io9
Made of glass and recycled metals, these spaceships look like they were torn from the pages of rocket magazines in the 1930s. They're the battered but delicate stars of Rik Allen's show "Innersphere" at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle, which runs through April 27. Allen, a master glass blower, said he wanted to pay homage to the science fiction he loved as a kid. Here are another two of his pieces, below.
Allen added that the pieces are supposed to look like they might have lightning powering them, and that the yellow globes inside the rocket on the right are seeds that the ship is taking to spread life among the stars.
Rik Allen [Traver Gallery] (Thanks, Nick C!)
Comments
I love this sort of stuff! A few years back there was an artist who did blown glass ray guns. Gorgeous stuff. I'd like to find some picture sof those, now that I think about...
Ahah! My Google Fu is strong! Blown glass ray guns.
They are beautiful!
His pricing is rather absurd. I'm a collector of glass art, but I'm not affluent enough to be able to drop $3600 to $25000 on a whim. I was honestly anticipating several hundred dollars.
If you're looking for space-inspired glass art that's considerably more affordable, check out Josh Simpson's Megaplanets. You'll not be disappointed.
@eakolb: Oh, very nice! I like his glass planets. I've always thought that's what Krypton or the planets in Star Trek should look like.
Josh's stuff is more affordable (at least his smaller planets) because he has other artists make them in his studio, they're basically production stuff. His larger one of a kind pieces are very expensive.
Josh does get the space geek nod though, His wife, Katy, is an astronaut!
Handmade, one of a kind blown glass should be expensive, it's not easy to do and it's not cheap to run a studio. When we used to blow glass in our own studio (in the '90s) we would burn $1000-1500 of propane a month, imagine what that translates to now. that was just to keep the glass hot and workable (it's gotta be hot 24/7 during your season, no downtime for the furnace).
eakolb, you should say that you're a collector of lower priced glass art, that's fine and dandy. Everybody has to start somewhere, don't devalue his art simply because you can't afford it.
I like.
I want.
I can't afford.
These are mighty awesome, and I have friends who blow glass, so I can say I appreciate the skill it takes to make these.
Well, I dreamed I saw the silver space ships flying in the yellow haze of the sun,
There were children crying and colors flying all around the chosen ones.
All in a dream, all in a dream the loading had begun.
They were flying Mother Nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun.
Flying Mother Nature's silver seed to a new home.
-Neil Young
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