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| Dave D’Orio / glass / Level 8 |
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| Michael Janis / glass / Level 2 |
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| Sean Hennessey /glass / Level 9 |
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| Donna McCullough / metal / Level 1 |
The Process: Taking a Mold From Historic Bronze Doors
With the Memorial Day Weekend here, a blog posting that touches on themes of American Art & history is in order.
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| Library of Congress, Washington, DC, Adams Building |
The Process looks at how the Washington Glass Studio artists are recreating the original, historic bronze doors from the Library of Congress (LOC) Adams Building in kiln-cast glass.
As mentioned in an earlier post, the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) oversees this landmark building, and they sought out ways to provide up-to-date functional aspects for their structures, all while balancing the requirement for maintaining the artistic legacy of its buildings – a daunting task in an ever changing world. Their design for the LOC Adams building was to have the historic bronze entry doors (that could not be brought up to code) set in the “open” position, and install new code-compliant functional glass doors for the public access – with the glass doors designed to reference the original door sculptures. (Click HERE to jump to link post of sculpted bronze door features.) Washington Glass Studio is creating the new cast glass panels, and this edition of The Process looks at how the molds are being taken from the original doors in-situ.
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| Sean Hennessey, the master caster, sets up his mold making equipment and preps the doors. |
The LOC was very concerned that the mold taking process could adversely impact the patina of the bronze doors, so before any work on the doors was completed, testing of the materials and release agents were conducted on an inconspicuous section of the backside of the doors.
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| A section of the door backside was tested for any reaction to the materials. |
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| The sample came off with no residue or impact to the original bronze finish. |
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| Given the go-ahead, Sean enjoys a day in the sun. |
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| The bronze door area surrounding the bas-relief is masked off. |
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| Care is taken for the surrounding area. Sean shown here assisted by Erin Cumbo. |
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| The layering of the silicone rubber mold material starts. |
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| The mold is allowed to set-up until firm, and then peeled off. |
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| “Mother Mold” material is added to give structural strength to the casting. |
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| The finished rubber mold. |
The molds will later be used to create the original forms for the kiln-casting process – more about the glass casting process in later postings!.
Sculptural Glass Tours at Artomatic
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| Sean Hennessey leads a tour of Sculptural Glass at Washington, DC’s Artomatic Art Fair |
The Washington DC Metro area has a robust sculptural glass community spearheaded by the Washington Glass School and DC Glassworks. Sean Hennessey, resident artist at the Washington Glass School will be giving tours showcasing select examples of the works coming from these studios, as well as works of other glass artists in the DC region.
Glass Art Magazine features Fulbright Scholars Michael Janis & Tim Tate’s UK Assignment
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The Fulbright Commission US Scholar Awards for 2013-14 are now open. The US Scholar Awards offer US academics and professionals the chance to undertake research and/or teaching at any accredited UK higher education institution. Opportunities are available for college and university faculty as well as for professionals, artists, journalists, scientists, lawyers, independent scholars and many others. As well as an All-disciplines award they also have specific partner awards.
JRA / Artomatic 2012 Workshops
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| The panel discussion How Experts Determine What Works of Art Stand out was organized by Giselle Huberman, left. Panels were Nancy Weisser, Judy Weisman, Tim Tate and Cynthia Boyer, not pictured. |
The James Renwick Allinace (JRA) held a fun talk at Artomatic this past weekend – titled “How Experts Determine What Works of Art Stand Out”.
Some other JRA events coming up at Artomatic at the JRA Education Room, 1106 (on the 11th Floor) incude:
· June 2 at 5:00 to 7:00 PM – a JRA reception scheduled for Artomatic’s “Meet the Artists” Night planned for 7:00 to 9:00 PM.
James Renwick Alliance Selects its Artomatic Favs
>The James Renwick Alliance (JRA) is an independent national nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing scholarship and education on contemporary American craft, to supporting activities directed toward this purpose, and to encouraging connoisseurship and collecting. The
As part of their mission for the arts, the JRA are sponsors of a workshop/reception “Renwick Alliance Room” in the huge DC Arts Fair – Artomatic. Located on the 11th Floor of the festival, the JRA has planned workshops and talks throughout the month long run of the show (thru June 23).
Members of the JRA has also went thru the 10 floors of artwork – selecting their Top 10 media-based artists for their 2012 Artomatic “Award of Excellence”.
James Renwick
Recognition of Excellence
ARTOMATIC 2012
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Artist |
Work |
Type |
Floor |
Location |
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Brad Taylor |
Chaise |
Wood and Metal Furniture |
8 |
305 |
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Installation |
Mixed Media (Glass) |
8 |
147 |
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Donna McCullough |
Body of Work |
Metal Sculpture |
1 |
152 |
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Helen Baribeau |
Body of Work |
Fiber Sculpture |
4 |
121 |
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Julia Bloom |
Installation |
Wood Sculpture |
7 |
208 |
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Matt MacIntire |
Body of Work |
Mixed Media |
9 |
160 |
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Body of Work |
Glass |
2 |
173 |
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Pierre Davis |
Body of Work |
Wood Sculpture |
10 |
152 |
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Body of Work |
Glass |
9 |
141 |
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Zofie Lang |
Installation |
Mixed Media |
9 |
112 |
Congrats to the WGS/DC Glass artists & all the artists involved in the huge event!
