Red Fern Glass

Red Fern Glass is the small hot glass studio of Ed Pennebaker. Ed makes Art Glass Lighting, Sculptural Pieces and Christmas Ornaments using traditional offhand glassblowing techniques. All the glass is made by Ed in his Arkansas backwoods studio. His wife Trish not only provides moral support, advice and inspiration but helps manage the studio, wraps glass for shipping, runs to town for supplies and keeps everything running smoothly. They believe in working incessantly, cultivating concepts, discrimination and technique.

At a time when many designers/artists leave the crafting of their designs to apprentices, fellow craftsmen, or even a factory style setting, it is rare for the designer to continue as the maker. For me working directly with the glass is a time of zen, a period when I can concentrate on one thing only, the glass, a time to leave the rest of the world behind.

Artist Statement: "I see my work belonging to a contemporary line of the "decorative arts" that developed from the arts and crafts movement where craftsmanship is of the utmost importance. Striving for the "perfect object" is the goal of the craftsman/designer and working directly with the materials at hand provides the greatest satisfaction for me.

The most important aspects of glassmaking are light, color and form. I want my work to take advantage of the luminous quality of light. Light coming through the glass reveals texture and pattern and casts colors and shadows so the glass work interacts with its environment and becomes a pure visual feast. The jewel like colors of glass, the individual forms of the pieces and the light from within work as a group and function as a chorus like a choir of voices. The fluidity of glass is expressed in the curvalinear forms. And the voluptuousness of glass is expressed in the globular melon shapes that are ready to burst with ripeness."