BioGLASS
BioGlass was launched with a collective of artists that are expert glass makers, equipment builders, biofuel specialists, and educators hoping to inspire new techniques for energy usage
and equipment efficiency to melt and form art glass.
Creating art glass requires a tremendous amount of resources, but the results are spectacular!
Glass has inspired artists, admirers and collectors for millennia, and we hope to inspire more efforts to create sustainability for our craft in the future.
BioGlass was founded by Julie Conway as a 501(c)3 Non Profit organization in 2006 in response to global increase in fuel prices, and the result of many closures of centuries-old glass making facilities.
The group's concern for the loss of culture, and the sustainability of their craft inspired to gather
like-minded artists with similar concerns of making glass art in the future.
Today, the group is a guiding force in the glass art industry. BioGlass members have presented their eco-efficient studio efforts at various glass gatherings including helping, establish the Green Panel at the annual Glass Art Society conference since 2006, as well as AusGlass 2008 in Canberra, Australia; Making Futures Conference 2011 at Plymouth College of Art, in England, California Art Glass 50-Year Celebration in 2012, and the Recuperation Side x Side demonstration in 2013 in Seattle, Washington.
Founding members and guiding committee of BioGlass.org offer their expertise and continually present solutions to creating eco-efficient glass studio practices world wide.
We are a growing community with more resources!
Please CONTACT US for more information or to share information through our platform.
We are an open and growing community of glass artists seeking to make a difference in their art practice to become more sustainable.
FOUNDING MEMBERS Bios----->---->
Julie Conway
Founder of BioGlass
As a contemporary glassmaker, Juliebelieves that we need rapid and creative responses to the current human and environmental challenges today and founded BioGlass.org to make a global community for sharing eco-efficient glassmaking techniques. By introducing innovative ideas that apply to our needs as glassmakers and working together as a global community, we can find solutions for success that save resources, money, time, and energy-- in essence, becoming more sustainable.
BioGlass.org was formed along with other concerned glass artisans, with a goal for research and development for creating sustainable glass making studios, therefore, building a bridge between local artisans and community energy systems to create a positive environmental impact and to protect the future of glass-making.
Julie has lived off the grid in New Mexico, launched several community-based events for Earth Day, and worked with hydrogen generators. Julie currently lives in Seattle in a LEED certified home, and works at Pratt Fine Arts Center, a community based glass studio with recuperated equipment and hydro-electric provided by Seattle Public Utilities. Julie has worked with the Glass Art Society to help create the yearly Green Panel for discussions on sustainability.
Christian Thornton
Christian relocated to Oaxaca, Mexico where he designed and built Studio Xaquixe. Years of labor and innovation have yielded the creation of the “Enviroglassart” concept
(the combination of the necessary components that constitute a sustainable art glass center): formulation of waste glass, recuperation of heat, application of alternative energies and innovation of business models that adhere to the principles of social and environmental responsibility.
These concepts and technologies have enabled Studio Xaquixe to make art and architectural pieces from recycled glass.
Maintaining a vision of collective responsibility for the proper care of the environment makes Xaquixe a pioneer in glass recyclingthen applying that concept to the areas of design, art and architecture using our "Formulated Glass" recipe.
Xaquixe has spent a decade innovating the designs for and production of ovens and studio equipment to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible, and to use our resources and energy efficiently. Our self-designed heat recovery system reuses waste heat from one part of the process and funnel it to another—resulting in equipment that reduces our energy consumption by up to 35%.
In an effort to further transform our energy model, Studio Xaquixeis currently prototyping the collection of manure and organic waste to produce bio-fuel—bio-gas generated from bio-digesters. Reserves of manure from small and medium stables in nearby communities can produce not only a large source of bio-gas, but also safe liquid and solid organic fertilizers. This will make it possible to further reduce our dependence on non-renewable energy in the production process—utilizing a self-sustaining technology to create100% organic products.
Eddie Bernard earned a BFA in Glass 1996 from Rochester Institute of Technology, and founded Wet Dog Glass, LLC. Wet Dog Glass, LLC are specialists in combustion, safety and control systems. Since 1996, they have helped glass and ceramic artists around the world to solve problems unique to each situation. WDG is the most trusted and dependable equipment maker and consultant for craftspeople worldwide. Above all they focus on safety, efficiency, usability and durability.
WDG is committed to providing clients with products that range from studio equipment design, fabrication and installation to consultation and technical support. We are specialists in combustion, safety and control systems, so you can count on us to provide you with exactly what you need. We understand the need for efficiency and we put great effort into bringing you products of the highest quality. Since 1996, we have helped glass and ceramic artists around the world to solve problems unique to each situation.
Hugh Jenkins is a renowned Hawaiian glass art educator, artist and expert in glass studio efficiency, is an innovator for use of renewable energy, alternative fuels such as reclaimed cooking oil and energy efficiency in a glass hot shop. Big Island Glass, is considered a nationally leading glass shop in the use of renewable energy, reclaimed cooking oil and energy efficiency. Hugh has consulted and assisted hot studios with energy efficiency throughout the US.
