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Portland Vase and the Stourbridge Festival of Glass 2012
Sunday 26 August, 2012
News Brief

We cant open the doors it will set off the alarms!

Full Story:

Its always sad to encounter an area in decline but even more so when it appears poweless in the face of rising raw material prices and shrinking markets. Such is the story of Stourbridge area, once a world centre for speciality glass but now a shadow of its former self.

The gathering of studio glass expertise at the Ruskin and Red House Cone sites in the Glass Quarter to the North of the town appears to bode well for the future, however, the intensity and heat of glass forming seems to have narrowed the overall business perspective and drawn artists into the designs, leaving little opportunity, or expertise to reflect on the wider commercial picture.

The showcase replica of the Portland Vase produced for this year’s festival well illustrates the point. Twelve months in the making, world-class expertise from materials to execution, yet the completed article is displayed in a neck-extending corner cabinet with description and credits taped to the window. COME ON!! what an opportunity to shout the areas credentials from the rafters just lost to the background roar of propane gas bottles!

And the door alarms?? Well meaning volunteers at the Broadfield House Glass Museum failed to see the irony. With limited sweltering seating space available ( this time mains gas!) they were unable to open the French (Lorraine?) windows onto an external seated patio area as it would set the alarms off! Four hundred years of enterprise and risk taking had ended with the custodians of the sweat and toil of the glass industry unable to open doors to create a draft. Paul Tyzack probably did a quick spin in his grave!

Stourbridge neither has the physical space or infrastructure to regain its status as a world power in glass making, but provided it has the vision to look beyond the edge of the furnace and open its doors it is not too late to rediscover a valuable niche in the global market.

Our images show the Stourbridge canal looking north from the Dial Glass works wharfage. After its opening in 1779, the canal was instrumental in developing industry by bringing in raw materials and through its link to the Severn, providing for new markets in Britain's burgeoning Empire.

The second image shows glass making in its hayday in part of the 1845 painting by Henry Pratt looking south along the line of what is now the A491 towards Stourbridge.

Images of the re-created Portland vase, an inpromptu piece built in a disused kiln and a fractured glass window complete the set

Extra Information:

For more information, please visit this related link:  Specialist Glass products predominantly sourced from the Stourbridge area..



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Portland Vase and the Stourbridge Festival of Glass 2012
Portland Vase and the Stourbridge Festival of Glass 2012
Portland Vase and the Stourbridge Festival of Glass 2012
Portland Vase and the Stourbridge Festival of Glass 2012
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