Though one of her pieces of glass art might look simple, Montague resident Sally Prasch describes her work as “a constant journey.”
“You think ‘Oh, it’s just a little flower,” Prasch commented, referring to a piece that took months to create and was inspired by Harvard University’s widely acclaimed Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants. “But you mix the colors and you say ‘I don’t like that,’ and then you start again.”
This constant journey is something that Prasch has shared with visitors to the “Oh Beautiful Glass” exhibit that she has organized at Leverett Crafts & Arts since 2016. This year’s exhibit, on display at LCA’s Barnes Gallery through Nov. 27, includes more than 20 glass-making artists.
Prasch, who first became interested in glasswork when she took a class with Lloyd Moore in Nebraska at age 13 and later pursued the medium in college, is presenting some collaborations with glassworker George Kennard at this year’s exhibit. Prasch said these pieces are “a mixture of working on the torch and also working on the furnace.”
For Greenfield resident Patti Cromack, who is participating in “Oh Beautiful Glass” for the second year, her stained glass journey began indirectly when she worked with the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the Family-to-Family Program.
“We teach people that you should go and do something that means a lot to you,” Cromack reflected. She began taking classes at the Dragonfly Stained Glass Studio in Easthampton. Today, Cromack helps the studio’s owner, Heather McLean.
When visitors seek out Cromack’s work at the Barnes Gallery, they’ll find three 8-by-10-inch stained glass pieces that depict a lighthouse, a tulip and Stratton Mountain in Vermont. The pieces cost $100.
Much of the work on display carries an animal theme, such as a glass version of a 1700 BC Iranian clay cow vessel and other glass animals made by Brattleboro, Vermont resident Marta Bernbaum. Dominique Caissie, a Jaffrey, New Hampshire resident who is participating in “Oh Beautiful Glass” for at least her fifth year, is selling her glass animals for around $300.
Caissie started making animals during the COVID-19 shutdown. On a weekly basis, she would go live on her studio’s Facebook page and make animals inspired by audience members’ suggestions, such as an alpaca she made during the holidays last year. Caissie describes her creations as “silly and cartoony” art that “makes people like to smile and laugh.”
For some glass artists, like Colleen Grebus of Temple, New Hampshire, the “Oh Beautiful Glass” exhibit is an opportunity to display pieces that might have taken them outside their comfort zones.
Grebus is presenting two pate de verre pieces. She explained she makes pate de verre pieces by creating a clay mold, pouring silica plaster over the top and removing the clay so “you’re left with a negative image.” Next, Grebus paints onto the silica plaster with water and glass powder and puts each piece into the kiln so the water evaporates, creating fused glass.
“These are some of my first pate de verre,” she explained. “I’m hoping to take things that I make in the hot shop and maybe incorporate them somehow into the pate de verre.”
Grebus, a retired nurse who works with glass alongside her husband, Gary, describes her art as “eclectic.”
“I do a lot of different things,” Grebus said. “I really like combining the different disciplines, like doing something in lampwork and then putting it into one last piece.”
While many artists participating in “Oh Beautiful Glass” are returning, others are showing their work at the exhibit for the first time.
Jessica Antonia Casillas Scott, a Ph.D. history student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is presenting three kelps and one flamingo feather for her first-time contribution. Having taken a 10-day crash course with famed glassworker Deborah Czeresko at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Casillas Scott was inspired to create glass kelp pieces because the school is located on an island off the coast of rural Maine, leaving her surrounded by the ocean.
Similarly, Goshen resident Sam Myers said her “whole life revolves around water” as a windsurfer, which is where her inspiration comes from for her pieces, such as a mosaic octopus and a mosaic mermaid. Like Casillas Scott, Myers is a first-time “Oh Beautiful Glass” participant, but she has been working with glass for roughly 30 years.
Like Prasch, Casillas Scott said the process of creating her four pieces involved a lot of trial and error.
“Things were falling off the pipe, things were just sort of melting, or for the first couple of days I couldn’t even gather glass completely,” she said.
Though Casillas Scott said she doesn’t have enough work to sell at this year’s exhibit, she plans to set aside time to create more glass pieces.
“Oh Beautiful Glass” will be on display on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. through Nov. 27.