Original publish date: Jan. 31st, 2012
The winter sun and Jacob's American made hand blown vessels are a wonderful combination.
Using techniques perfected in Venice 500 years ago, Stout enjoys
applying these skills to modern glass design. All of his work begins
from the raw ingredients, silica, soda and lime, melted at 2500 degrees
into a hot, gooey liquid we know as glass. With a steel blowpipe he is
able to gather the hot glass on the tip and blow a bubble into it. As his
assistant blows into the pipe, Jacob sits at a bench and uses steel hand
tools to manipulate the bubble of glass into a desired shape. A punty
(solid steel rod) with a small gather of glass on the tip is then stuck on
the bottom of the vessel, and the piece is cracked off the blowpipe.
Once transferred, the top of the piece is finished and tapped off into
an annealing oven to be cooled slowly.
His uses watermelon colors when creating the pair of opposite colored pitchers. The match of size and color saturation is near perfect.
Now add his matching bowl. The variety of textures and color bend the light to dance on the table.
This process of glassblowing is very quick and requires much concentration, practiced technique, and good assistant communication. The study of these techniques inspires his forms and design choices. Smooth curves and transition of lines combine to create the figure of these vessels. Because no molds are used in his work, each piece displays a one-of-a-kind, hand-made appearance.
These are on display at the Harvest Gold Gallery in beautiful downtown Center Lovell, Maine on Kezar Lake overlooking the White Mountains of New Hampshire and Mount Washington.
