KATHERINE MCMAHON
Habitat is a weekly series that visits with artists in their workspaces.
This week’s studio: Thaddeus Wolfe; East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “Sometimes people call them illuminated sculptures but I call them lamps. I don’t want to make it pretentious,” Thaddeus Wolfe said, holding one of his pieces. The glass artist, from Toledo, Ohio, is currently preparing for a solo show at R & Company in Tribeca, which opens September 8 and will showcase new pendants, vessels, and “illuminated sculptures,” to borrow the gallery’s term.
While in the studio, Wolfe balances multiple projects at once and typically works on three to four pieces at a time. “I’ll spend a few days working on assembling the foam,” he said. “It only takes an hour or two to blow glass, and a few hours to make the mold. I usually only blow glass three days a month. The preparation, polishing, and casting takes the longest time.” Wolfe started out studying fine arts before eventually receiving a BFA in glass at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Eventually he moved to New York, where he’s lived for the past 12 years. He’s very strict about his music choices. “Usually I’ll listen to the news until around noon,” he told me. “I like WFMU radio and I’ve been digging this Beach Boys album Friends recently. Then I’ll listen to embarrassing music when everyone leaves.”
In addition to glass artistry, Wolfe is also an avid mushroom forager, and suggests Wolfe’s Pond Park in Staten Island and the North Woods of Central Park for foraging. Several pieces in his upcoming show will incorporate color schemes and patterns found on certain mushrooms. Below, Wolfe takes us around his studio and shares more inspirations and insight into his process.
ALL PHOTOS: KATHERINE MCMAHON
01
"This is a piece I am working on for the upcoming show. I generally start things in Styrofoam. Once this is finished I’ll take a mold of of it, and blow glass into that mold. This particular piece will be made in separate sections, because it is too large to blow in one piece."
"This is a special machine for glass cutting, grinding, and polishing. It’s a type of lathe. This particular one is from the Czech Republic. Water is essential with this machine. It keeps the glass cool, so that it does not heat up and crack from the friction of grinding."
"These are the attachments for the lathe. They all have different purposes. The wheels to the left use diamonds embedded in bronze for cutting/shaping. I use rubber drum wheels with the various belts seen along the top for planing down and polishing flat surfaces."
"The optical art book in the center was written by a relatively unknown painter of that era who taught high school art. He includes a lot of his student’s work as examples throughout the book, which are quite impressive. I bet he was an awesome teacher."
"A little sandblaster that doesn’t get used too often. It comes in handy for cleaning up metal parts before applying patinas."
"I prefer makita tools. The first drill I ever had was a makita. Their cordless drills have come a long way since then."
"Cold-working glass always uses water. Its important to wear boots and a vinyl apron to keep dry."
"Two lamps in progress for the upcoming show. When finished, they will hang from a cast bronze fitting made specific to each of them. Many of the flat planes on these have been ground down and polished. The grinding/polishing removes the exterior color layer and allows light to permeate through the outer layers of the piece."
"This is the end of the drain line for the cold working machines. There’s a lot of glass sludge produced from grinding, so that grey container acts as a trap to filter sediment before the water goes into the floor drain."
"The lathe being used with a sanding drum to rough sand a piece."
"Closeup of the lathe wheel/spindle. Using the lathe, you have to adjust the water supply and spray guard (the brown colored parts to the right) differently for each wheel, to keep the wheel properly wet, and to prevent water and glass bits from spraying into your face."
"I sketch any ideas I have. Depending on what I am working on, I put the relevant ones on the wall to keep focused on what I am thinking about…most people do this, I suppose."
"Some small models and some minerals."
"The piece in the foreground is made by smearing on hot blobs colored glass on top of a thick clear glass bubble before blowing into the mold. I particularly enjoy doing this because it is such a simple direct technique, compared with some of the other color processes I employ."
"This is the base piece of a tall column-like floor lamp. There are two other sections which stack on top of this. This type of translucent white is one of my favorite glass colors for pieces which are illuminated."