Amber Cowan Reshapes History with Her Glass Works
One of Amber Cowan’s favorite stories begins with an email sent from a stranger. At Philadelphia International Airport, a man had came across a display of her work titled “Siphonaea Wall of Recycled Glass.” Inside that show was a set of green transparent dishes Cowan had transformed into sculptures that appeared to be growing vines and other plant-life, an example of the artist’s talents in transforming multiple vintage pieces into something new entirely. In the message sent to her inbox, the man shares that he had become emotional at the sight of these works, as the glass pieces utilized were the same dishes his grandparents had used to serve him ice cream four decades prior. He hadn’t thought of those dishes since then.
This kind of deep-seated recognition between viewer and artwork is common for the Philadelphia artist, whose practice is based in “flameworking, blowing, and hot-sculpting recycled, upcycled, and second-life glass.” Contained within them are pieces from your grandmother’s knickknack shelf or a nostalgia-inducing family restaurant. A majority of Cowan’s work is “cullet,” meaning “the factory scraps that get tossed into a pile after a run of production of a particular colored piece they are creating.” Cowan takes these scraps and remelts them, one by one, and reshapes them. Most of the cullet she uses comes from factories no longer in operation.
The hues in Cowan’s work are distinct, matched and paired among disparate findings from various locales. You find “Chocolate,” a color popular across glassware pressed in the 1800s, or the distinct “Sky Blue” found in pieces salvaged from factory yards in West Virginia or Midwestern states. “In general I am not remelting pieces that are already in a salable form,” Cowan says. “I do however incorporate pieces into my work that I have collected to tell a story, add volume, depth or pattern into the sculptures. I collect pieces that are the same color as the cullet that I am using and search them out. I get very excited if I find an unusual character piece in a particular color that I am working with at the time.”
She says she always had a fascination with three-dimensional materials, especially during her childhood. Her high school had an “unusually high number” of ceramics wheels, and there, she was taught the principles of stained glass and many other more materials and disciplines. “I was always attracted to glass though, and remember even buying my mother glass presents for many occasions,” she says. “My favorite objects as a child were a set of pink elephant swizzle sticks that I had found in the basement cabinet. So, I was lucky enough to know at a very young age the material that I wanted to work with.”
She’s spent nearly two decades in glass as an expression. Through school, she’d concentrate in this material while getting a degree in three-dimensional design from Salisbury University. Glass and ceramics were also her focus while acquiring her MFA at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, where she now lives. Her output has evolved from the large and experimental to current work resembling dioramas—fantastical worlds where flora, fauna, and figures are present. She frames these sunken narratives in vegetation and otherworldly forms, and often being cast in that same vintage cover, one must really inspect the works to find their treasures. Inside “Bridesmaid’s Forest,” cast in vintage chameleon green glass, a cast of characters is revealed: the titular “Bridesmaid” doll, a whale, a duck, a deer, a snail, a turtle, and surprising lifeforms.
Lately, the work’s taken a autobiographical slant: “The pieces that I am gravitating towards lately are creating these story scenes, similar to ‘Bridesmaid’s Search for the Desert Rose’—pieces where I build a narrative around the collected pieces and intermix with personal visions, dreams and stories of travel from my own life. The piece I am excited about the most right now has ballerinas, fish, swans, and a view of the coast driving down the PCH from Santa Barbara to L.A.”
The U.S. had a very unique history of glassmaking, and pressed glass in particular fueled the economy of a lot of American cities. This history—as well as the amazingly unique handcrafted moulds—are being lost.”
It’s not obvious where any of these shapes and forms come from. The initial effect of each work is so perplexing that viewers often have questions about the nature of their creation. When asked about the most common misconception, she says queries tend to be “technical” in topic. “People are confused about how I construct the work, and I am honestly okay with that,” Cowan says. “Even other glassmakers sometimes can’t figure out how they are made. I am okay with that. But commonly people think that everything in the piece is ‘found glass’ and technically the raw material is all old color. But ninety-five percent of each sculpture I’ve melted and hand made each sculptural element from the leaves and flowers to all the tiny pearls.”
It’s also easy to get sentimental with Cowan’s work—and not only for those who remember the pieces from childhood, though that is a common experience. “I am interested in the history of the material and like to tell those stories with the pieces,” Cowan says. “I don’t necessarily think the viewer needs to know the backstory of the pieces to enjoy the work but that keeps me more interested as the maker and adds a historical component that I find interesting. The U.S. had a very unique history of glassmaking, and pressed glass in particular fueled the economy of a lot of American cities. This history—as well as the amazingly unique handcrafted moulds—are being lost.”
The “Grotto of the Chocolate Nymph” offers an example of how Cowan keeps stoking these conversations and reflections. The work was recently acquired and is now in the permanent collection at the Toledo Museum of Art. In a recent show, it is displayed alongside other pieces “showcasing the advancement of glass in the U.S. and Europe through works ranging from nineteenth-century and mid-century modernism through studio and contemporary glass.”
“This is such an amazing setting for this piece because it can be enjoyed in a contemporary setting and also tells the story of the historical advancement of glass in the U.S. and why the pressed glass industry was an extremely important technological advancement,” she says. “They even have a full-scale side-lever press in the exhibition which is the machine on which the glass that I use was created. The visitors can connect the dots and understand the history as well as how that history was created.”
Even other glassmakers sometimes can’t figure out how they are made. I am okay with that.”
The reality of doing this type of work is that you must confront the heartache of a dissipating industry. Even the moulds used to created these beloved pressed pieces, Cowan says, are “rusting and being destroyed.” These moulds were crafted by the hands of artisans, and each has its own story of labor, being forged through human hands with a story. When a factory in West Virginia shut down recently, Cowan attended an auction and purchased a press that had been used for several decades. The stories contained within each tool make saving even one a joyous affair. “There were over ten thousand moulds in the catalogue
and it broke my heart to not be able to save all of them,” Cowan says, adding that she also “tried to save the cute animals” in the process. “There are a few factories in the U.S. still using this process and melting colors in the historic tradition,” she says. “I am starting to work with one of these … and hopefully a new and interesting body of work can come from our collaboration.”
There are multiple paths for an old piece of glass to make its way into a work by Cowan, aside from foraging abandoned or active factories. “I do a lot of flea market and thrift store shopping and if I am looking for something in particular, I spend a lot of time on eBay,” she says. “Strangers who hear about my work also send me boxes on a regular basis. It is usually old or broken glass that they don’t want to keep, but feel sad throwing away. They give it to me to see if I can find a second life for it in a sculpture.”
A second life, but one that contains many more within it.*
This article first appeared in Hi-Fructose issue 51, which is sold out. Support what we do and get a new print subscription to Hi-Fructose here and thanks for reading us!
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