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SearchThe Luminous Art of Transparency
This is the name of the exhibition at the Carpenter Enamel Center Museum located on Colfax Avenue in Bellevue on November 19, 6:30 p.m.
Recently, we received a donation of a plique-à-jour enameled bowl from the collection of Robert “Bob” Corson. His son, Don Corson, along with his wife, Vicki, donated one of the best pieces from his collection.
When Don shipped the piece to our family jewelry store, he said he would loan us a dozen other pieces in order to have an exhibition and draw more attention to the event.
When my son Mike called and said a large box just arrived with the collection, I took the box to the museum and carefully opened it with Tom Ellis. After I took the 20th piece out of the box, and it was not near empty, we were like little kids opening Christmas presents. By the time we emptied the box, there were 83 pieces total. What a surprise!!
Bob Corson spent more than three decades researching, collecting and documenting plique-à-jour enameled objects. He started collecting silver enameled spoons which blossomed into one of the largest private collections of plique-a-jour spoons, bowls and many other items.
He researched the artists, history, techniques and timelines of production. He became one of the top experts in this field. His articles appeared in silver magazines and in our Glass on Metal in 1992. He was a speaker for several events including the 1992 Pacific Enamel Symposium in Seattle.
For those who are not sure of what plique-à-jour enameling is, it is framework in pure silver or 18k gold and filling all of the spaces with transparent glass enamel. The glass gets put into the framework in powdered form and into a kiln at 1470 F. There is no backing to drop the powder down into a hole which requires extreme knowledge to produce these highly prized pieces of art. It has the same look as a stained-glass window.
Sounds easy but it is not. The solder that is used today is the result of Mr. Carpenter hiring Valerie Timofeev in 1991 to teach us how to do this form of enameling. He came from Russia and at that time was the third best person in the world. He taught me how to make the solder and then how to use it to solder the fine silver wires together without melting them and then remove all of the solder by turning it back to pure metal through a process of leaching the copper out of the solder. Glass only sticks to pure silver. The technology hasn’t changed for more than 500 years.
I am looking forward to getting access to all of the research Bob did on the technology and on the artists of the late nineteenth century Norwegian and Austrian makers. He did more to preserve this rare art form than anyone else I know.
I will be teaching plique-a-jour enameling at our classroom starting in January after I finish my 8th year as Mayor on December 31.
Christmas Tree Lighting
This popular event will be on November 28 at St. John United Church of Christ from 5-7 p.m. The actual tree lighting ceremony will be at 6:30 p.m.
The snowplow and fire truck parade with Santa & Mrs. Claus will be at 5 and start down by the Party Source coming straight up the Avenue.
There will be letters to Santa. There will be a snowman where you can purchase snowballs for $25 and put your name on it to raise money for new winter coats, hats and shoes for the Bellevue/Dayton Fire Department children’s toy drive.
The Bellevue and Dayton schools give the names of five needy families from each school. Bellevue raises the extra $2500 so that these families can also get coats, hats and shoes.
There will be a hot chocolate and mint tea bar and more. St. John has musicians outside and bell ringers and more inside. They provide restrooms and tours of their church. They also have the large outdoor nativity set. Refreshments are served inside the church. Last year they had some really nice homemade cookies.
I cannot thank them enough for collaborating with us on this event.