Lino Tagliapietra surveys a piece at the Museum of Glass earlier this week. courtesy: Museum of Glass
There’s no footage of master glassblower Lino Tagliapietra‘s early days in Murano, but glass lovers can watch him work live via the Museum of Glass website, where he is a visiting artist for the week. With the help of Nancy Callan, Dave Walters, and the rest of his usual team, as well as the hotshop team at the MoG Hot Shop, Tagliapietra is dedicating six hours a day to non-stop glassblowing, all on view here during museum hours.
This weeklong visit, not Tagliapietra’s first to blow glass at MoG, has dovetailed nicely with the end of the GAS 2011 Conference in Seattle on June 5. Many attendees remained in Washington to watch him blow glass this week, said MoG Communications Manager Susan Newsom. “People love him. He’s just incredible to watch. We wish we could be down there [in the hot shop] all day,” she added.
Tagliapietra and team at work on a new piece. courtesy: Museum of Glass
Working through lunch, Tagliapietra and his team have been creating a range of different objects, including some large-scale pieces, at an impressive, seemingly effortless speed. “When he finishes a piece, he’s already moving on to the next one,” Newsom said. MoG has been documenting the residency, posting photographs on their Facebook page to complement the daily video stream.