Bronze Look Cameo Art Glass Event Feb 6

Cameo Art Glass artisans Kelsey Murphy and Robert Bomkamp will make an appearance at The Bronze Look in Princeton, WV on Saturday February 6th. The Bronze Look has a nice selection of both one of a kind and limited edition Cameo Art Glass by Kelsey and Robert. As well as one of the largest selections of WV art glass in the state.

West Virginia cameo art glass extrodinare Kelsey Murphy and Robert Bomkamp joined forces with now extinct Pilgrim Glass in 1987. When they began their Cameo Glass journey the breakage rate was 95%, now a million shards of glass later the breakage rate is 4%. Even more amazing than the decrease in breakage rate Kelsey Murphy has successfully carved 12 layers of glass. According to Murphy "cameo glass with 12 layers has never been done before in the history of glass making". "The English glass people back in the early 1900's were able to do five color pieces but most of them blew up. There are only a few examples left in private collections and museums."

In the earliest years of cameo art glass only the wealthiest of families could afford even the smallest of pieces. It was so valuable that during World War II, when London was being bombed, entire collections were carefully packed up and secretly shipped to Canada for safe keeping. The Bronze Look, LLC has brought pieces of this amazing art glass to Princeton, WV with a selction of both "Made in Heaven" one of a kind pieces and Fenton Cameo Art Glass that has been designed by Kelsey Murphy and Robert Bomkamp. Not all cameo art glass is only for the wealthy. The Bronze Look has pieces that any collector can add to their collection.

But what is Cameo Glass? The best way to describe it is that it is hand-blown, hand carved, multiple colored glass in which the carved portions of each colored layer reveal the colors beneath. Kelsey says, "I thrive on challenge". She has actually counted 24,270 things that can go wrong with a piece of glass from the time the sand is dumped into the hopper until the finished art work comes from the lehr (cooling oven). "The glass is both magical an defiant," Murphy says, "Glass is alive, a kind of anachronistic poem. It's strong enough to hold up buildings, but fragile, one of the densest of materials, but you can see through it. You can manipulate glass, but it will turn on you in a second."