Fire into Ice: Adventures in Glass Making - Hardcover

Houston, James

9780887764592: Fire into Ice: Adventures in Glass Making

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0887764592 ISBN 13: 9780887764592

Publisher: Tundra Books, 1998

What could be more different than the icy arctic landscape and the hot blast of a glass furnace? James Houston, explorer, artist, and writer, draws the inspiring connection in this fascinating introduction to one of the world’s most ancient – and most beautiful – arts.

During the years that James Houston lived in the Arctic, he was above all impressed by the resourceful people. But he also fell in love with the rugged treeless land, the winter moonlight shining off the snow and ice, the majestic ever-changing shapes and great sighing of new-formed ice.

When asked to design glass sculptures for Steuben, he, with some misgivings, left his isolated arctic home to move to the heat of a crowded New York summer. As he learned the art of glass sculpture, he found an affinity with life in the Far North. After all, glass is a liquid that hardens, much like ice. The jagged shapes reflect the arctic landscape. Glass making depends on small teams of cooperative craftspeople, much like the Inuit families as they hunt and create their art together.

This very personal story is a stunning introduction to glass making, and to an extraordinary individual.

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About the Author:

James Houston has led several lives. Raised in Toronto and trained as an artist, he served in World War II, studied life drawing in France and lived in the Arctic for more than fourteen years. His glass sculpture, created for Steuben in Manhattan, are in galleries and private collections around the world. An Officer of the Order of Canada, James Houston is the author of both adult and children’s books including Confessions of an Igloo Dweller, Frozen Fire (both McClelland & Stewart), and ZigZag.

From Booklist:

This is an extraordinary combination of art, wildlife, natural history, and exoticism, written as if a well-loved old uncle were sharing his stories. Houston lived for years among the Inuit, studied their art, and taught his own. He left the Arctic in the early 1960s to design for Steuben glass. In simple, vivid sentences, he describes how different his life was in New York. Then he describes in general terms how his drawings get translated into glass and sculpture, and how glass is made at the great Steuben glassworks. The pages are full of color photographs of Steuben bears, trout, dolphins, and exquisitely detailed animal portraits in etched crystal. Houston describes the dance of the cranes ("wearing their bright, red-feathered helmets"), illustrated in one of his designs, and relates the tale, without giving away the secret, of how hard it was to replicate Excalibur, King Arthur's sword, in the Steuben glass sculpture. Besides the photographs, many of Houston's drawings are reproduced, so readers can see a sketch turn into a completed work of art. This hard-to-classify title will amply reward those who find it. GraceAnne A. DeCandido

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