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Fire craft : art, body, and world among glassblowers
O’Connor, Erin E.
Columbia University Press
, 2025
; English
; 295 Pages
Glassblowing by hand might seem like a dying art, yet it is thriving: Studios and universities offer popular classes, and glass art is widely exhibited and sold. Amateur and professional glassblowers alike are captivated by the choreography of fire, smoke, and molten material. Why are people drawn to this ancient craft? What is distinctive about the social, physical, and intellectual experience of glassblowing? How does the body learn an art?
In Fire Craft, Erin E. O’Connor interweaves an immersive firsthand account of her experiences learning to blow glass with a sensuous ethnography of embodiment and community among glassblowers. Through compelling stories, such as her struggle to produce an elegant goblet, she shows how a novice becomes hooked by and committed to a craft. Reflecting on embodied knowledge, O’Connor considers how we negotiate mistakes and failures, how we strive to develop proficiency in the face of shortcomings, and how through making objects we make meaning. She also explores the history of glassblowing and how various social, environmental, and knowledge frameworks shape the valorization of craft. From the furnaces of empire to the hot bodies of collaboration and love, O’Connor reveals the interconnectedness of the body with the elemental world. A gripping tale of the social world and experience of glassblowing, Fire Craft passionately defends practical labor as intellectual work that changes self and society.
O’Connor, Erin E.
Columbia University Press
, 2025
; English
; 295 Pages
Glassblowing by hand might seem like a dying art, yet it is thriving: Studios and universities offer popular classes, and glass art is widely exhibited and sold. Amateur and professional glassblowers alike are captivated by the choreography of fire, smoke, and molten material. Why are people drawn to this ancient craft? What is distinctive about the social, physical, and intellectual experience of glassblowing? How does the body learn an art?
In Fire Craft, Erin E. O’Connor interweaves an immersive firsthand account of her experiences learning to blow glass with a sensuous ethnography of embodiment and community among glassblowers. Through compelling stories, such as her struggle to produce an elegant goblet, she shows how a novice becomes hooked by and committed to a craft. Reflecting on embodied knowledge, O’Connor considers how we negotiate mistakes and failures, how we strive to develop proficiency in the face of shortcomings, and how through making objects we make meaning. She also explores the history of glassblowing and how various social, environmental, and knowledge frameworks shape the valorization of craft. From the furnaces of empire to the hot bodies of collaboration and love, O’Connor reveals the interconnectedness of the body with the elemental world. A gripping tale of the social world and experience of glassblowing, Fire Craft passionately defends practical labor as intellectual work that changes self and society.
eBook
The illuminated window : stories across time
Raguin, Virginia Chieffo
Reaktion Books
, 2024
; English
; 273 Pages
A beautifully illustrated guide to the diverse traditions of stained glass art throughout history.
The Illuminated Window is a unique journey through stained-glass installations across history. From the twelfth to the twenty-first centuries, we find in windows stories of conflict, commemoration, devotion, and celebration. Virginia Chieffo Raguin is our guide through the cathedrals of Chartres, Canterbury, and Cologne as well as Paris’s Sainte-Chapelle, Swiss guildhalls, Iran’s Pink Mosque, Harvard Memorial Hall, Tiffany’s chapel for the World Exposition, Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses, and more. In her telling, stained glass relies on more than a single maker but on the relationship between the physical site, the patron’s aims, the work’s legibility for the spectator, and the prevailing style of the era. This is a fascinating and beautifully illustrated volume for anyone interested in stained-glass works.
Raguin, Virginia Chieffo
Reaktion Books
, 2024
; English
; 273 Pages
A beautifully illustrated guide to the diverse traditions of stained glass art throughout history.
