Each spring, Salem Community College hosts the International Flameworking Conference (IFC), a three-day event that promotes excellence in flameworking through artist demonstrations and scholarly presentations. The weekend attracts glass artists and enthusiasts from around the nation and world. Salem Community College and the SCC Foundation are indebted to distinguished members of the glass art community who have graciously shared their talents at the IFC.
The 2023 International Flameworking Conference at Salem Community College (SCC) will be the 21st installment of this nationally and internationally attended event that celebrates excellence in the glass-working process known as flameworking. In 2023, the conference will continue its core mission of education, and in the promotion of the techniques and its practitioners. The weekend includes a film screening, presentations, demonstrations, exhibits, and vendor displays.
Caterina (Trina) Urrata Weintraub
Caterina (Trina) Urrata Weintraub began working with glass in 2004. She is the co-owner of Fiamma Glass Studio in Waltham, MA with her husband and fellow glass artist David Weintraub. She received her BFA in 2012 from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where she has been an adjunct professor for the past 8 years. Trina utilizes many different methods of working glass to create her work, including flameworking, glass blowing, kiln casting, slumped/fused glass and cold working.
“Inspired by memories, dreams and nature, I use glass to create playful objects and curious scenes. By utilizing the inherent fragile nature of glass, I aim to make work that evokes a sense of sentiment, wonder and sometimes discomfort. From intricate torch work to large scale kiln castings and hot blown glass elements, I use the process best suited to bring each piece to life.”
Demonstrating Artists
Each year, Salem Community College invites artist from all around the world to demonstrate their techniques. