Exerpt from The Daily Break
Sunday, January 25, 2004
Glass Menagerie

The glass bubble keeps growing

By 4 p.m. temperatures were dropping below freezing in Norfolk. Inside Pantera Industrial Glass, an unheated corrugated steel warehouse on 22nd street, John Quillen and his team stayed near the furnace. Each time the door was opened to start a glass bubble or reheat an in progress piece, they welcomed the blast of hot air. The team worked quietly and steadily. Ian Collings of Virginia Beach, an 18-year-old Cox High school senior, prepared a bubble as Quillen made a long orange glass flame. He twirled his pipe to elongate the form and twist it into a spiral. Another assistant, Holly Williams of Norfolk, a 19-year-old TCC Graphic arts student, knocked off the tip with a pair of tweezers, then finished the end with a handheld torch. After each piece was done, Quillen placed it in an annealing oven, where it would slowly be brought back to room temperature. A 4-foot- diameter “ Sun-Burst” chandelier – resembling the sun lit from within – hung in the next room. Quillen was making a smaller version, which still required hundreds of pieces. It was due in March, he said. A Virginia Beach couple had commissioned it. He’s becoming known for his chandeliers. Club Soda, a Norfolk restaurant, has one. Rod Rodriguez of Virginia Beach had Quillen make a sunburst measuring about 11 feet across. “It took 9 months to make, that was last years project,” he said. His chandelier prices have gradually gone up and now start at $10,000. Quillen, 39, moved his operation into the warehouse two years ago, leaving a York street studio gallery where patrons liked to hang out and watch him blow glass. “ I would love to be able to share with everyone how magnificent glass is. But if the consequences are having to drop what i' doing, such as making a $500 piece of glass, to greet them and answer questions, I just can’t do that,” He came to Hampton Roads in late 1998 with the intention of setting up a glass studio. Once here, he learned about the “Art of Glass” and had a small role as a demonstrator. He wasn’t influenced much by the project, but imagines patronage increased because of it. He recently landed a commission to design and make a lotus-flower chandelier. Over the Holidays, he visited New York and found SOHO galleries willing to show his work. “It’s a mystery to me how I’ve managed to pull this off for 5 years here,’ he said. “ It’s always, when I need something, it comes.” Quillen, who was taking a break, called to Collings. “What time is it?” “Almost 5” “keep going,’ Quillen told him. “that’s the only way your going to get it.”

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