Blowout at Kittrell Riffkind 1998

Rev. 2003-05-03 (image size, layout), 2005-02-26

Kittrell/Riffkind Art Glass  as a Source

Kittrell-Riffkind Art Glass is located near the intersection of Beltline and the Dallas North Tollroad in the shopping area some will recall as Sakowitz Village, just east of the Tollroad. The gallery portion of the store, under Barbara Kittrell's hand is mostly hot glass, while Michael Riffkind oversees the stained glass, fusing, and lampworking classes and supply sales. In early May 1998, a month long show started with a two day glass blowout held at the edge of the parking lot with most Texas furnace glass artists taking a time slot and with lampworking artists doing demos just inside the door.

Michael Riffkind (standing), Matthew LaBarbara (seated center), Diane Flynn (standing center) with the front of KR in the background, blowing floor to the right.

General shot of the blowing floor. The studio was created from equipment borrowed from various sources, including Art Allison and Hickory Street Hot Glass. The furnace and glory hole were fired from propane bottles. The annealer was the regular one in in K-R, about a 25 yard run from the hot floor. A surprise to me was the well worn work bench, a standup, but one where the worker faces the audience. Missed in the photography was Brad Abrams who has a studio in southeast Dallas.

The heavy green "pipe" is the permanent handrail for the steps up to the right. Hugh Erwin, working at the bench, is one of four principals involved in Hickory Street Hot Glass, near Fair Park, just east of downtown Dallas. Hugh has been around hot glass in Dallas for a long time.

Pieces made at the demos, plus some donated pieces from the artists were sold at a silent auction to benefit the Dallas Visual Arts Center, east of downtown.

One of the window displays inside Kittrell-Riffkind showing pieces by some of the artists working glass.

Matthew LaBarbera probably came the farthest, since his Fire Island studio is in Austin where he works with his wife, Teresa Ueltschey. Part of their production are Cave Weights, ovoid multilayered pieces that are ground flat on one side to cut through the layers and view the cave-like solid interior.

Art Allison works glass beside the road north from Pottsboro TX to Lake Texoma. Many of his pieces show distinctive use of dark background glass and metallic fumed details. Here he is working a quick marble using a modified piece of tubing held with a pair of pliers.

Diane Flynn, besides being very tall, also is one of the few who works both the lamp and the furnace, having started with beadmaking and worked up to teaching that before starting at the furnace. She prepared small leaves and flowers during her torch demo and used them on the vase she made in her furnace demo. Here she is just picking them up. Her studio is in Arlington.

Terry Maxwell owns Divas Glass Art, Burleson TX, south of Ft. Worth, where she also offers classes. Terry started with stained glass and does some lampworking as well as a lot of furnace working. The chalk sketch on the floor is of a double piece attempted earlier (the piece ended where the chalk is.)

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