(click to jump straight to the Thematic Line Photos)

Brighter lights tend to blind us to the distant stars. Yet, strung together, it is those distant little stars that form the constellations that have beguiled both poets and scientist for millennia. The blinding lights may immediately illuminate us but the smaller stars reward us by revealing complex patterns of great significance - when we take the time to connect the dots.

Now that the market for Historic Period Blenko has achieved a notable degree of sophistication it is time to give the smaller stars their due. These metaphorical stars are the important thematic lines that each designer produced as well as the intriguing techniques and motifs they repeatedly explored in "families" of designs. These families afford us much insight into the vision and importance of the Historic Period designers' work.

As a starting point it is important to differentiate between these families and the four blindingly rare Specialty Lines that most collectors are already aware of (for an overview please visit this page of the Blenko Archive's website). As defined by the Blenko Museum, a "Specialty Line is a themed group of designs that are technically 'special' or different from Blenko's normal production, and consist of multiple shapes that are conceived and labeled as an aesthetically related and cohesive group." Specialty Lines were an official genre at Blenko; they were always identified as such and separated from the year's annual offerings in the catalogues.

The families of themes, motifs and techniques that are the subject of this newsletter are, mostly, unofficial designations that refer to related designs that grew organically out of the designer's creative process. Yet despite any lack of intent on the part of designers to create a cohesive line, parsing their designs in such a way as to group them into (sometimes overlapping) families tells us a lot not only about the creativity of the designer and their approach to their work but also reveals insight into the very unique nature of free-blown production glass. When a designer considered a motif or technique important enough to explore in depth, I suggest that we should pay attention.

I would like this newsletter to be considered an introduction, a pictorial essay, rather than an exhaustive or academic analysis of the topic. As such, what follows are images of families of designs grouped by designer. When I began this exercise my intention was to be comprehensive, but at the end of the day I felt that overwhelming you with a vast number of designs was counterproductive. So, I have edited; what is depicted here is what I believe to be the most important examples (showing below only one-third of the families I originally identified). With the exception of some singular, virtuoso designs, these families represent some of the best of each designers' work. I hope that this will inspire you to consider how these designs are represented in your own collection - and if they are not, to remedy the omission! Items that are currently available for sale are indicated as such.

I will leave you with this meta-analysis of the significance of these thematic lines, motifs and techniques: Taken together, the families presented below fairly define each designer's work and do an excellent job of representing their core strengths. When seen in a cumulative and encapsulated form, as presented below, it becomes clear that Anderson has a minimal, delicate touch that is very sympathetic to the natural tendencies of glass, that Husted strives to control the glass and bend it into new sculptural forms, that Myers is fascinated with dramatizing glass' inherent properties and revels in technique and process, and that Nickerson brings us full circle to a minimal approach yet with a fresh and aggressively simple aesthetic.

Before jumping into the photos let me first flesh out the meaning of the three non-mutually exclusive terms that I have grouped these families by:

Damon Crain

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