Michael Glancy

As this title suggests, transforming glass through the application of metal was Michael Glancy’s alchemy—a passion he shared through teaching in RISD’s Jewelry and Metalsmith Department for many years. Glancy first engraved this glass form to create a design with raised circles, then covered the circles with a resist vinyl and sprayed the form with electrically conductive paint. When the paint dried, the vinyl was removed and the electroforming process—which fuses metal onto glass—began with the vessel’s submergence into an electrolytic bath.

Glancy took great joy in working with other craftspeople. His blown-glass forms were born through a career-long collaboration with Swedish glassblower Jan-Erik Ritzman, who created the vessel in this composition.

–Emily Banas, associate curator of decorative arts and design