Hugh and wife Stephanie’s work in response to their surroundings and reflect the ever-changing water, volcano, forest, landscape, and climate of the Big Island. They are proud to be considered a nationally leading studio in the use of renewable energy, with reclaimed cooking oil as their main fuel for melting glass
Charlie Correll, Known as the King of Recuperation Correll Studiospecializes in efficient and sustainable hot shop equipment.
In 1971, Charlie Correll took a part time job blowing glass at the Jamestown Glasshouse of 1608 while attending the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Today, he works in his studio in Conway, Massachusetts blowing glass and building hotshop equipment for private studios and educational institutions all over the country and the world.
In early days, Charlieimprovised furnaces from a pallets of bricks, learning from scratch, going on to design and build furnaces that have become a standard in the field. Adapting industrial techniques to the small scale of the studio, he designed and built his first recuperative glass furnace in 1981. The new designs resulted in better glass, more durable furnaces, and a 60% reduction in his fuel consumption. As word spread, and as the field changed, the need for quality glass melters was met by Correll Glass Studio.
Mary Bayard White
Mary Bayard White is a Bay Area sculptor/arts educator/glass maker with focus on sustainable practice and ecological links to art making. She earned a B.F.A. in Ceramics and an M.F.A. in Glass and Painting from California College of the Arts and from California College of the Arts.
Since 1996 she has been on the Board of Women Eco Artists Dialogue(WEAD). From 2013-15 she taught Ecology and Art classes during Jan Term at St. Mary’s College. From 2002-2013 she was Co-Chair of the Glass Department and instructor at The Crucible in Oakland. 2009-2010, she was a visiting Fulbright Scholar and Lecturer at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland, teaching an experimental graduate seminar called the Landscape of Aesthetics and Design. 1985-2005 Mary was the Glass Area coordinator/ instructor of the San Jose State University Glass Program in San Jose, CA.
In 2006 she designed a flood level marker memorial and flood education site on Boulder Creek in Boulder, Colorado, in honor of her father Gilbert F. White, collaborating with a team of scientists, artists, engineers, city officials and ecologists to complete the project in 2011.
She is currently working on more public art commissions that bring together environmental issues and art making.
Timm Muth
The Jackson County Green Energy Park (JCGEP) utilizes clean, renewable energy resources to encourage economic development, provide environmental protection, and offer educational opportunities that together will help lead towards a more sustainable future for Western North Carolina. Located in Dillsboro, NC, JCGEP captures methane gas from the old town landfill, then uses the gas as fuel for a series of artisan studios.
The Glass Studio is one of the only hot shops in the world utilizing landfill methane gas as a fuel. Glass Studio space is available for rent.
With over 30 years experience in the energy industry, Timm has developed, designed, and managed nuclear facilities, fossil fuel stations, hydropower, solar & wind power installations, and biomass resource stations using landfill gas. Timm has led the effort at the Green Energy Park since its inception in 2005. He brings to the project his enthusiasm for renewable energy, belief in the power of community, and the future.
The systems of the Green Energy Park captures methane gas from the old Dillsboro Landfill for use as fuel. The methane provides heat for blacksmith forges, metal foundry, glassblowing studios, pottery kilns, greenhouses, facility heating. The burning of the captured methane landfill gas, prevents 222 tons of methane from entering the atmosphere and offsets 550 tons of CO2 created by fossil fuels.
Jordan Kube is the general manager of Glassy Baby, an American based glass factory in Seattle, WA and the owner ofSeattle Artist Services offering CNC machining, model building, fabrication, big ideas, energy efficient glass blowing equipment for clients. Jordan’s research and development, technical advising, manufacture of high efficiency equipment for the hot glass industry offers new solutions for the future of glass. Jordan Kube and Hugh Jenkins recently
hosted a side by side comparison exhibition by building a recuperated equipment with stunning savings results.
Durk Valkema
Since 1974 Integrated Glass Systems has been developing durable furnaces and annealing kilns, which are reliable, quiet and fuel efficient. They are always individually constructed in compliance with the demands and requirements of the client and are user-friendly. Furnaces and kilns manufactured by Integrated Glass Systems are currently in use in industry as well as smaller studios, universities and research institutes world-wide.
Our field of activities also consists of direct consulting assignments of various kinds. Integrated Glass Systems And through our broad technical and practical knowledge in combination with aesthetic insight we can act as a sounding board in the development of competitive and technically innovative design for both art glass and product design.
Durk tells people that he is a trained artist and an untrained engineer, and he finds it ironic that he has spend so much of his life involved in solving engineering problems. He believes “the fact is, being able to think like an artist makes you a very rare kind of an engineer".
"As artists – people who are inspired by visions of the possible, who are fundamentally creative, who are skilled with tools and materials – we must continue to adopt smart and creative solutions to ensure the use of glass as a free and independent medium in the arts in the 21st century.”
What We've Achieved:
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