Thursday, April 24, 2014

Mazel Tov Glass Weddings: Hersh and Rachel


At Mazel Tov Glass, love seeing our customers' wedding photos, and we really love getting positive feedback after they receive their Mazel Tov Glass product made from the glass that they stepped on at their wedding ceremony.


Rachel and Hersh got married on December 28th, 2013, and the keepsake they chose to turn their wedding glass shards into was our Mazel Tov Glass Flowers! 


Congratulations, Rachel and Hersh! 

Wishing you a lifetime of happiness!

Monday, April 21, 2014

Off Centre

This Spring, UrbanGlass, the studio where we make our Mazel Tov Glass products in Brooklyn, is hosting an exhibit of glassblown works by two local artists, Romina Gonzales and Edison Zapata. 

Be sure to check it out if you're in the neighborhood! 

OFFCENTRE by Romina Gonzales and Edison Zapata
    March 27th - May 17th, 2014



                                                   

UrbanGlassware is pleased to present the work of artists Romina Gonzales and Edison Zapata. This show will coincide with the first Spring season UrbanGlass studio is open to the public after 2 years of major renovations. These two artists are presenting their work and ideas as OFFCENTRE, a new design collective, that takes advantage of situations that can be seen as mistakes and exploits them to create a distinctive visual language.

Off-center, in glassblowing vocabulary, refers to a shape displaced from its axis, which is considered a fault that needs immediate solution. By allowing glass to spontaneously wrinkle, drip, collapse, wave and fold, these two artists create functional and decorative pieces that challenge the established conventions of glass and design. Their belief in what they make comes from their own critically informed experience and dialogue within art and design. Gonzales, a graduate from the Studio Art program at New York University, encourages an unconventional deconstructive but playful methodology. Zapata, who graduated with an MFA from Tama Art University, Tokyo in 2007, compliments Gonzales’ style of working by adding a firm understanding of glass making processes.
Together, these artists strive to circumvent traditional processes, and approach “making” with naivety and experimental abandon. OFFCENTRE’s approach is raw and instinctive with the overall intention to give the viewer a more subversive, and fresh aesthetic experience.

Edison with Mazel Tov Glass co-founder Andrea







Wednesday, April 9, 2014

The Making of a Glass Tap Shoe


This week, NYC's best tap dancers will be strutting their stuff at Rhythm in Motion, a fundraiser for the American Tap Dance Foundation.

In honor of the late great Jimmy Slyde, we decided to make a glass tap shoe cast from one of Jimmy's tap shoes, borrowed from the ATDF collection. This glass tap shoe is now up for auction at the ATDF Gala & Silent Auction celebrating Gregory Hines, at 1pm on Sunday, April 13th.

Here's the story of our glass tap shoe!

Jimmy Slyde, world-renowned tap dancer, 1927-2008


Jimmy's tap shoes
The Process:

The glass shoe took 12 hours to create, from mold to kiln.

On the left is the wax shoe in black, and on the right is the original tap shoe!

Preparing the wax shoe for the plaster mold

Then it spent 7 days in the kiln, which was heated for 24 hours to 1500 degrees to melt the glass, and then the temperature was decreased 2 degrees an hour over the next 6 days.

The molten glass shoe cooking for 7 days
 After the 7 days, the shoe was freed from the plaster mold...


And voilĂ ! A one-of-a-kind clear glass replica of Jimmy Slyde's tap shoe.

Minimum bid: $500

Value: Priceless

Made at Urban Glass (you can also bid on a discounted glass-blowing class at the silent auction!)



Made with the love of tapping by mother daughter team Andrea Osnow and Carly Levin, 
and coached by glass artist Victoria Calabro

Be sure to check out our glass shoe at the ATDF Rhythm in Motion Gala, and don't miss the tap performances, every night @ 7pm & 9:30pm through Saturday, April 12th!