cast recycled glass | Washington Glass Studio

Great Depth of Beauty in “Life in Layers” Exhibit

Posted on November 25, 2023 by admin |

The 35th Annual Prince George’s County Juried Exhibition “Life in Layers” draws on the vast core of visual artists that live, work or maintain a studio in Prince George’s County. Juried by Philip Hutinet, Founder of East City Arts, a broad interpretation of the concept was sought, as each artist brings their unique background to the idea. Each moment layers on the previous ones and they create narratives and meaning through all media forms.

PG County’s Parks & Rec Visual Arts Specialist, Stuart Diekmeyer (Left) introduces juror Phil Hutinet (center) at opening reception of Life in Layers exhibit.

Erwin.Timmers.art from recycled glass and LED — Erwin Timmers, fused recycled glass, LED lighting, steel

Artist / Co-Director of the Washington Glass School, Erwin Timmers talks about his work in recycled glass and steel.

Michael Janis, “A Kind of Truth” kilnformed glass, sgraffito imagery, blown and silvered glass. Photo by Pete Duvall.

WGS Co-Director Michael Janis talks about his work and how it captures the mood of contemporary society.

About the Juror
Phil Hutinet, a third generation Capitol Hill resident, is the publisher of East City Art, DC’s Visual Arts publication of record, which he began in 2010. Hutinet has curated or produced over 150 group and solo exhibitions in his career. Currently, Hutinet produces the annual Capital Art Book Fair, a spring event held at Eastern Market’s North Hall that celebrates the diverse world of art books.

WGS Resident Artist – April Shelford – has a solo exhibit of her glass artwork in the “Front Window Gallery” and was also at the opening reception.

Artist April Shelford at the Opening Reception in the Brentwood Arts Center.

True to form – April Shelford adjusts her display.

Life in Layers – on exhibit thru January 6, 2024.

Brentwood Arts Exchange, An Arts Center of M-NCPPC, located at 3901 Rhode Island Avenue Brentwood, MD.

Posted in art from recycled material, brentwood arts exchange, cast recycled glass, east city art, gateway arts center, gateway arts district, king of recycling, recycle glass, recycle glass sculpture

MICA Presents “Just A Drop”

Posted on January 31, 2023 by admin |

Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and the Curatorial Practice MFA (CP) Practicum class present “Just a Drop,” an exhibition on view in MICA’s Meyerhoff Gallery from February 10th to March 3rd, 2023. Through a wide range of objects and materials — including sculptures, illustrations, protest banners, textiles, glass art, videos, and a large-scale newly-commissioned mural — the 13 artists highlighted in this show reveal how water sustains life and shapes human destinies. Inspired by the September 2022 boil water advisory in West Baltimore, the five MICA students that organized “Just a Drop” dove deep into the history of the planet’s most precious resource. For this exhibition, a diverse group of artists, activists, and storytellers were brought together to describe people’s relationships to water via culture, ritual, and conservation. With personal, collective, and mythical imagery and stories, the featured artists invite viewers to reconsider the element that makes up 60% of their bodies and covers more than 70% of the planet’s surface.

Erwin Timmers; “Watered Down”, 2023, cast recycled float glass, steel, LED, 13″W x 39″H x 4″D.

Erwin Timmers is one of the artists in the exhibition, and his work – “Watered Down” is a wall mounted sculpture made of cast float glass. The artwork references the ubiquitous trash that fills the oceans – the disposed water bottle.

Erwin Timmers - environmental artist — Artist Erwin Timmers working in his studio at the Washington Glass School in Mt Rainier, MD.

“Just a Drop” opens at 5:00PM on Friday, February 10th with a public reception featuring a live storytelling performance by Griot Grandmother Edna.

Location
Meyerhoff Gallery
1303 W Mount Royal Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21217

Posted in "dry plaster casting" washington, art from recycled material, cast float glass, cast recycled glass, erwin timmers, fused float glass, LED, Meyerhoff Gallery, MICA, recycle glass, recycle glass sculpture, recycled float glass, recycled glass, recycled glass art

Rockville, MD Artists & Makers Studios To Showcase Works By Erwin Timmers & Artists of the Washington Glass School

Posted on October 24, 2022 by admin |

Artists & Makers Studios on Parklawn Drive in Rockville will welcome artist Erwin Timmers along with Artists of the Washington Glass School for the exhibit “A Show of Hands”. The November 4th First Friday evening opening will run from 5pm – 9pm.

