May 26th, 2010
Vilano art glass by Bernard Katz
Our clients always ask what is our inspiration for our sculptural art glass designs? Well, I may not blow glass in our studio but I do have a keen design sense. I graduated from Moore College of Art and Design with a BFA in sculpture. I always enjoyed creating three dimensional organic forms in plaster and wood. Some of my favorite sculptors are Henry Moore, Jean Arp, Barbara Hepworth. I loved the smoothness and the scale of their artwork.
As Bernard’s work transformed from the Tree and Root Vase Series, we both discovered that we could work together to combine our design ideas to create naturalistic forms in glass. Bernard spent many years experimenting trying to move from the functional vase to the sculptural forms. This is a hard task to only create a piece that is only sculpture, relying on form, texture and color in glass. Throughout the years Bernard only worked in opaque glass forms. To the aha moment of how can we make the opaque forms look more like glass? The combination of 2 glass colors of opaque and transparent glass….the Vilano.
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May 26th, 2010
Blowing glass globes
At Bernard Katz Glass we are often asked to create commissioned pieces for designers, which imposes a challenging aspect to us. Many factors come into play when working with other people’s design ideas and goals. The challenge of what a client’s vision is for their creation, how to transform a drawing idea into a work of art in glass?
Color is difficult to decide, we receive dozens of samples and images in catalogs but once a color is blown out, the color often changes. We often need to guess what will work for the project and hope that it all falls into place.
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April 26th, 2010
Interesting day at the glassblowing studio on Wednesday, Google Maps visited our little side street of Sharp Street in Manayunk PA. Got a call from Google Maps and asked if perhaps they could visit the studio. I thought that the visit would be really brief with a quick photoshoot of our front warehouse and street. But to my pleasant surprise, Google Maps is working on a new aspect of a 3-Dimensional images of businesses. One can zoom from anywhere in the world onto our studio street address and walk inside our business. It was quite fascinating watching the photographer in action. So stay tuned for Google Maps new technology coming in the near future…you will be able to visit us Bernard Katz Glass Studio and Gallery from all over the world.
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March 31st, 2010
The Architectural Digest Home Design Show March 2010
Bernard and I for the first time this year, have decided to try new avenues for our glasswork. This past March we displayed our glass at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show in NYC. It was very exciting and a great fit for us! We tried to mix business with pleasure since we have a 5 year old….she enjoyed all the wonderful tourist attractions. Plus the work in March was perfectly sunny and warm.
To view our most recent series: The Monolito Lighting Series www.bernardkatzglass.com
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December 28th, 2009
shown in Tea
Well this year has been quite a challenge for me, as for a small business riding the economic wave. Change is a good element to helping a business grow and survive. But most of all to help it grow in new exciting ways. Although many galleries and artists unfortunately did not survive 2009, we managed to hold on.
Several factors gained our way:
1. gained more foot traffic to our studio, from the local public…
2. received a Merchants Fund of Philadelphia Grant!!
3. happy to have found many fantastic personal and business gurus.
4. NEW ART WORK!
Do not be afraid of lifes challenges!!
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February 23rd, 2009
This last holiday season was a wonderful surprise. We had alot of people come into our glass studio to visit us, we found the new trend is keeping the business local. It is alot of fun getting to know our neighbors and listening to their stories.
We are excited about what this new year, as word spreads about our studio we will hopefully get the chance to meet more of our locals.
Does anyone have any interesting ideas to add to current open studios or thoughts or questions about our business?
Please do share.
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December 11th, 2008
Joy and excitement in the studio as the Holiday Season quickly arrives. Bernard has been working on both wood and lighting projects for our daughter. It has been fun to watch him from start to finish…with the sketch ideas to the finishing touches of the color pallette selection.
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December 4th, 2008
Our studio is located within a large industrial building and is wonderful in the Spring and Summer…But in the winter the studio gets pretty cold, especially if no one is blowing glass. I have made the artform of layers a major importance while I dress each day. But at least I am warm. You would think a glassblowing studio would be quite hot…but only in the summertime.
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