INTRODUCTION TO GLASS ARTWORK AT ARS, Inc.

     Everyone needs breaks occasionally! Actually, every glassblower at ARS, Inc. spends occasional breaks and off-work hours in the glass shop "playing" with glass. Thanks to a wonderful company attitude, all of ARS's shops are open to employees at almost any hour, day or night and visitors are almost always welcome to observe during business hours within reason. Glass work at ARS, is primarily limited to hard glass, such as Pyrex and Quartz variations.

       Because of the many differences, comparing hard glass and soft glass is similar to comparing apples and oranges. Glass requires a very intense, very hot flame and cools very quickly outside of the direct flame. Hence the term "flamework", meaning that the glass is worked while it is bathed in a flame directly in front of a torch. Because of this, it requires an incredible level of skill as well as experience to make such intricate art as you see on this page.

       Because of the extreme sensitivity of the glass to temperature differences, it is nearly impossible to make intricate works with heavier (thicker) walls. That is why almost all hard glass is worked (blown) into objects with thinner walls. Actually, it is as much the quickness of cooling of hard glass as the variable intensity of the torch's flame that the glassblower uses to work the glass, lending this "art" a technical difficulty level and intrigue far above soft glass in its own ways.

         All of the artwork you see here was made from stock tubing or rods of hard glass. Sometimes, it is hard to imagine that a straight rod or tube was transformed into what you see here. But, check-out the link to ARS's glass shop at the bottom of the page to see pictures of work as it was in-progress (though they are not pictures of art glass work). Most of the photographs are of very difficult lathe work, but we will be sure to get some free-handed flameworking as well.

click on any of the pictures in this box to enlarge

- sequence shows process of attaching a port to a large volatile collection chamber.

RUDY STROHSCHEIN - glassblowing

     Rudy is our master glassblower and founder of the former Southern Scientific, Inc., a custom scientific glassware which later expanded into ARS. Rudy has a master's degree in Physical Chemistry and has been making scientific glassware for over thirty years. In just the past few years he has begun to blow glass for artistic purposes after one of his former students introduced him to the elite art glassblowing community. Michael Newsad and Roger Parramore are two of Rudy's former students who actively recruited Rudy into the glass art world. You can find select works from both of them further down this page. Rudy's current apprentices, Joffre Pegram and Vadi Samini, are also represented below.

JOFFRE PEGRAM - glassblowing

      Update coming

VADI SAMINI - glassblowing

     Vadi is a part-time glassblower at ARS, Inc. In his little spare time, he enjoys making very intricate and beautiful glass artwork. Most of the pieces you see here were made only inches from his face since they are so minutely crafted. Vadi is still learning a lot with precision scientific glasswork, but he has got real skills in the artistic world. Vadi is a seasoned veteran of the artistic glass world in Iran, but he now calls the United States his home and is trying to reestablish himself with some difficulty. But, his skill and personal attributes give us all hope and we hope to help him get a separate website of his own soon. If you see an item that you like, Vadi will always be glad to make it to order as well as attempt any custom designs you may have.

MICHAEL NEWSAD - glassblowing

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     Michael is a former employee of ARS, Inc. and keeps-in-touch regularly. He specializes in the human form as seen in the glass vase below. The entire piece is constructed of Pyrex and all figures are blown, thus hollow. This requires extreme skill and Michael does it very well.

DAVID THIRLWELL - photography

     David is a graduate student at the University of Florida's Rinker School of Building Construction and graduate of the School of Architecture also at UF. He is currently taking his final courses and working on his thesis, which takes advantage of his relationship to the experts at ARS. A jack-of-all-trades, David is the primary photographer, architect, contractor, CAD draftsman, 3D designer, web designer, and information technologist of ARS, Inc. His pre-professional background mostly consisted of photography courses, primarily in the realm of creative photography. Although, he takes the product photographs for ARS, his passion lies in the more abstract as seen below. The intent of David's creative photography is to separate the viewer from his or her typical way of viewing a subject whether it be an action, detail, juxtaposition, translucency, etc...

        Feel free to download the images on any of the pages of this website for personal use. We hope that you enjoy our photography and large images. All of our images are available upon request in higher resolutions.

ROGER PARRAMORE - glassblowing

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     Roger is a world-renowned glass artist and former apprentice glassblower to Rudy Strohschein. Roger's artistic work is far more advanced in many areas than anyone at ARS and maybe anywhere in the world! ARS is very proud of Roger's success and who he has become. It is not always easy to study under Rudy, but Roger learned all that he could and moved-on to develop his skills. It was only many years later that Roger appeared and thanked and accredited Rudy for what he had taught him. In turn, Roger inspired and encouraged Rudy's personal interest in the artistic side of glass work. For almost 30 years, the most artistic object Rudy had created was a lop-sided drinking glass, which was intended to be straight! You can see how far Rudy has come with artistic glass above on this page. Needless to say, Roger is held in high regard and we all wish he and family the best.

        We have managed to obtain a few very beautiful vases made by Roger post-ARS. The technical achievement alone is very nearly perfect and at all times, Roger manages to amaze us all by the beauty of proportion and symmetry as well as the creativity of form. The talent and skill required for these works is just incredible, but Roger makes it look easy! We welcome him back to help with distillation columns and large collection chambers any time!

JIM AUSTIN - glassblowing

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       Jim Austin is an IT professional at the Shands Health Care Center in Gainesville, FL who enjoys making glass art for a hobby. Jim makes some of the most beautiful beads we have seen and they're all for sale! The beads shown here are long-gone, but he can make more. Jim also helps us in the office, trying to help us with future email newsletters and client databasing improvements. At this time Jim does not work for ARS and so does not have an email address. So, if you would like to contact him, please use the Information Request Form at the bottom of this page.

GLASS ART BY FRIENDS OF ARS,Inc.

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This series shows an amazing piece

by Jeffrey W. Mack & Joe Cariati from Pilchuck 2001.