Visions in Glass...continued

   When the Toledo Museum of Art hired him as a professor of ceramics in 1949, Littleton inched closer toward realizing his dream. The two years he spent at TMA allowed him to pursue a master's degree in Fine Arts at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. Meanwhile, he developed a strong rapport with TMA director Otto Wittmann, in whom he confided his ideas. Littleton also met the vice-president of research and design at Johns-Manville Fiberglass Company, Dominick Labino, a man who would prove very instrumental in the TMA workshops.
   Littleton's graduate degree led to a position at the University of Wisconsin. It was here that Littleton began to devote large amounts of time toward realizing his vision of artists working with glass. In 1957, Littleton traveled to Paris and tracked down Jean Sala only to find that he had closed his studio in 1948 due to failing eyesight. Although Sala could not offer him the chance to witness a small-scale glass studio in action, the Frenchman did have pictures of his furnace and gave Littleton a set of his old tools. In 1958, he toured the glass factories of Italy repeatedly , gleaning what he could from the factory demonstrations.
   Back at the University of Wisconsin, Littleton began to experiment. Drawing on his experiences abroad, he converted a pottery kiln into a studio-sized glass furnance. He used the ceramic pot he had thrown himself as a reservoir for the molten glass, and although initial results were less than satisfactory, he was well on his way to bringing glass into the artisan's studio.
   Members of the glass industry had always doubted the viability of melting glass in the small amounts necessary for individual artists. The Toledo workshops would eventually prove those doubts to be short-sighted. Artist and workshop member Tom McGlauckhlin recalls a conversation with Dominick Labino sometime after the workshops. Labino remarked that had he been approached prior to the workshops and asked if it were possible to melt glass in a furnace small enough to produce just 100 pounds, he would have responded that it was impossible. Until the workshops in 1962, glass had been melted either in a five pound capacity crucible used to test new formulas or 1,000 capacity furnaces used by three or four glassblowers in a day of work. Both quantities were impractical for the needs of artists. The 100 to 200 pound amounts that Littleton was striving for were unheard of by industry specialists. "They thought you needed 1,000 pounds to get a good mix of chemicals," says McGlaucklin. He finds it quite remarkable that the idea never existed before Littleton investigated it.
   Littleton submitted a grant proposal based upon his findings to the Corning Glass Works and was rejected by directors there, but Otto Wittmann encouraged Littleton to bring his ideas to Toledo, offering him space in a garage on the museum grounds. It was a humble beginning, but the garage had gas for the furnace, and between lawnmowers and other equipment there was just enough elbow room for the glassblowers to work.
   1962 Workshops Convenes
   In the spring of 1962, the workshop convened. Participants reassembled Littleton's 13 by 15 inch kiln and attempted to melt a workable batch of glass. At first the artists met with little success. McGlauchlin points out that the group used a batch formula not conducive to their needs. It resulted in a soupy, unevenly melted mixture that was full of bubbles. The temperature was too high and the molten glass had a limited range between its lowest workable temperature and its melting point (Gaffers need a melt with a considerable temperature range, which provides time to shape the hot glass).
   Fearing that the workshop was on the verge of failure, Wittmann contacted Labino at Johns-Manville and asked him for assistance. Gathering materials, notes and a small amount of #475 glass marbles used at Johns-Manville in the creation of fiberglas, Labino traveled to the museum. With 57 patents to his credit and three glass fiber developments used by the Apollo space program, Labino brought much needed technical know-how and an intimate knowledge of glass chemistry to the workshop. He advised that the furnace be rebuilt. "We tore the furnace apart while it was hot, took out the bad glass and rebuilt it overnight," recalls Littleton.

Continued