reliquary | Washington Glass Studio

Penland School of Craft – the national center for craft education located in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains

Some of the Washington Glass School instructors are preparing to teach a Fall Course at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina, starting October 7, 2012.

Tim Tate will be leading a class on “The 21st Century Reliquary”, where the class will explore concepts for contemporary reliquaries – both the ideation and creation.

Robert Kincheloe will be handling the torchwork aspects for the class.

Teaching assistants Sean Hennessey and Robert Kincheloe will help the students complete the necessary technical glass components as they work.

Sean Hennessey will be helping the students make molds. The process that Sean uses to take life-casting is the same as he will be teaching in the upcoming Washington Glass School course – “Life Casting” that starts in December.

Sean Hennessey takes a casting of his hands in an alginate mold.

The mold material sets up quick and is ready for the fill material within 10 minutes.

For this casting – a demo piece for the Penland class – Sean uses concrete as the fill material.

The last time Washington Glass taught at Penland was in the 2008 Affecting Plate Glass with Tim Tate and Michael Janis. That was a fun class, and we have stayed in touch with many of the students.

2008’s Affecting Plate Glass Class @ Penland

Jennifer Lindstrom was the teaching assistant for that class and she made sure the students were kept in line.


Jennie “helps” student Joyce Knott. (Students – this image shows the importance of reading the liability waiver.)

What we do in the name of art.

Said Tim of the upcoming class – “Going to Penland is to me, like going home – I hope that we can all experiance that kind of love and growth in this course”.

A reliquary is a receptacle for keeping and displaying sacred objects (relics). In Victorian times, bell jars (cylindrical glass vessels with a rounded top and an open base) were used to protect and display fragile objects.

The artwork reliquaries of ceramic sculptor Novie Trump and mixed media sculptor Tim Tate are filled with meaning, symbolism, and are powerfully evocative. Both artists work seem inspired by an almost obsessive sense of remembrance.

One might ask: How do they make such introspective & complex works – and more importantly, how are their processes applicable for other artists looking to reference our need to create spaces for the things we hold dear?

The two DC area superstar sculptors have teamed up to teach a special sculpture class – Elements of 21st Century Reliquaries.

Novie draws on her archeology training as she creates ceramic houses, books, birds, boats and reliquaries, many that look as though they might have been unearthed on an archeological dig. She explores ideas of nest/hive/home over and over in the work.

“…I often use archetypal symbols taken from ancient myths and tales. These iconic images take many forms: the bird as harbinger and messenger, bones as touchstones of quiet power, the forest as a threshold to the unknown. These symbols are used to express such universal human experiences as love, loss, fear, death, courage and transformation.” Novie Trump

Mixed media/video artist Tim Tate uses blown glass jars to capture universal emotions and experiences with haunting video reliquaries that push the boundaries between fine art and fine craft. Tim’s sculptures ask you to surrender your guarded self and feel the range of emotions that they provoke.

“Revelation — and in some cases self-revelation, is the underlying theme of my electronic reliquaries. But the important revelations here are in the viewer’s response to my hybrid art form and its conceptual nature. I try to bare everything — the guts of my materials and my inner thoughts — in deceptively simple narrative videos set into specimen jars. These works are phylacteries of sorts, the transparent reliquaries in which bits of saints’ bones or hair — relics — are displayed. In many cultures and religions, relics are believed to have magical or spiritual powers, especially for healing. My relics are temporal, sounds and moving images formally enshrined, encapsulating experiences like cultural specimens. And perhaps, to the contemporary soul, they are no less reliquaries than those containing the bones of a saint.” Tim Tate

Class 1304 – Elements of 21st Century Reliquaries

Reliquaries with internal healing objects have been important cultural objects for centuries. They have been made with a wide variety of materials. But what makes a reliquary in the 21st century? What elements can go inside? Which materials seem most appropriate in modern times? In this class we will utilize clay and glass to explore current concepts in reliquary forms. This class will be split between a clay and kiln cast glass studio, allowing each participant the use of both materials and many techniques. There will be a wine and cheese reception at the end of this workshop to allow friends to see the work in a professional setting.

Instructor	Tim Tate, Novie Trump
Dates	Sat/Suns in July/Aug (July 14,15,21,22,28,Aug 4,11)
Time	1pm to 5pm
	$600

Interested? Click HERE to jump to the Washington Glass School online schedule.

Novie Trump is a sculptor whose work is in public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe. Her ceramic sculpture has been selected for juried and invitational exhibitions and has been featured in books and publications. She is the founder and director of Flux Studios, a studio in Mount Rainier, MD

Tim Tate is a Washington, DC native, and has been working with glass as a sculptural medium for the past 25 years. Co-Founder of the Washington Glass School, Tim’s work is in the permanent collections of a number of museums, including the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery and the Mint Museum. He was the recipient of the 2009 Virginia Groot Foundation award for sculpture. He is a 2012 Fulbright Scholar recipient and was Artist-In-Residence at the Institute for International Glass Research (IIRG) in the UK.

Posted in 21st century sculpture, dc art class, novie trump, reliquary, Tim Tate, washington glass school

The Washington Glass School

Category Archives: reliquary

Tate, Kincheloe & Hennessey Teaching at Penland

"Elements of 21st Century Reliquaries" Sculpture Class