The Illuminated Window is a unique journey through stained-glass installations across history. From the twelfth to the twenty-first centuries, we find in windows stories of conflict, commemoration, devotion, and celebration. Virginia Chieffo Raguin is our guide through the cathedrals of Chartres, Canterbury, and Cologne as well as Paris’s Sainte-Chapelle, Swiss guildhalls, Iran’s Pink Mosque, Harvard Memorial Hall, Tiffany’s chapel for the World Exposition, Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses, and more. In her telling, stained glass relies on more than a single maker but on the relationship between the physical site, the patron’s aims, the work’s legibility for the spectator, and the prevailing style of the era. This is a fascinating and beautifully illustrated volume for anyone interested in stained-glass works.
eBook
The armor of light : stained glass in western France, 1250-1325
Lillich, Meredith Parsons
University of California Press
, 2023
; English
; 483 Pages
This landmark study is the first to look closely at the stained glass produced between 1250 and 1325 in western France during the late Capetian era. Generously illustrated with a wealth of color and black-and-white images never before published including many from French churches now closed to the public, Lillich greatly expands our knowledge of both the art and the society from which it emerged. The period Lillich chronicles begins with the region's new vitality following the knights' return from the crusades and ends with the onset of economic uncertainty and unrest that preceded the Hundred Years' War. She reveals that the stained glass of this 75-year span is forceful and uninhibited, dramatic and dazzling, characteristic of what we now term expressionism. Lillich tracks and identifies painters, glazing shops, working methods, models, and sources to argue that the stained glass is a major style with its own developmental evolution and character, putting to rest the notion that this art is merely transitional and provincial.
Lillich, Meredith Parsons
University of California Press
, 2023
; English
; 483 Pages
This landmark study is the first to look closely at the stained glass produced between 1250 and 1325 in western France during the late Capetian era. Generously illustrated with a wealth of color and black-and-white images never before published including many from French churches now closed to the public, Lillich greatly expands our knowledge of both the art and the society from which it emerged. The period Lillich chronicles begins with the region's new vitality following the knights' return from the crusades and ends with the onset of economic uncertainty and unrest that preceded the Hundred Years' War. She reveals that the stained glass of this 75-year span is forceful and uninhibited, dramatic and dazzling, characteristic of what we now term expressionism. Lillich tracks and identifies painters, glazing shops, working methods, models, and sources to argue that the stained glass is a major style with its own developmental evolution and character, putting to rest the notion that this art is merely transitional and provincial.
eBook
China and the West : reconsidering Chinese reverse glass painting
Ambrosio, Elisa; Giese, Francine; Martimyanova, Alina; Thomsen, Hans Bjarne
De Gruyter
, 2022
; English
; 293 Pages
With contributions from outstanding specialists in glass art and East Asian art history, this edited volume opens a cross-cultural dialogue on the hitherto little-studied medium of Chinese reverse glass painting.
The first major survey of this form of East Asian art, the volume traces its long history, its local and global diffusion, and its artistic and technical characteristics.
Manufactured for export to Europe and for local consumption within China, the fragile artworks studied in this volume constitute a paramount part of Chinese visual culture and attest to the intensive cultural and artistic exchange between China and the West. With contributions by Thierry Audric, Kee Il Choi Jr., Patrick Conner, Karina H.
Corrigan, Elisabeth Eibner, Patricia F. Ferguson, Lihong Liu, William H. Ma, Alina Martimyanova, Christopher L. Maxwell, Rupprecht Mayer, Jessica Lee Patterson, Michaela Pejcochová, Jérôme Samuel, Hans Bjarne Thomsen, Jan van Campen, Rosalien van der Poel
Ambrosio, Elisa; Giese, Francine; Martimyanova, Alina; Thomsen, Hans Bjarne
De Gruyter
, 2022
; English
; 293 Pages
With contributions from outstanding specialists in glass art and East Asian art history, this edited volume opens a cross-cultural dialogue on the hitherto little-studied medium of Chinese reverse glass painting.
The first major survey of this form of East Asian art, the volume traces its long history, its local and global diffusion, and its artistic and technical characteristics.
Manufactured for export to Europe and for local consumption within China, the fragile artworks studied in this volume constitute a paramount part of Chinese visual culture and attest to the intensive cultural and artistic exchange between China and the West. With contributions by Thierry Audric, Kee Il Choi Jr., Patrick Conner, Karina H.