Erwin Timmers, “In Case of Emergency”; 2022, cast recycled glass, steel. Photo by Pete Duvall.

Erwin Timmers is the Co-founder and Director of the Washington Glass School. His work references sociological and environmental issues of concern to him, primarily how we, as a society, consume and discard precious resources. For this topic, the choice of materials becomes a more important discussion, so Erwin endeavors to use recycled materials to express concepts and ideas of recycling and use of the environment. Recycled glass is difficult to use, so he has had to develop new and experimental techniques to exploit the characteristics of this material. A Show of Hands explores personal and cultural traits as they relate to present day social trends. Technological “advances” have changed the landscape in human interaction, and social media focuses on aspects of cultural loss, fake news, mass manipulation, and diversion and division. This series is about the expression of nonverbal and abstract themes like trust, communication, and connection. Erwin’s portfolio showcases the possibility and beauty of recycled material, while encouraging the viewer to consider his or her environmental impact.

Erwin Timmers “A Show of Hands”
Featuring Artists of the Washington Glass School

Opening Reception
5:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Friday, November 4th, 2022

Artists & Makers Studios
11810 Parklawn Drive, Suite 210
Rockville, MD 20852

Artist Discussion with Erwin Timmers – November 12th, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Exhibits for Erwin Timmers, the Resident Artists, and Gallery 209 will run from November 1st through November 22nd. Viewing hours are 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM, Monday-Saturday, and Sundays by chance or appointment.

Artists & Makers Studios on Parklawn Drive in Rockville, established in October 2014 by artist and arts community builder Judith HeartSong, is a 13,000 sq. ft. facility is home to 87 artists, and 80 student artists. A&M Studios is dedicated to providing a supportive and vibrant environment for artists to realize their creative goals – through studio practice, collaboration, education, opportunities, networking and connecting with the community beyond.

Posted in "washington glass studio", art from recycled material, artist & makers studios, artists of the washington glass school, cast recycled glass, environmental art, erwin timmers, king of recycling, recycle glass, recycle glass sculpture, recycled glass, recycled glass art, rockville, sustainable art design, washington glass school, Washington School of Glass

“Reflections in Glass”, Solo show by Erwin Timmers at Allegany Arts Gallery

Posted on February 9, 2022 by admin |

The Allegany Arts Council Saville Gallery presents Washington Glass School Co- Director Erwin Timmers in a solo exhibition “Reflections in Glass” from February 5 thru February 26, 2022. Recycling, waste, the environment, and the ways in which all three relate to society are recurring themes in his work.

Erwin Timmers cast recycled glass sculpture in the Saville Gallery, Cumberland, MD.

Said Timmers about his body of work on exhibit: “My work revolves around ideas of sustainable design and consumption in the urgent context of pressing societal changes and deepening global ecological concerns.
My artwork centers on the craft of design, combining modern and traditional fabrication techniques to develop new material-based knowledge and aesthetics of sustainability. My portfolio aims to spark specific kinds of awareness. “

“The objects I sculpt from recycled materials are moments of intersection and influence. As boundary objects, they play with conventions of form and function, material and method, production and consumption. I work less for the purposes of critique, but rather for the potential to generate open and inviting exchanges. An artist, successfully engaged in creative inquiry, notices, seeks out, or otherwise creates the conditions for novel convergence and the overlapping and dissolution of conventional boundaries.
I work at reinforcing metaphors of transformation and change. “

Timmers will also present a talk on how public art transforms communities. The event “Making Our Case For Public Art” is free and open to the public and all are invited to attend. The event will begin with a networking reception at 5:30PM with the program slated to kick off at 6:00PM.

The artists from the Washington Glass School are also on exhibit in a special show, featuring artworks by Tim Tate, Michael Janis, Patricia De Poel Wilberg, April Shelford, Vibha Bhatia and Clayton Lutu.

Timmers is Co-founder and Director of the Washington Glass School and one of the DC area’s leading ‘eco-artists’. Erwin is currently working with architects and designers on several “green” design projects. His work in sustainable design can be seen in some of the large public art projects he has completed, including an award-winning project for the US EPA Ariel Rios South Courtyard Green Infrastructure Project, in Washington, DC, and the public artwork for the LEED certified Safeway supermarket in Bethesda, MD. Montgomery County honored Erwin Timmers as the county’s “Outstanding Artist” in 2018. The Museum of Glass (MOG) in Tacoma, Washington has recently acquired works by Timmers for its permanent collection.

