The cover of this month’s American Style Magazine jumped out at me as I quickly scanned a row of art magazines yesterday at the bookstore. The image of botanical sculpture Tea Rose Botanical with Honeybee and Mask, belongs to world renowned glass artist Paul Stankard. At first glance I was certain that some of the elements encapsulated in the glass block were real. And that is the magic of Stankard’s work. His ability to wrestle with realism (and win) distinguish the artist as a contemporary glass master.
Homage to Walt Whitman Cube
The images on Stankard’s website are beautiful, however I found the pictures in the article more compelling, bringing you up close and personal both to the extremely detailed work and to the master himself.
Perhaps best known for his paperweights, Paul Stankard is featured in Corning Glass Museum’s short video about paperweights, where the viewer is treated to a front row seat as the artist creates one of his intricate botanical paperweights.
Columbus, OH is somehow a real hotbed for glass art – we have (I believe) two galleries that specialize in glass, one of which frequently features Stankard’s work. They’re certainly gorgeous in print, but in person? it’s like falling into another world. I am in total awe of his skills — well, pretty much in awe of anyone who works in glass, but the detail in his pieces – you’d never guess it’s all glass. It looks like he created the inner pieces in some other medium and imbedded them in the clear glass.
Oo! I wonder how this would work with resin and recycled materials? Living in an apartment kind of puts a damper on glasswork or anything dealing with fire.
So many times when I see things like glass work, I try to figure out how it would translated into resin, since I don’t need any heat to cure it. Thanks so much Susan! 
The glass artist in the video was amazing! How very beautiful and detailed his work is!
I bet your could make some 3-D flowers from polymer clay and embed them in resin like Colourgirlie was talking about. That would be fun to experiment with. Would never quite be like glass, but could be cool nonetheless!
[...] …there is truth in the old adage “practice makes perfect”. [...]