Corrigan, Elisabeth Eibner, Patricia F. Ferguson, Lihong Liu, William H. Ma, Alina Martimyanova, Christopher L. Maxwell, Rupprecht Mayer, Jessica Lee Patterson, Michaela Pejcochová, Jérôme Samuel, Hans Bjarne Thomsen, Jan van Campen, Rosalien van der Poel
eBook
Manchester Cathedral : a history of the Collegiate Church and Cathedral, 1421 to the present
Gregory, Jeremy
Manchester University Press
, 2021
; English
; 486 Pages
Founded in 1421, the Collegiate Church of Manchester, which became a cathedral in 1847, is of outstanding historical and architectural importance. But until now it has not been the subject of a comprehensive study. Appearing on the 600th anniversary of the Cathedral's inception by Henry V, this book explores the building's past and its place at the heart of the world's first industrial city, touching on everything from architecture and music to misericords and stained glass. Written by a team of renowned experts and beautifully illustrated with more than 100 photographs, this history of the 'Collegiate Church' is at the same time a history of the English church in miniature.
Gregory, Jeremy
Manchester University Press
, 2021
; English
; 486 Pages
Founded in 1421, the Collegiate Church of Manchester, which became a cathedral in 1847, is of outstanding historical and architectural importance. But until now it has not been the subject of a comprehensive study. Appearing on the 600th anniversary of the Cathedral's inception by Henry V, this book explores the building's past and its place at the heart of the world's first industrial city, touching on everything from architecture and music to misericords and stained glass. Written by a team of renowned experts and beautifully illustrated with more than 100 photographs, this history of the 'Collegiate Church' is at the same time a history of the English church in miniature.
eBook
How to look at stained glass : a guide to the church windows of England
Brocket, Jane
Herbert Press
, 2018
; English
; 276 Pages
A fresh, unstuffy guide to the stained-glass windows of England's churches, including a list of the top 50 places to see outstanding examples.
The magical qualities of stained glass have an enduring appeal, but church windows tend to be ignored as a form of creative and artistic expression. Yet churches are accessible treasure trove of history, art and craftsmanship. No other set of historic buildings with such superb and important architectural and artists assets is as easy to visit. How to Look at Stained Glass is the companion guide that's needed to make sense of and enjoy the vast array of stained-glass windows in the churches of England.
This fresh, unstuffy guide:
• Uses an A-Z format to reveal a multitude of fascinating details - all the way from apples to zig-zags
• Explores stained glass by themes, patterns, designs and effects
• Requires no previous historical, artistic or religious knowledge
• Covers all the major periods and styles, from medieval to modern, Victorian to postwar, eighteenth century to Arts and Crafts, figurative to abstract
• Examines the fascinating and evolving iconography of stained glass
• Makes looking at gloriously colourful, artistically important windows both entertaining and rewarding
• Features a list of the top 50 places to see outstanding examples
• Offers a useful index of churches by county
Brocket, Jane
Herbert Press
, 2018
; English
; 276 Pages
A fresh, unstuffy guide to the stained-glass windows of England's churches, including a list of the top 50 places to see outstanding examples.
The magical qualities of stained glass have an enduring appeal, but church windows tend to be ignored as a form of creative and artistic expression. Yet churches are accessible treasure trove of history, art and craftsmanship. No other set of historic buildings with such superb and important architectural and artists assets is as easy to visit. How to Look at Stained Glass is the companion guide that's needed to make sense of and enjoy the vast array of stained-glass windows in the churches of England.
This fresh, unstuffy guide:
• Uses an A-Z format to reveal a multitude of fascinating details - all the way from apples to zig-zags
• Explores stained glass by themes, patterns, designs and effects
• Requires no previous historical, artistic or religious knowledge
• Covers all the major periods and styles, from medieval to modern, Victorian to postwar, eighteenth century to Arts and Crafts, figurative to abstract
• Examines the fascinating and evolving iconography of stained glass
• Makes looking at gloriously colourful, artistically important windows both entertaining and rewarding
• Features a list of the top 50 places to see outstanding examples
• Offers a useful index of churches by county
