The Glass-Blowers: A Novel of the French Revolution

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The British Society of Scientific Glassblowers was founded in 1960 for the benefit of those engaged in scientific glassblowing and its associated professions, and to uphold and further the status of scientific glassblowers. In the preface to her biography, du Maurier says the trouble with Branwell is that he couldn’t distinguish reality from fantasy. That’s why she calls the biography the ‘infernal world’ of Branwell Brontë, (1960) borrowing a phrase from Charlotte—he was completely taken over by this imaginative life and it ruined him. Shane Fero was born in 1953 in Chicago and has been a flame worker for over 50 years. He is celebrated for his nature inspired vessels and bird figures. a b Tait, H. (1994). "Europe from the Middle Ages to Industrial Revolution". In H. Tait (ed.) Five Thousand Years of Glass. pp. 145–187. British Museum Press: London ISBN 0-8122-1888-4 The Roman leaf beaker which is now on display in the J. Paul Getty Museum was blown in a three-part mold decorated with the foliage relief frieze of four vertical plants. [13] Meanwhile, Taylor and Hill [14] tried to reproduce mold-blown vessels by using three-part molds made of different materials. The result suggested that metal molds, in particular bronze, are more effective in producing high-relief design on glass than plaster or wooden molds.

Lazar, I. 2006. Glass finds in Slovenia and neighbouring areas. In Journal of Roman Archaeology 19: 299–342.Wearing high-quality safety glasses is extremely important when glassblowing. The work environment is dangerous due to the amount of heat and delicate glass being used. Some risks to glassblowers’ eyes include: shattered glass, sodium flares from the heating compounds found in glass, UV light, and infrared light. As the story progresses and a hard winter combined with high bread prices stokes the fires of resentment among the poorer classes, Sophie finds her family caught up in the vacillating tides of revolution. Glassblowing as a process and art form has remained relatively unchanged for centuries. However, the work of master artisans over the past several decades proves that glassworking is anything but static. Several famous glassworkers around the world have pushed the perceived limits of the art form to create pieces formerly incomprehensible. I may well have enjoyed reading this novel much more if I had not so recently read Hilary Mantel's A Place of Greater Safety and Marge Piercy's City of Darkness, City of Light, two outstanding novels dealing with the French Revolution. Du Maurier's novel suffers when compared to these works. Part of this is due to the form of the narrative. Sophie Duval recounts the family's involvement with the Revolution as something which occurred many years previously. Her account is therefore a distant memory, rather than a currently lived experience, as is the case for Mantel's and Piercy's characters. This has the effect of distancing the reader from the characters and the events they experience.

Will is a true artist with glass, embracing, in his own words, the unpredictability of his craft – " I make glass with a random factor, an aspect beyond my control. I try and use colour, techniques and patterns to affect my work in a natural and fluid way." Based in Langport, Somerset, Shakspeare Glass has two courses available: the first is a taster class for total beginners where you are taught how to make a small clear vessel and a small dish, and covers basic glassmaking techniques such as gathering, marvering and blowing. For The Glass-Blowers (1963), one of Daphne du Maurier’s later novels, the author drew upon her own family history. Her ancestor, Robert Busson du Maurier, who was in the glass business, escaped to London from France at the start of the French Revolution. William Morris is a glass artist from California. He studied under Dale Chihuly and worked with him for ten years before forming his own glass studio. Morris is known for his glass sculptures that incorporate myth, ancestry, and ancient civilizations. Their second option is a full day beginner course where, in the morning, you will be taught how to gather from the furnace, shape, marver and form the glass. Then the afternoon session will be centered around broadening your skills – handling, shaping and blowing larger amounts of glass.Scientific glassblowers are charged with manufacturing laboratory equipment in glass, using glass rods, tubes and prefabricated components. Littleton went on to found the first glass program at the University of Wisconsin, which would educate famous glass artists such as Dale Chihuly. Littleton’s famous works include “Four Seasons,” “Opalescent Red Crown,” and “Implied Movement.” These glass sculptures showcase Littleton’s creativity and use of color and movement to create a sense of emotion and life in his glass pieces. What follows this prologue is an historical novel supposed to have been penned by Sophie Duval, who spends four months ‘covering sheet after sheet of writing-paper in her formal, upright hand’. The main body of the novel begins in 1747. Sophie’s first person perspective is well-realised, and nicely matches the story; as The Glass-Blowers is essentially another of du Maurier’s family sagas, it feels fitting that a member of the Busson clan should act as narrator. Du Maurier busies herself with demonstrating how the family’s fortune improved due to the glass-blowing business, and how it also caused a wealth of problems. One of the main themes of the novel is as follows: ‘A glass-blower, remember, breathes life into a vessel, giving it shape and form and sometimes beauty; but he can with that same breath, shatter and destroy it’. Paul J. Stankard is a pioneer of the American studio glass movement. He was born in Massachusetts in 1943 and started working with glass in 1961. Stankard enrolled in the scientific glass program at Salem County Vocational Technical Insititute (Salem Community College). He became highly skilled at making glass instruments for laboratories, but preferred making glass animal and flower paperweights. a b c d e f g h Tatton-Brown, V. (1991). "The Roman Empire". In H. Tait (ed.) Five Thousand Years of Glass. pp. 62–97. British Museum Press: London ISBN 0-8122-1888-4

I adore novels of the French Revolution and this one takes an relatively unusual perspective, that of the countryside. Although the revolution centred around Paris, where the great political personalities clashed, the monarchy were deposed, and the people rioted, its impact outside the capital is also very interesting. Du Maurier's novel is really a family saga set during the revolution. Although its upheavals impinge significantly upon the family's fortunes, they themselves are in no sense central to it. The differing political viewpoints of the siblings are well-presented, though, as are the roles they take on (National Guard, Émigré, etc). As the Revolution takes place, Robert's allegiances lead him abroad to safety in England. Abandoning his son, Jaques, with his family in France, Robert leaves with his second wife. He hopes to ingratiate himself with members of the exiled aristocracy but without success. A glass-blower, remember, breathes life into a vessel, giving it shape and form and sometimes beauty; but he can with that same breath, shatter and destroy it." Rene Lalique was a jewelry designer turned glass artist. Born in 1860 in France, Lalique began his career as a Parisian jewelry maker but began experimenting with glass only five years into his jewelry career. Lalique’s glass designs included small bottles, vases, and other containers. For every ton of sodium carbonate used, 13 tons of waste was produced alongside gaseous hydrochloric acid - a particular problem in Glasgow, home to the Verrville glassworks in Finnieston.Ennion for example, was among the most prominent glassworkers from Lebanon of the time. He was renowned for producing the multi-paneled mold-blown glass vessels that were complex in their shapes, arrangement and decorative motifs. [11] [12] [13] The complexity of designs of these mold-blown glass vessels illustrated the sophistication of the glassworkers in the eastern regions of the Roman Empire. Mold-blown glass vessels manufactured by the workshops of Ennion and other contemporary glassworkers such as Jason, Nikon, Aristeas, and Meges, constitutes some of the earliest evidence of glassblowing found in the eastern territories. [12] [28] Hence, tube blowing not only represents the initial attempts of experimentation by glassworkers at blowing glass, it is also a revolutionary step that induced a change in conception and a deep understanding of glass. [22] Such inventions swiftly eclipsed all other traditional methods, such as casting and core-forming, in working glass.