Michael Glancy

American (b. 1950)

Stiletto Fusion

2007

Blown glass with stiletto air trap inclusions and engraved lenses, industrial plate glass, copper, and silver

Museum purchase with funds donated by the Collectors Circle

2011.1

Glancy is one of this country’s most compelling glass artists, and his complex forms are inspired by such fields as geometry, geology, and chaos theory. His designs usually begin with sketches, either on paper or the glass itself. Whether it is blown or cast, the glass is often hand carved. Inside this two-toned blown vessel are vertical lines formed by trapped air bubbles made through an unusual and difficult Scandinavian technique that Glancy renamed “stiletto.” The metallic surfaces—whether they are gold, silver, bronze, or copper—are achieved through electroforming. Electroforming is a slow, labor-intensive process, where a high voltage current passes through the glass. To display the glass objects according to his vision, Glancy began to create his own bases, as in Stiletto Fusion.

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