Glass Artists Gallery | Featured Glass Artist Robert Kuster

October 2008

Featured Project

Red Fern Glass Makes Oceans of Tranquility for Gena Oddo

Artist: Ed Pennebaker
Client : Gena Oddo

Gena Oddo wanted to capture a theme in her home with light. She wanted to give her home a sense of ocean movement, and chose custom Art Glass chandeliers for her entrance foyer from Red Fern Glass artist Ed Pennebaker.

Ed’s concepts of his work meshed beautifully with Gena’s goal. Ed says, “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.”

Gena has been delighted with the results of Ed’s artistic work. “The combination of colors, once assembled, is like looking at a delicate underwater plant, with an illuminated opalescent glow,” says Gena. “My attempt to capture a theme in my home with a sense of ocean movement is clearly defined and every guest who comes to visit begins with the entrance and states that it's like they are walking through an ocean of light and color,” says Gena. “Red Fern’s lights give me great pleasure to share this kind of experience, and I enjoy coming home everyday and surrounding myself with this feeling of peaceful tranquility.”

Gena worked through Kevin Fristad from Functional Art Gallery in the collaboration with Ed. “I can not say enough about the professionalism and personalism that my representative demonstrated with each correspondence. Kevin Fristad was and continues to be, the finest example of individual interest for helping me to capture my desired design. He was patient, listened to my interest, and helped me to meet my artistic expression!!”

Gena says, “My Ed Pennebaker light arrived in perfect condition and in a respectable timeframe. The packaging cradled the contents and every piece was perfectly intact. Unwrapping each piece was like opening a Christmas package because each globe and Ensiform (spiked) piece was like an individual work of art. I was impressed with the density of the glass, too. It's far more durable than the photographs can depict, however, I handled each piece with kid gloves since I have great respect for fine art.” She added that each piece was clearly etched with a clear set of instructions for assembling. I was impressed with the level of detail for installation.

Ed hand-crafted each piece for Gena’s chandeliers from his Red Fern Glass, a small hot glass studio where he uses traditional offhand glassblowing techniques from the back woods near Osage, Arkansas. Primarily, focusing his attentions on Art Glass Lighting, Ed works incessantly to bring both his and his client’s concepts to life, cultivating concepts with discrimination and superb technique. At a time when many designers and artists leave the crafting of their designs to apprentices and fellow craftsmen, Ed works on his own, crafting each piece of his fantastic art glass, himself.

“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,” says Ed.

To see more of Ed Pennebaker's work, please click here.

Examples of Ed's work. Click on photo for information.

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