Noted Seattle Glass Artist

at The Hot Shop

 

Robert Jones, founder of Blockhead Tools and Robert Jones Designs, is experiencing glass blowing southern style.  Far from his Seattle home, Robert can be seen blowing glass at The Hot Shop at Orange Beach Art Center with Joe Thompson, Sam Cornman and Joe Hobbs. 

 

We can thank Joe Thompson for this fortuitous incidence.  Thompson’s company, Bear Creek Glass and Robert Jones Designs have joined forces and the Gulf Coast community and its visitors are the beneficiaries.  Both companies have a reputation with designers for creating inspiring high-end functional glass art including sinks and lightening.

 

     

 

Robert Jones is a third generation glass artist originally from the rough side of Buffalo, N.Y.  At age 15, after completing a trade program in carpentry, sheet metal, aviation and automotive, Jones moved out to Seattle to work with the National Park System in the Young American’s Conservation Corps rebuilding stairways and trails.  

 

Taking a break from work Jones traveled for two years from England to India.  In Varanasi, the cultural capital of India, Jones encountered a Sadhu, a Hindu ascetic or monk, who performed duties of a holy man in the morning and blew glass in the afternoon.  Jones stayed with the Sadhu for three days and then returned home to Seattle and began his glass blowing career.

 

 In 1984, he began work at The Glass Eye.  In the beginning, he prepared glass and color, charged furnaces, and maintained equipment.  Jones rose to the level of glassblower and later received the Glass Eye Scholarship.  From there he continued his training at Pilchuck Glass School where he was part of Martin Blank’s team for Dale Chihuly and Pratt Fine Arts Center where he was a student and teacher’s assistant.  For eight years, Jones freelanced as an assistant and gaffer to glass artists such as Lino Tagliapietra, Dale Chihuly, Dante Marioni, Joseph DeCamp, Preston Singletary, Phil O’Reily, Martin Blank, and Cliff Goodman. 

 

Jones founded Blockhead Tools, which manufactures wooden glassblowing tools used in studios and fine art schools throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan.  His brothers, Larry and Ronald, joined him in a glassblowing venture, Jones Brothers Glassworks, creating not only architectural designs but also glass counters and glass tablecloths among other items.

 

Jones decided that for him “glassblowing is about form and function rather than political statements and abstract art.”  In 1998, he completed hand building his own glass studio and began Robert Jones Designs, a company that quickly gained a reputation for high quality, inventive functional designs.  His passion for the trade is evident in his work. 

 

Now Jones’ designs are made at The Hot Shop at Orange Beach Center along with Bear Creek Glass’ existing glass line.  Stop by when you see “live glass blowing” signs at the street.  Visitors to The Hot Shop have the rare opportunity to see a Seattle glass artist at work.  Robert Jones puts on quite a show, watching him work is both fascinating and entertaining. (Rumor has it he is a chef and banjo player as well.) 

 

Glass classes are available to begin your career or hobby as a glass artist. The Hot Shop is a perfect location for field trips, family outings, team building and birthday parties.  Give a hand made Christmas gift:  make your own ornament ($20) or paperweight ($35) takes place every Saturday 10 am-1 pm. 

 

As Robert Jones says, “We are all artists inside, some just develop it more.”

 

The Hot Shop @ The Orange Beach Art Center is located at 26389 Canal Road, 3/10 mile east of the 161-Canal Road intersection in the former Orange Beach Hotel.  For more information call 251.981.2787 or visit www.orangebeachartcenter.com.

 

 

The Hot Shop Director Capturing the Moment at The OBAC

 

 

Sam Cornman is an internationally recognized artist who has been working with molten hot glass and creating sculpture for over ten years.   Sam has also been operating his own glass studio, Jazzalactic Glass (formerly Blue Sky Glass), since 2002 in which he creates unique glass sculptures and elegantly designed objects for the home and commercial decor. Believing glass has a vast potential beyond the making of a vessel, Sam passionately enjoys sharing the process of transforming molten hot glass into creations frozen in the moment of time. 

Sam grew up in the small town of Allegany in the foothills of the Alleghany Mountains located in upstate New York.  Spending much of his time outdoors observing nature gave birth to his inspiration to create, while not far away was the Corning Museum of Glass.  This was where he first fell in love with glass, while visiting the Corning Museum with his grandparents as a child.  Sam went on to study at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of American Crafts earning a Bachelor’s Degree of Fine Art in Glass Art in 2004.  He has also studied at the Corning Museum of Glass Studio and the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. 

