Glass Biography

Desperately seeking a career that utilized my hands and was not in the typical office setting, I found myself at the Penland School of Crafts in 1996. My studies first began in the iron forge and quickly gravitated to the hot glass studio. It was there that I found the ultimate molten material, hot glass. I was captivated by it and become determined to start down the long road of making beautiful objects from glass. After my first semester of glass studies, with Bill Worcester, I was hired by Great Southern Glassworks in Asheville N.C. There I was assistant to Andrew Merrick and Roddy Capers, a position I would have until 1999. I was able still to attend the Penland school while working for Great Southern and studied there extensively in 1997 and 1998. During this time I was fortunate enough to study with Jack Wax, Billy Bernstein, Jose Chardiet, Gianni Toso, and Richard Ritter. In 1991 I was able to attend Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, WA. It was there that I studied with Czech glass master Petr Novotny. This had a great effect on me and began to strengthen my love for European glass. In 2001 and lasting through 2002, I was hired as assistant to glass artist Kenny Pieper in Burnsville, NC. In 2002 I attended glass studies at the Corning Museum of Glass, first with Bill Gudenrath then with Italian glass maestro Elio Quarisa which profoundly affected me both in the glass studio and also outside the studio. Also in 2003, and lasting into 2004, I was hired as assistant to Joe Neilander at Neilander Glass in Spruce Pine, NC. In 2004, I returned to my native South Carolina to be closer to my family and to open my own private studio, Russell Glassworks in Camden, SC where I make glass vessels with a strong Italian and European influence.

Artist Intent

My current body of work has roots deep in the history of Italian glass design. These roots date back to the renaissance when the technical virtuosity of Italian glassblowers was at its zenith and that skill level set the pace for the rest of the world for many decades to come. It was then that certain techniques were pioneered that have captivated the glass world ever since. It has fascinated me that techniques invented in the 1500’s and 1600’s can still be so challenging to master and so intriguing to the modern eye. In the recent past I have tried to immerse myself in these techniques that came to define that era in glass. Incalmo, Reticello, and Filligrana are all techniques that require many years to master and yield visually stunning effects and complex patterns.      So it has been my mission to meld these techniques with modern and contemporary glass forms to achieve my own unique creations in glass. I have also come to greatly appreciate the discipline that is required by these humbling techniques. I fell that I have been affected so greatly by this historical approach to glass making that similar themes and disciplines will always be present in the work that I make.

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