The Washington Glass School

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Using the power of Peabody‘s Wayback Machine, we can have a look in at what happened at Washington Glass School before there was a blog. 

CamOcağı

In August of 2007, Tim Tate and I went off to Istanbul, Turkey for teaching stint at the international glass school – “The Glass Furnace” – (Cam Ocağı in Turkish). The facility is located in Öğümce’de Beykoz – out in the countryside, working from the Riva Glass Furnace on the banks of the Cyagiz Deregi, near the Black Sea. 
Also teaching there during the same session was Richard Jolley, who was teaching a glass blowing course. Although located a few hours from Istanbul’s city center, we went into town at every opportunity – and we were able to hit some of the cultural spots.

Tim Tate and Richard Jolley at the Blue Mosque

The school’s mission includes the interaction that would be established between the Turkish and foreign students at the camp, and the students from our class was multi-national with students from Greece, Armenia, Australia, Turkey, and the USA. The class was designed to be a mix of kiln casting in dry plaster, as well as working with my scraffito technique. Five years later, we look back at the adventure on the Bosphorus.

Artist Eirini Matinopoulou works in the kilns.

Eirini and her brother Adam Matinopoulou, Sertac Alpaslan, Tommie Rush and Ipek Kosova chill at the agora.

English, while the official language for the school was not always the option. We had to learn some handy Armenian phrases for the class. “Me Ara” was constantly exclaimed.

We were often able to have dinner along the river .

Turkish glass and mosaic artist Oguzhan Tugral (Oz) and his family visit. Oz had taken Tim and I around Istanbul and introduced us to renown Turkish painter, architect and miniaturist Nusret Çolpan, where we visited his studio in the city.

Turkish artist Nusret Çolpan came to The Glass Factory to see if he was able to work his artwork in glass.

While transiting the River Riva, little fish jumped into the boat to join the gang.

Semrin Korkmaz shows Tim Tate and me the sights of Istanbul.

Looking out from within the Hagia Sophia towards the Süleymaniye Mosque.  For more photos – click HERE to jump to the Flicker set of photos from ‘back in the day, including shots from the Istanbul student show taken at the end of the course!