Its Saturday evening in New York, Meatpackers district to be more precise. My journey started at the beginning of this month, first stopping in Germany, where I visited Samuel and Ilona in Schiesheim.
This was the first leg of my epic glass tour across two continents. Whilst in D-land Sam was so kind to take me to Hadamar, to visit our School where we did our apprenticeship. By the sounds of it the Schleifferei has no current students. This is rather worrying and indicates a stagnant growth of qualified cold workers coming through this particular avenue.
When I was last in Europe, during 2011, there were already hints towards this trend. And not only in Hadamar but also in the Czech Republic. It looks like this might be due to various aspects. Economics possibly being the highest ranking factor, as most students and parents can’t see how you’ll pay the bills after three years of study / apprenticeship.
These are personal opinions but the fact is that the fires of my trade are waning. The masters are passing and us few, Samuel included, are the current torchbearers. I want to see more flames emerge behind me though.
That is also one of the reasons I planned this trip, this epic glass journey across the world. I want to see what the international state in glass, in creative and artistic glass currently is.
It is not all gloom though. Hadamar has opened it Glasmuseum to the public after several years of uncertainty. I was very fortunate to have a private tour through the rooms with Wolfgang Hofmann and Willi Pistor, who both took time off to share personal interpretations and anecdotes on the displayed works and artists.
The rooms of the museum are in a wing of the Hadamar renaissance palace with original renovated ceiling paintings and friezes. The most impressive though are the detailed inlaid wooden floors. One has to wear puffy felt overshoes when entering the space to avoid damage to the floors.
In contrast to the classical interior, modern, well lit rectangular monoliths of plate glass, metal and wood house the museum’s historic and contemporary collection. These displays, although angular and almost alien to the rest of the classic opulence in the rooms, seemed subdued and welcoming, inviting visitors to view their contents.
And what a selection there is! With examples of ancient roman glass to works from past masters who taught at the Erwin-Stein-Schule. Each cabinet dedicated to a person or theme. I am proud to say that some of the masters in the permanent collection such as Josef Welzel and Willi Pistor were my mentors.
The museum also has rotating exhibits which include retrospects as well as contemporary shows throughout the year.

Then there was Schiesheim…

Samuel Weisenborn probably has one of the most comprehensive private cold working studios in Europe. His selection of wheels and disks is close to endless and with several machines all running smoothly this studio can tackle large and small scale projects over and above the knowledge and skills Samuel has to offer.
I couldn’t just idly sit around and had to “test drive” his space. In the store I found an obsolete project which Samuel was kind enough to pass on to me to scratch my creative itch. It was such a pleasure spending a whole day in the studio and “shooting from the hip”, making a little Schiesheim Session Sculpture.

Thank you to everybody who made the few days in Germany special, especially Sam and Ilona!