Dazzling glass art at Yountville gallery

Art glass sculptor, Jack Storms will be at RASgalleries in Yountville Saturday, Oct. 4, 4-6 p.m. for a show of his work including sculptural wine bottles and stemware created  for this showing.

“My passion is to create an original optical glass sculpture that takes your mind on a journey inside of it, just like the brilliance and scintillation of a diamond,” Storms said.

Storms works with cold glass (as opposed to glass that is heated and blown or otherwise shaped), a challenging medium that requires careful hands and tremendous patience. In creating his pieces, he uses the highest quality lead crystal and optical glass with extreme clarity and great light-refracting capability. This is combined with dichroic glass (originally developed by NASA for use in satellite optics and spacesuit visors), which is glass coated with a thin molecular coating of pure metals reflecting two or more colors. 

The dichroic glass layers are bonded to small polished crystal blocks on all sides and allowed to cure in controlled ultraviolet light.

These steps are repeated, building size from the inside out. When it’s large enough, Storms begins to sculpt. The finished sculpture contains up to 200 pieces of dichroic and optical crystal glass and takes up to eight weeks to complete. 

Among the artist’s works currently featured at RASgalleries are small and large wine bottles, as well as his signature beveled cubes.

Storms graduated with a degree in art from Plymouth State College, and went to work as an apprentice for a glass sculptor in Carmel Valley. He quickly became passionate about working with cold glass, and in 2002 opened his own studio in Northern California.

“When you gaze into one of my sculptures, I want it to take your mind on a journey. The brilliance, the scintillation, the purity of a diamond but a piece I created to breathe light and exhale fire,” the artist said.

In a home, his pieces become a focal point the way a beautiful diamond is to a hand, said Ronda Schaer, owner of RASgalleries.

“Jack Storms’ painstaking and detailed sculptures are so labor intensive that it is a rare privilege to present a collection of this size and I am honored that RASgalleries has been selected to showcase the original body of work, which will include specific pieces created exclusively for the Napa Valley wine country,” she said. 

RASgalleries is located at 6540 Washington St., next to Bouchon Bistro, Yountville. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, Tuesdays by appointment.  Call 944-9211 for details on or visit www.rasgalleries.com.

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