Upon graduating from the School of American Crafts, Sam moved south to Birmingham, Alabama to continue the pursuit of his passion for creating with hot glass.  Since moving to Alabama, Sam has been creating and showcasing his unique glass art, sculptures, and instillations both nationally and locally while inspiring people within the community by demonstrating and teaching his art form.

In Birmingham Sam labored as a production glass blower and hot glass caster for 5 years at Bear Creek Glass, the nation’s number one producer of hand-blown glass sink vessels.  At Bear Creek Glass Sam oversaw the production of the unique glass art sinks as the Head Gaffer and Hot Shop Studio Coordinator while also teaching classes.

In the winter of 2008, Sam helped the University of Montevallo to set up a hot glass studio, and was a visiting artist there that spring giving many of the Montevallo students their first ever experience with molten glass.  In the fall of 2008, Sam was asked to be the Resident Glass Artist at the University of Montevallo where he continued to help out the young glass studio, teach the students, and inspire the local community through the end of 2009.  At the University, Sam even once blew glass out of a traditional Japanese wood fired anagama kiln on a very rare day that it snowed in Alabama. 

In the winter of 2009 Sam was invited to be a Visiting Artist at Samford University where he conducted a hot glass workshop for the students and shared his art in an exhibition showcasing his glass, sculptures, and an instillation project in the University’s Art Gallery.  Also in 2009, Sam was also invited to participate with other internationally renown glass artists in an Exhibition entitled the “Color & Light” at the Eastern Shore Arts Center in Fairhope, AL, displayed his worked in an solo exhibition at the Kentuck Museum of Art, and showcased his glass art creations in a solo exhibition, “The Movement of Now Frozen in Time”, at St. Bonaventure University in Upstate New York in conjunction with the 2009 International Glass Art Society Conference in Corning

 During the year of 2009, Sam was commissioned to create the Lifetime Achievement Award for the International Interior Designers Association, participated as Grant Review Panelist for the Alabama State Art Council, and presided over the Alabama Designer Craftsmen as their President. 

Recently, Sam has joined forces with Bear Creek Glass again in their new location of Orange Beach, Alabama.  Sam has also taken a position as the Director of ‘The Hot Shop’ at the Orange Beach Art Center that opened in August of 2009 as Alabama’s only public access hot glass studio.

The year of 2010 promises to be another eventful year for Sam as he looks forward to growing and building ‘The Hot Shop’ into a regional and national presence in both the glass and craft art communities and will continue to share his work in upcoming exhibitions be including this spring with the Mississippi Library Commission.

Sam also has his artwork in collections from the Gulf Coast to Germany to New York City to Japan and continues to demonstrate, teach workshops and classes, and educates the public about the medium of hot glass.

 

“ Molten hot glass mimics the rhythmic flow of life as one must continually listen to the past, foresee the future, and transform in the movement of now.”                           -sam cornman


 

Glass Artist Joe Hobbs Named Resident Artist for The Hot Shop at Orange Beach Arts Center

 The Hot Shop at Orange Beach Arts Center in Orange Beach, Alabama has selected Joe Hobbs as their first resident glass artist. Joe is a nationally known glass artist.  He will be responsible for teaching and coordinating studio activities at the state’s first and only public access glass blowing studio.  More Here

 

Alabama’s First and Only Public Assess Glass Blowing Studio Announces Grand Opening

 The Hot Shop at Orange Beach Arts Center in Orange Beach, Alabama will have their grand opening Friday August 21.  There will be live glass blowing demonstrations music, food, drink, glass art raffles and a ribbon cutting.  The Hot Shop will be the state’s only glass studio available to the public for tours, demonstrations, events, classes, and rental.  More Here

 

Orange Beach Alabama to Establish Only Public Access Glass Blowing Studio in State
The Orange Beach Arts Center in Orange Beach, Alabama will create the state’s first and only glass blowing studio that will be available for public use.  The studio will be available for tours, classes, demonstrations, special events and for individuals or companies to rent. The glass equipment was donated by Bear Creek Glass.   More Here

 

Art Glass Company Announces Grand Opening at New Location

Bear Creek Glass announces the grand opening of their new Orange Beach, Alabama location on Thursday August 20, 2009 from 4PM to 7PM.  Bear Creek Glass makes hand blown glass sinks and chandeliers that are sold in over 200 showrooms across the country. The party will then continue on Friday August 21 from 6PM to 9PM at The Hot Shop at Orange Beach Art Center’s grand opening which is a public access glass blowing facility made possible by a $230,000 equipment donation from Bear Creek Glass.  More Here