PARTNER INFO:

NAME:

RISD GLASS ARTISTS

LOCATION:

PROVIDENCE, RI

INDUSTRY:

GLASS FABRICATION

Glass has been a part of humanity since Egyptian times. People have been learning and doing new things with glass, but the technology hasn’t changed much. There’s still a hand involved, there’s still a making process. It usually involves teamwork, and as far as I’m concerned, in glass, teamwork’s probably the best part of it.

I’ve been working with Holliston for about eight years. I’ve gotten most of my sand and any kind of rock material from them. They’ve always been, not only good at customer service, but specific to my needs as an artist, and as somebody that manages, and facilitates artists to make work.

When they approached me to do a project for them, I tried to think of a piece of glass that would represent kind of the earthiness and material of glass where its roots stem from. So, the idea of the bottle comes from that. It’s usually water to make the design, it’s actually a 17th Century Italian technique.

It starts off with sand on it’s basic level. At the level you see it now, it’s actually molten, and a few other chemicals have been combined. But, for the most part, the raw material is that sand, and a high quality sand makes for a good glass.

There aren’t any imperfections in the sand I get from Holliston, and that’s why we consciously go with it. Because not only are we using it in artistic means, but we have multiple levels of artists using it. So, I want to know that that product is solid for them, and they don’t have to question whether or not that’s okay. And with Holliston they take those questions out of the process so we can focus on moving forward, and making whatever object or form we’re doing to the highest level.

We don’t go anywhere else. Our shop needs, as far as those materials go. Holliston is it.