And a big hug to the James Renwick Alliance!
The James Renwick Alliance welcomes the public to join them in a pre meet-the-artists-night reception. Mingle with other craft lovers!
The JRA will be distributing maps they have created to help you find the media-based artists of Artomatic.
Saturday June 2
5:00pm-7:00pm
The Renwick Alliance Room, 11th floor
Art Extravaganza Artomatic 2012 Opens!
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| DC area artists take over 10 floors of Arlington, VA office building |
Artists have been working to transform the mundane into into an arts space that is choc-a-bloc with treats that require discovery.
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| No matter what kind of creative events you like, you will find something for you at Artomatic. Sean Hennessy’s mixed media artwork combines glass, concrete and LED lighting. Sean is on Level 9 |
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| From the chaos of art – a moment of sublime. Tim Tate and Pete Duvall’s video installation on Level 10. |
Smith Center Presents SOFAlab Acts of Translation
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SOFAlab: Acts of Translation
-Opens Friday, May 18, 7-9pm
SOFAlab Panelists:
Caroline Wellbery, Medical Doctor, Associate Professor, Georgetown University, PhD in Comparative Literature
Erwin Timmers, Green Artist, MFA Design Arts and Architecture, Co-founder Washington Glass School
Opens Friday, May 18, 7-9pm
SMITH CENTER FOR HEALING AND THE ARTS : community. creativity. cancer support.
1632 U Street, NW, Washington, DC 20009
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| Erwin Timmers finishes up the mounting of the collaborative artwork that deals with issues of medical waste. |
US Library of Congress’ New Cast Sculptural Glass Doors
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| Aerial view of US Capitol on the Mall, Washington, DC. Library of Congress is center bottom of photo. |
The Washington Glass Studio (WGS) has started the creation of the new cast sculptural glass doors for the Library of Congress (LOC) in Washington, DC. The design of the project started in 2004, when the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) first asked WGS about advise on their initial proposal to replace the original historic bronze doors of the LOC Adams Building, as the doors required security and changes to be code-compliant. The AOC also sought to reference the artistic heritage of the original doors in this important United States building.
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| One of the original bronze door pairs by sculptor Lee Lawrie |
The original (11′-0″H) bronze doors had functional issues and will be retained in their present hold-open position, recessed into architectural niches. The 16 sculpted bronze doors feature high-relief sculptures by American artist Lee Lawrie, whose best known work is the architectural sculpture on and around New York’s Rockefeller Center. Lawrie’s bronze doors were designed to commemorate the history of the written word, depicting gods of writing as well as real-life Native American Sequoyah.
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| Lee Lawrie, 1877-1963, American sculptor, best known for his architectural work at NY’s Rockefeller Center, especially for the free-standing “Atlas” sculpture. |
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| Ogma and Sequoyah, sculpted bronze figures by Lee Lawrie. Door detail, Library of Congress John Adams Building, Washington, DC. |
- Hermes, the messenger of the gods
- Odin, the Viking-Germanic creator of the runic alphabet
- Ogma, the Irish god who invented the Gaelic alphabet
- Itzamna, the Mayan god
- Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god
- Sequoyah, a Native American
- Thoth, an Egyptian god
- Ts’ang Chieh, the Chinese patron of writing
- Nabu, an Akkadian god
- Brahma, an Indian god
- Cadmus, the Greek sower of dragon’s teeth
- Tahmurath, a Persian hero
The new door design incorporates cast glass panels mounted within a bronze framework, incorporating current egress and security requirements. The kilnformed sculptural glass will be made from molds taken off the original door sculptures. Using clear Bullseye glass to cast, the sculpted glass panels will then be laminated to tempered glass for safety. The new glass doors will create a contemporary luminosity to the building entrances, while keeping the character of the historic landmark structure.
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| original bronze doors – east side (top) Design of new bronze and cast glass doors – west side (bottom) |
The scale of the project has prompted a collaboration between Washington Glass Studio and Fireart Glass Studio in Portland, OR. The project “dream-team” includes (Bullseye Glass co-founder) Ray Ahlgren, Erwin Timmers, Michael Janis, Tim Tate and Sean Hennessey.
Master mold caster, Sean Hennessey, has started the project, creating the molds from the existing bronze doors in-situ. Some photos of that process will be posted later.
Finding Tin (Side) – A How To Guide
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| M L Duffy checks for tin side as he creates the cast glass for Safeway supermaket’s Bethesda public artwork. |
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| “This feels like float…” |
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| Ow. |