2 weeks Ago By Billy Schuerman
Visiting Artist Jeff Mack uses a torch to shape the glass body of a panther for his Glass After Dark show at the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio in Norfolk, Virginia, on Sept. 19, 2024. (Billy Schuerman / The Virginian-Pilot) Visiting Artist Jeff Mack shapes the glass head of a panther for his Glass After Dark show at the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio in Norfolk, Virginia, on Sept.
19, 2024. (Billy Schuerman / The Virginian-Pilot) Visiting Artist Jeff Mack shapes the glass body of a panther for his Glass After Dark show at the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio in Norfolk, Virginia, on Sept. 19, 2024.
The glass is infused with neodymium, a rare-earth metal, to create the vibrant coloring. Neodymium glass changes color according to different lighting conditions. The glass appears lilac in natural sunlight or yellow artificial light, and smoky blue in fluorescent/white light due to the presence of Neodymium oxide in the glass.
(Billy Schuerman / The Virginian-Pilot) Visiting Artist Jeff Mack heats the glass head of a panther for his Glass After Dark show at the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio in Norfolk, Virginia, on Sept. 19, 2024. (Billy Schuerman / The Virginian-Pilot) Visiting Artist Jeff Mack uses a torch to shape the glass head of a panther for his Glass After Dark show at the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio in Norfolk, Virginia, on Sept.
19, 2024. (Billy Schuerman / The Virginian-Pilot) Visiting Artist Jeff Mack shapes the glass body of a panther for his Glass After Dark show at the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio in Norfolk, Virginia, on Sept. 19, 2024.
(Billy Schuerman / The Virginian-Pilot) Visiting Artist Jeff Mack uses a torch to shape the glass body of a panther for his Glass After Dark show at the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio in Norfolk, Virginia, on Sept. 19, 2024. (Billy Schuerman / The Virginian-Pilot) Sweat dripped off Jeff Mack’s forehead Thursday as he bent over a red-hot tube of molten neodymium glass, a rich, ruby color under the window light.
The artisan was preparing for his Glass After Dark show in the newly renovated Perry Glass studio at the Chrysler Museum of Art. Mack drew inspiration from “Bowl with Two Panthers” by French potter Pierre-Adrien Dalpayrat. Mack saw the Art Nouveau piece almost 10 years ago on a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and was struck by the distinctive copper-red glaze mottled with streaks of blue, green and yellow.
Mack, now a professor at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, started blowing glass 30 years ago at an amusement park for spectators coming off rides. “It means a lot to be here,” Mack said. “It is like a glassblowing vacation, except it’s very stressful.
It is an opportunity to explore an idea I’ve had for a long time.” Mack will host free glassblowing demos Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m.
to 1 p.m. and 2:30 to 5 p.
m. A lecture with artists will be at 7 p.m.
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