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William Morris Glass Works Simply Enchanting
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Friday, August 31, 2018
 

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

I wanted badly to pick up William Morris’ “Rattle, ” which resembles a fabulous  artifact cast in glass that evokes thoughts of clay artifacts of indigenous people from centuries ago.

Does it shake? I wondered.

Then I saw the price tag: $59,000. And I decided the curiosity that fueled temptation would have to be tempered.

Fortunately, gallery owner Andria Friesen was at my side with the answer to my question.

“The intention was for it to rattle. But, since it was molten glass, the beads disintegrated,” she said.

While the glass particles inside the rattle may have disintegrated, interest in William Morris’ exquisite blown glass works have not. The No 1 glassblower in the world, he retired in 2007 at the age of 51 following three wrist surgeries and two back surgeries to repair injuries caused by from the strain his physical work demanded. 

He could have had his team, considered the best glass blowing team in the world, continue to create works that he could have signed. But he chose not to and sold all his equipment, including tools hundreds of years old.

As the availability of his works declined, the price for those still open to purchase by collectors has only gone up.

Fortunately, Sun Valley residents and visitors can see his work periodically at Friesen Gallery. The gallery has represented Morris since 1989, earning it the distinction as the gallery representing him the longest.

“It’s an absolute honor to represent him,” said Friesen.

Those taking part in tonight’s Labor Day Gallery Walk can see six of Morris’ blown glass works and two bronze works at the gallery located at 320 1st Ave. N.—just off Sun Valley Road in Ketchum. The gallery will be open from 5 to 8 p.m., along with several other Ketchum galleries.

Av avid backcountry hiker, much of Morris’s work is informed by nature and his longtime interest in archaeology.

“He always said he created what he would like to find on his hikes,” said Friesen.

One of the stunning pieces in Friesen’s current exhibition is a bronze Canopic Jar with a Giant Eland head.

In Egypt, when the pharaoh died, a pyramid was built for his tomb. Four of the top artists in the land were commissioned to create Canopic jars in ceramic—each with a head representing a different fish, fowl or animal.

Various organs—the stomach, intestines, lungs and liver—were deposited in the receptacles for their safeguarding, while the heart was put back in the mummified body. The jars with the heads were then lined up to look over the body.

In the early 1980s Morris was approached by a glass collector who wanted him to commission an entire tomb’s worth of these objects. It piqued the artist’s interest enough that he began researching the jars.

“What he produced became the single most important series of sculptures of glass in the world,” said Friesen. “Most of the pieces are in museums, but the last was up for sale eight or 10 year ago during the height of the Recession, and it sold for more than a quarter million dollars.”

A Mazorca urn several feet away from the Canopic jar was created in glass but features a sand-like mix that gives it the illusion of being fine ceramic with wood grains in the neck.

The Carmel, Calif., native who worked in Seattle created it by depositing piles of colored glass silica as fine as powder in a stainless steel plate about two and a half feet long. He then created patterns or images by moving the various colors of powdered glass around with a tiny vacuum the size of a pen.

Next, he would begin blowing glass with his pipe until it was the size of the plate. And he would roll the glass one full revolution across the plate so it was coated with the powder.

Once that was done, he would continue blowing the glass, causing the patterns or images to expand as the glass piece grew.

“He had to be so précise,” said Friesen.”They did a little of this in Italy where they might roll the front and back but leave the sides blank. William Morris took it to the extreme, coating it 360 degrees.”

Adding to the difficulty, Friesen said, is the fact that glassblowers can’t hold their piece right up against their hands as they blow.

“For every 10 inches you go back, the weight doubles. And you need to be 25, 30 inches away. All it takes is one slip-up and the entire thing falls to the floor and breaks,” she said.

In response to 9-11, Morris created cinerary urns using an ancient technique called scavo. It involves tapping the blown glass with what resembles a strainer coated with glass powder to give it an antiquated look.

“It’s like coating cookies with powdered sugar,” said Friesen. “He created a large body of work and showed them two years later at the American Craft Museum in New York, then on world tour. Now we have a couple here.”

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