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Whitfield Designs | |
| Warner Whitfield uses the ancient lampwork technique of glassblowing, sometimes called flamework, a method of making glass objects that dates back thousands of years to the time when glass was worked over an oil burning lamp or flame.
Warner is inspired in creating his original designs by the forms, shapes, and textures found in nature. He creates each piece individually, from rods or tubes of clear or colored glass. He uses borosilicate glass, often opting to work In the difficult area of color, which requires far more skill and technical experience than working solely in clear crystal.
Whitfield creates each piece by melting and manipulating glass rods or tubes of various diameters over a gas-oxygen flame. He also works with specially formulated colored glass rods, and shapes the glass at temperatures in excess of 2800 degrees F.
He began working in glass in 1972 and established his own studio in 1976. He studied art at the University of Maine and has pursued studies in glass at two of the world’s most renowned schools, the Haystack Craft School, Maine, and the Penland Craft School in North Carolina. He also apprenticed with master glass artist Fritz Bachman from Hamburg, Germany for four years. |
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