Allegany Arts Council Saville Gallery
9 N. Centre Street
Cumberland, MD 21502
Reflections in Glass
February 5- 26, 2022

Making Our Case for Public Art
Friday, February 25, 2022 • 5:30PM – Cocktail Reception; 6:00PM – Program • Free to attend

Posted in allegany arts council, cast recycled glass, eco-art, eco-friendly glass, environmental art, erwin timmers, recycle, recycle glass, recycle glass sculpture, recycled float glass, recycled glass, recycled glass art, recycled glass public art, sustainable art design, sustainable design, washington glass school, стекло искусство новое, فن الزجاج الجديد, アメリカのガラス芸術, 新的玻璃, 玻璃艺术新, 美国玻璃艺术家

Happy Holidays from All at Washington Glass School

Posted on December 23, 2018 by admin |

Wishing all a joyous holiday season and a New Year of health, happiness, prosperity and love!

Posted in bowls, cast glass, cast recycled glass, holiday, holiday greetings

Erwin Timmers Creates Sculpture for DC’s Sculpture Biennial

Posted on April 5, 2018 by admin |

Erwin Timmers’ sketch of his sculpture for Foggy Bottom exibit.

Arts in Foggy Bottom‘s sixth Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, co-curated by renowned DC artists Helen Frederick and Peter Winant, gives you the opportunity to see this unique neighborhood through the eyes of 15 emerging and established artists. WGS’ Erwin Timmers is one of the artists invited to the Biennial – and we catch up with him as he creates a new work to be installed near the Watergate complex.

Erwin Timmers casts with recycled glass to create the sculpture inset portals.

The Foggy Bottom site is in the shadow of Watergate!

All sculptures will be displayed in front of private homes during this free, six-month show.

Featured artists include:

•           Adam Bradley
•           David Brooks
•           Brian Dailey
•           Linda DePalma
•           Nehemiah Dixon
•           Emily Fussner
•           Sean Hennessey
•           Melissa Hill
•           Jeremy Thomas Kunkel
•           Richard Lew
•           John Ruppert
•           Nancy Sausser
•           Lisa Scheer
•           Valerie Theberge
•           Erwin Timmers
Absence & Presence runs from April 28th through October 27, 2018. Visitors are invited to tour the exhibition at their convenience throughout the day. There is no admission fee.

The exhibition is presented on private properties between 24th-26th Streets NW and H-K Streets NW, and is accessible from the Foggy Bottom-George Washington University Metro stop.

Posted in cast float glass, cast recycled glass, erwin timmers | Tagged foggy bottom

Glass Sheds Light On the New Year!

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Betty Py |

In honor of the regulations that phase out incandescent light bulbs starting in 2014, photographer Pete & Alison Duvall had a cast glass light fixture for their home in Silver Spring, MD.
In 2007, President George W. Bush signed into law an energy bill that placed stringent efficiency requirements on ordinary incandescent bulbs in an attempt to have them completely eliminated by 2014. The law phased out 100-watt and 75-watt incandescent bulbs in 2013.

As artists that depend on light and its transmission, the photographers worked with artist Erwin Timmers to get every kind of light bulb they could referenced in their ceiling mounted glass artwork.

Cast glass lightbulbs

Inspired by a commissioned ceiling mounted artwork that Michael Janis did in 2007 for a Washington, DC collector. The couple that commissioned the work had limited space in their apartment, and felt that the creating an artwork piece mounted on the that diffused light would be a crossover of art and function. In the earlier suspended artwork panel, faces look down from a textured surface.
Pete Duvall noted that the light source for the new artwork piece is from energy efficient LED bulbs.

Original cast glass panel by Michael Janis – Photo by Pete Duvall.

Posted in alison duvall, anything photographic. anythingphoto.net, cast recycled glass, dry plaster casting, light bulb, pete duvall, regulation

The Many Facets of Erwin Timmers

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Michael Janis |

Like a finely cut diamond, there are many sides to our Mr. Timmers.

Come hear eco-glass artist Erwin Timmers discuss his work. Thoughtful and ingenious, Erwin’ sculpture calls attention to contemporary issues through a creative re-engineering of often-overlooked forms and concepts, often focusing on industrial salvage and recycling.

