Started working in glass in the 1970’s.
www.unionstreetglass.com

Guy Corrie, designer, glassblower, and master craftsperson, with the help of his wife and business partner Leanne, carved out their vision for a contemporary art glass studio, and Union Street Glass was born in 1980. By fusing innovative design concepts with old world glassblowing techniques, Guy, Leanne, and their studio continue to forge new interest in and appreciation for their unique art form.

Through his commitment to creating fresh innovations and his obsession with hand blown glass, Union Street Glass has grown from a tiny 600 square foot studio into a 10,000 square foot studio in Richmond, CA. Guy works with a small team of skilled artists who create our home accessories, lamps, and light fixtures here in the studio. Together they produce about thirty pieces per day. We are still a small family of ten employees, which ensures that each of us works toward our commitment to quality, and that the pieces you purchase from us were made with loving care.

Over the years, we have developed a sister production team in the Czech Republic’s community of Bohemian Glass blowers. After years of producing stemware in house, our Bohemian partners have exceeded the stemware skills we developed here and drastically improved the quality of our stemware. Guy explains, “They demonstrate the commitment to quality and detail I require of all my designs that wear the Union Street Glass mark. I personally train the artisans to create my designs, but usually discover I learn as much as I teach. These glassblowers have a 200 year tradition in mouth blown glass, passed down from generation to generation. Our partnership has allowed us to maintain our commitment to quality.”

Both Guy and Leanne grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and they have always been inspired by the natural, urban, and human elements of this special region. Since Guy discovered the art of glass blowing, he has been dedicated to promoting the art and supporting the movement throughout the Bay Area and beyond.

Trans Trio for Light Fixtures
Guy Corrie

Urchin Small Flat Vase
Guy Corrie

Complete Artist Bio and artwork images coming soon…

Started working in glass in 1975 in Colorado, and has been working in California for 31 years.
www.susanlongini.com

Susan J. Longini has been involved in the glass world for over 3 decades as studio artist, educator and administrator.

Longini received her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major in sculpture from the University of Michigan and did postgraduate work at San Jose State University and California College of the Arts under Marvin Lipofsky. She also attended the Pilchuck School in Washington for two summers and has studied under Paul Marioni, Barbara Vassen, Elbinus Elskus, and Narcissus Quagliata.

From 1986 to 2003 she was Adjunct Professor and head of the Glass Program at Ohlone College in Fremont. In 2002 with Mary B. White, she co-chaired the California Glass Exchange, a 4-day conference for glass artists and university art students from all of California.

As Executive Director of the Bay Area Glass Institute (BAGI), 2002-2004, Longini headed the buildout of the BAGI studio, including the hot shop, gift shop, gallery, and flameworking studio. During this time BAGI developed classes, lectures and demonstrations, master workshops, docent tours, mentorship and apprenticeship programs and gallery shows.

As an artist working in glass, Longini has exhibited throughout the United States. Her work is in public and private collections in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. She is a frequent lecturer, guest curator and juror.

In addition to her career as a studio artist, she is President of the Glass Alliance of Northern California (GLANC), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to further education and appreciation of glass art. GLANC sponsors educational tours, lectures and shows relating to glass, publishes a quarterly newsletter and hosts a website with a comprehensive glass calendar of events. She served on the City of Fremont Art Review Board from 2000 to 2010, in charge of awarding artists grants for Art in Public Places projects.

“Amphorae Grande Crosshatch Spring Cobalt Pair”
Susan Longini
2006
Pate de verre with reservoir-cast bases
Each 35” x 17” x 8”

“Amphora Grande Carnivale”
Susan Longini
2006
Pate de verre with reservoir-cast base
35” x 17” x 8”

Complete Artist Bio and artwork images coming soon…

Started working in glass in 1970 in Berkeley, California.
www.davidruth.com

David Ruth casts glass in his studio in East Oakland, making large-scale blocks and panels.  He was a student of Marvin Lipofsky at CCA and has traveled, taught and exhibited widely.  His current project is developing work from a National Science Foundation grant to take texture molds off glacier ice and stone in Antarctica.  He also makes architectural and environmental sculpture and is an expert in the casting of borosilicate, or Pyrex-type glasses.

“Erebus”
David Ruth
2008
Cast, fusedg lass, stainless gteel
68x4x24-inches

Llght Marker Series
David Ruth
2005
Cast, polished Pyrex’type glass (borosilicate), stainless steel
Tallest: l0-feet

Complete Artist Bio and artwork images coming soon…

Started working in glass in 1969 at the California College of Arts and Crafts (now CCA) in Oakland, CA.
www.rstrong.com

Randy Strong – artist and designer in hot glass for 40 years, has worked continuously throughout his career producing innovative designs in glass that continually influence the ever changing and growing community of studio glass artists.

Randy is one of a handful of the early pioneering American Glass Artists to help define American Studio Art Glass.  Before he was to enter the world of glass however, he began his broad education in the arts by working in and collecting photography.  In the late 60’s he was working as an events photographer for the Oakland Tribune, and for a brief period, was privileged to work with and learn from photographer Ansel Adams.  His first taste of working in glass came in 1969 at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California where he began by studying ceramics and was fortunate to have as his mentor, the renowned ceramicist, Peter Voulkos.  Upon graduation in 1970 he received one of the first scholarships to the University of Art in Osaka, Japan as one of the first exchange students between the Universities of Calif., Calif. College of Arts and Crafts, and Osaka, Japan.  That grounding in ceramics led him into the largely unknown frontier of studio art glass.  In 1970, he was with Dale Chihuly when Dale and the Haubergs selected the location for the now renowned Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, Washington – and the journey into that frontier was well underway.

