$ 725.00
113852
9″h x 7″w x 2.5″d
Unique blown, carved & sandblasted glass by Thomas Spake.
Thomas Spake Studios sits on a fifty-acre farm in rural Jasper, TN at the mouth of the Sequatchie Valley and the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. This idyllic setting—surrounded by hardwood forest, a spring-fed pond, and herds of deer— provides ample inspiration for Spake’s award-winning glasswork.
Spake discovered glassblowing as an undergraduate student on a basketball scholarship at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. Awestruck at seeing molten glass gathered from the furnace onto steel blowpipes and manipulated into solid forms, he knew he’d found his calling. Spake’s transition from athlete to artisan was aided by his experience on the basketball court; both activities require teamwork, strength, and hand-eye coordination—all second nature to Spake, who refers to glassblowing as the “extreme sport of the art-world.”
After completing a B.A. in 1997, Spake refined his craftsmanship as the glass artist-in-residence at the Appalachian Center for Craft (Smithville, TN). He founded Thomas Spake Studio in 2002. He shares his one-of-a-kind glasswork in galleries, museum shops, and his retail booth at juried art and craft shows throughout the country.
“The colors, textures, and surfaces of my hand-blown glass vessels and sculptures are inspired by the beauty and wonder of the natural world. I gather references from photographic images, including aerial and drone photography, but the resulting colors and patterns are more akin to the sun-dappled scenes of impressionist paintings. By distilling the splendor and monumentality of nature into one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted art objects, I hope to spark fond recollections of time spent in nature: trips to a national park, a walk in the woods, or a spring day in a garden or meadow in full bloom. Much in the way that beaches, mountains, and landscapes are eroded over time by wind and water, the surface of each piece is treated for a smooth, matte finish. Some are carved to reveal the translucent interior below the colorful surface. The resulting textures confound perceptions of glass as a sleek, glossy material.”