In the opinion of many, he’s also one of the “earliest” green artists on the planet.

Erwin Timmers’ cast recycled window glass sculpture at Brentwood Arts

Artist Talk: Saturday, June 22, 2:00pm
Brentwood Arts Exchange – exchanging ideas through art

located in the Gateway Arts Center
3901 Rhode Island Avenue
Brentwood, MD 20722
301-277-2863/ tty. 301-446-6802
email: pgp-brentwood-arts@pgparks.com

Posted in art from recycled material, artist talk, brentwood arts exchange, cast recycled glass, erwin timmers, recycled float glass

Erwin Timmers : Alchemical Vessel

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Michael Janis |

The Smith Center for Healing and the Arts will have a special exhibit and fund raising benefit. Titled ‘Alchemical Vessels‘, this initiative will feature the work of 125 artists, selected by 16 invited curators, to engage in a community dialogue on healing and transformation through the arts. Each artist has transformed a provided ceramic bowl using their own personal aesthetic and medium, drawing inspiration from the bowl as a place of holding, open community, a circle of care, sacred space, nourishment, and even the alchemical vessel.

Erwin Timmers “Message In A Bottle” kilnformed recycled glass, ceramic

Washington Glass School’s Co-Director has created a work using his signature cast recycled glass. In honor of Earth Day, we are posting about his work in the upcoming show.

Said Erwin of his artwork for the show at the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery: “The alchemical vessel speaks about creating purity, harmony and the healing that flows from it. My work focuses on the disharmony we see in nature and our environment, which has a pronounced impact on our own wellbeing. This [vessel] references how we, as a society, consume and discard resources without much consideration. I use the water bottle, a vessel in its own right, as a symbol of a useful everyday object that people use and discard thoughtlessly and which has now been severely overused. Last year we consumed 28 billion plastic bottles, and only roughly 15% of them got recycled.”

“Using the medium of casting recycled glass and specific techniques to manipulate this medium” said Erwin of his glass sculpture, “my work invites the viewer to consider not only the end product, but also the origin of the piece and the process of re-creation. I hope my work showcases the possibility and beauty of recycled material, while encouraging the viewer to consider his or her environmental impact.”

Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery at Smith Farm Center, 1632 U St NW, DC

Alchemical Vessels Benefit: May 17, 2013, 7-9pm

About the Benefit
100% of the ticket sale proceeds will go to support Smith Center’s life-enhancing work and programs for people living with and recovering from cancer.

Benefit Ticket information:

Benefit tickets $125: 125 Benefit tickets will be sold, and each ticket holder at this level will be given the opportunity to select a piece of art. Priority will be given by the order in which the tickets were purchased—so the first to buy a ticket will be awarded first pick of the 125 works, and so on. All 125 works will remain in the show until after the closing of the exhibition on June 7, at which time the new owners can pick them up.

Supporter ticket: $50: This price level is good for entrance to the Benefit only. Ticket holders at this level do not get to keep a piece of art.

If you have trouble purchasing tickets, please call 202.483.8600 or email them at outreach@smithcenter.org.

Posted in art from recycled material, cast recycled glass, earth day, earthday, erwin timmers, fused float glass, Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts, smith center, smith farm, sustainable art design

The Process – Erwin Timmers Cast Glass Bottles

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Michael Janis |

From This:

To This:

artist: Erwin Timmers; materials: cast recycled glass

As part of the ongoing series titled ” The Process” that documents the methodology of an artist or technique – the work of Erwin Timmers is the feature of today’s pictorial.

Eco-artist Erwin Timmers creates artwork with environmental themes, and he works with materials that are diverted from the waste stream. As he prepares for the upcoming Smithsonian Craft Show, he invited us to have a look at how he starts the casting process as he creates his beautiful glass sculptures.

Working within his concepts of sustainable design and art, Erwin sourced glass from the US Probate Courthouse, in Greenbelt, MD for his artwork that was slated to end up in the trash dump.

Using plastic bottles cleared from the Anacostia River watershed (of which there was plenty to choose from), Erwin coats the bottles with a plaster/silica coating.

Erwin then fires the molds upside down in the kiln, melting out the plastic bottles.

Erwin extracts the remains of the plastic bottles from the molds.

Erwin then takes the cleaned molds and sets them in a bed of sand inside the glass kiln.