Many of today’s successful working glass artists are either former students, or have worked with or for him at one time.  His work, ranging from his distinctive crystal and gold goblets and his ground-breaking work with dichroic glass, to his imposing cast sculptures, and now his seemingly gravity defying, color saturated, multi-piece sculptures, have been acquired by collectors internationally and are a part of collections ranging from The Corning Museum in New York, to the Louvre in Paris.

Randy’s work through the last four decades has been characterized by the use of difficult, defining techniques, materials, colors and forms. His newest sculptural work again breaks new ground by challenging the concept of solid form in glass by further expressing its personality in lightness and movement.

It is said that the artist’s heart and passion is reflected in their work.  His new work does just that.

In 1970, he established his own studio and gallery in Northern California, where he continues to create, design and teach.

“Desert Cactus”
Randy Strong
2012
Glass
17.5″ x 18″ x 29″

“Blue Orchid’
Randy Strong
2012
Glass
12″ x 12″ x 25″

www.adamschittenden.com

We started-up in West Berkeley as Adams & Chittenden Scientific Glass in the fall of 1993. In the winter of 1997 we moved to our new, expanded facility. Our location in the San Francisco Bay Area has brought us into contact with a wide variety of glass users and we’ve benefited from the diversity of work being done here. We have been accumulating glassblowers and equipment, and are constantly learning about new applications for glass and better ways to serve our customers.

Tom Adams (on the left) graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in Physics. Tom began scientific glassblowing in 1971 at R & D Glass in Berkeley, eventually becoming production manager. He has long experience in design and fabrication of all varieties of scientific and laboratory glassware. He lives with his two kids, a dog, and sea kayaks in Richmond. He enjoys folk dancing and paddles his kayak on the San Francisco Bay and environs (check out Bay Area Sea Kayakers).

George Chittenden (on the right) graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in Art, specializing in ceramics and glass. He apprenticed in scientific glassblowing for four years with Willy Van Bragt at Selectro Scientific Glass in Sunnyvale. In 1984 he moved to R & D Glass, where he worked until mid-1993 as a primary glassblower in all facets of custom and production glass fabrication. He combines his love of glass with a lifelong pursuit of music. He is also responsible for most of the photography on this site.
EEFC Eastern European Folklife Center
Edessa high-energy music from the Balkans
Ziyia traditional Greek music ensemble
Ashkenaz world music community center in Berkeley,
Lise Liepman shameless plug for my wife!

We are proud to appear in “Made in Berkeley”, a short film about industry and vision. Action footage includes bread makers, welders, and harpsichord building, in addition to ~6 seconds of (exciting!) scientific glassblowing; and that is just from our block!! Bravo to the filmmakers for a well made film, and making the important argument for diversity in an urban environment.

We are supporting members and participants in WEBAIC, the West Berkeley Artisans and Industrial Companies, who continue the effort to maintain a sustainable urban environment in West Berkeley – a place for all of us to thrive.

We were recently featured in Scientific America’s blog “Symbiartic -The art of science and the science of art.”

And for a historical perspective, an article from the 1918 New York Times is fun to note.

We are also proud to be re-certified as participants in the Bay Area Green Business Program.

Complete Artist Bio and artwork images coming soon…

Keynote Speaker
Started working in glass in 1973 in Austin, TX, and has been working in California for 24 years.
www.facebook.com/susan.stinsmuehlenamend

Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend, a past board member of the Glass Art Society (1982-86) and an Honorary Life Member, served as the first woman president from 1984-86.  Her work in glass and mixed media, architectural glass, hot glass and public art is included in many private collections and public institutions including the LA County Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of the Arts, Oakland Museum of California, Museum of Art and Design, NY, and City of Los Angeles among others. Stinsmuehlen-Amend has taught at the Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA for many years (1980-1997, 2005, 2007-08, 2011) and has been a visiting artist at RISD, RIT, Tyler School of Art, CA College of the Arts, CA State Universities San Bernadino and Fullerton, Massachusetts College of Art, Ohio and Illinois Universities, The Pittsburgh Glass Center, North Lands Creative Glass (Scotland) and numerous other glass and public art conferences.  A Trustee Emeritus of The American Craft Council, she has served as Chair and member of the Arts Commission for the City of Ojai, CA for over a decade and recently has been appointed to the Pilchuck Board.  She is a past recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, two Pilchuck Glass School Hauberg Fellowships (2001 and 2012), the 2007 Libensky Award, and 2006 Artist Residencies at Pilchuck and the Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington.

In her review from Glass Quarterly for Stinsmuehlen-Amend’s 2007 solo exhibition at D&A Fine Arts in Los Angeles, Annie Buckley writes about her recent work:

“Words and images are frozen in place, suspended in the glass as
unmoving as an obsessive worry or a tune you can’t get out of your head. Whether a pop song or the memory of a whisper, Stinsmuehlen-Amend’s work functions like a visual soundtrack, mapping the unpredictable rhythms of thought.”

“Pastoral Kuklos”
Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend
2011
kiln-fired paint on glass w/ wood support (three layers of glass)
29” x 33” x 3”

“Fluid & Dynamic”
Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend
2011
kiln-fired paint on glass w/ metal support
35” x 20” x 2”