I modified, and some started as models that I made from scratch, based on designers' drawings. Almost all my work for the Steuben sag process was done with the participation of my friend Peter Drobny, one of the Steuben staff designers closely associated with the actual hands-on production in the factory.
I regret that I have no pictures of the rubber masters, which were all discarded, along with the rest of the factory, when Steuben closed in 2011.
Below are examples of Steuben products for which I made the master tooling:
Probably the most successful designer of sagged pieces was the Canadian artist James Houston (1921-2005). Houston lived in the Eastern Arctic for many years after his WW II service, and was largely responsible for the development of what we think of as Inuit Art. He encouraged his Inuit friends to make sculpture and prints, and, as an agent of the Canadian government, was the first to market such art as a source of income for the Inuit.
After twelve years in the Arctic, Houston moved to NYC to be a staff designer for Steuben. Much of his Steuben work recollected his experiences in the far North (as does his Arctic memoir, Confessions Of An Igloo Dweller.) For over 20 years, I made the final models and tooling masters for most of Houston's later Steuben sag pieces. After 2005, Steuben worked with Houston's widow, Alice, to introduce designs not completed in his lifetime.
Most of Steuben's sag ware were vehicles for intricate illustrative decoration, either copper-wheel engraved or "monaired" (sandblasted):
Steuben's sag process was well suited to the creation of special commissions- unique or limited-edition major pieces, commissioned as awards, commemoratives, and prestige display pieces:
Steuben had a long tradition of working with well-known fine artists. In the few years prior to the closing of Steuben, several contemporary artists designed limited-edition pieces. I worked on a number of pieces by Kiki Smith and by Michelle Oka Doner. Both of these sculptors supplied wax models, from which I made rubber molds. These were used to make wax models for lost-wax casting of Steuben glass:
Here are two of my favorite Steuben sag pieces, both by Peter Drobny. "Mobius Prism" is a beautiful use of Steuben's optically pure crystal to explore a simple geometry to stunning effect. "Aspen Glade" started out as aspen branches which Peter selected, cut, and assembled into a compelling sculptural composition in negative space. Note how much surface detail has been preserved as the piece went through the casting steps of: negative rubber mold, positive rubber master, refractory mold, and finally, the casting of the crystal.
Click the images below to enlarge
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