Renown glass artist, Jane Cairns Irvine, will present her glass art at Think Long Island First in Oyster Bay on Thursday, December 2nd between 5 pm and 7 pm.
Think Long Island First store carries her colorful glass jewelry, her captivating wind chimes, wine stoppers, swizzlers, and one of a kind decorative glass items.
Jane runs a successful studio in Glen Head, NY, where she creates her own work and introduces students of all ages to the magic of fused glass.
Fused glass applies an ancient technology where glass is fired in a kiln to a high temperature producing very strong, colorful glass. Modern designs push the creative aspect of fused glass to a new level.
Jane Cairns Irvine, glass artist from Glen Head, comes from a family of Scots from Edinburgh. True to her Scottish origin Jane played drums in a Scottish band where her father played bagpipe. Jane attributes some of the characteristics of her more complex artistic designs to her heritage.
The family had a well exercised creative touch - her father, an electrical engineer, built a model space ship with an airplane control for the kids ("it was called the X15! it was made of wood and masonite panels, painted, with cut out little airplane style windows and real airplane controls inside. it was wonderful! :) we spent hours and hours, weeks, years playing in it. we took many wonderful adventures with friends!") and is now designing architectural lighting installations; Jane's mother engaged in crafts of all kinds. Growing up Jane participated in the 4H program of the Cornell Cooperative Extension, an activity she remembers fondly.
Photo by Ewa Rumprecht
Though Jane's formal art training included painting lessons at the Stevenson Academy in Oyster Bay and training with Nan Coffey, portrait artist from Locust Valley, she is entirely self taught in the matters of glass art. She has and is experimenting with designs, shapes, colors and techniques. This gives her an expertise that comes with a fearless trial and error approach. Jane can now well predict the outcome, with, as she modestly adds, occasional surprises.
She does her own firing in one of her four kilns. Firing is a lengthy and expensive process; it takes about 14 - 16 hours to fire the kiln to 1,440F and then to cool it down to the room temperature. Fused glass can be surprisingly sturdy as a result of the process; it is strong enough to withstand the beating of strong northeasters as tested by Jane on a few sets of wind chimes on her own porch.
Photo by Ewa Rumprecht
Fusing glass into submission involves various steps and techniques; some cheerful like color and pattern selection, some a bit dangerous like glass grinding and sawing which should be exercised with caution. Jane created a wonderful piece called "Shattered Dreams", a work of personal significance, where crashed glass was used to a great effect.
Jane designs glass jewelry, glass sculptures and wall hangings of various proportions. Some of the larger formats are on display at the gift shop of the Nassau County Museum of Art. Jane's www.glassworksbyjci.com website displays photos of many of her works. Our store carries her colorful jewelry and the captivating wind chimes made from recycled bottles.
Jane is not only a working artist, she also teaches classes at her workshop Studio 44 at 44 Railroad Plaza in Glen Head (phone: 516.216.4630) and also at the Art League of Long Island in Dix Hills and at the Great Neck Adult Program in Great Neck. One of her former teaching projects, a month long undertaking at a Sea Cliff school attended by her daughter, had students create a school mural of their own design; Jane donated her time and firing.
Jane will be our guest artist at the Meet the Maker event at the store on December 2nd, between 5 pm and 7 pm.
After an early period of watercolors and pastels, Thomas Michael Malloy devoted all his creative powers to metal sculpture. He says, "it feels real" and then adds with a smile "not only because of cuts and burns" (... one acquires while working with sharp metals and welding tools). Metal sculpture is where his natural gifts come through - the ideas, the keen observation (all Tom's sculptures are representational), the sense of proportion, and, his great sense of humor.
His workshop is like a candy store for any artist or tinkerer. Metal parts of old machinery, tools of various industries, decorative metal objects are everywhere you look. His own backyard, a nicely maintained garden, displays a collection of his sculptures - an owl, crow, mad pianist, angel with a trumpet, moon, horses, even a rhinoceros. Since his sculptures are intended for outdoors, Tom applies a protective coating over them. Even with that, many sculptures develop a green patina or a rich rusty color. They seem in place at any time of the year.
(Click the image above to view photos of Tom's work.)
What comes first, an idea of a sculpture followed by a search of appropriate metal parts to match the idea or, vice versa, a found object (Tom has a substantial collection of these) which inspires Tom to create a particular sculpture? Apparently both equally. In the following clip, Tom draws a sketch of a horse and a shovel bird. This is an example of the former approach - idea first, parts later.
During our conversation I have asked Tom to imagine a sculpture that would represent Long Island. His first thought was that it should be a fish to follow the general shape of the island. Then he thought for a moment longer and decided that he would prefer the sculpture to represent a tractor to reflect Long Island's farming past. An interesting choice.
Tom is a colorful person, from his twinkling eyes to his dashing blue hat (it was the first thing I noticed about him; the hat is not just a mere fashion statement - it comes with the expected protection from the rain and sun but also with enough room for air to circulate under the fabric; apparently this was a design preferred by engineers of old; Tom had prudently stashed them while the caps were still available) and a "Romeo y Julieta" cigar ("burns well and tastes good").
Tom's website www.tomsmetalsculptures.com carries additional information about Tom and many photos of his work. The man himself you can find at his lawn mowing repair shop at 30 Station Plaza in Glen Head, phone: 516.676.3636.
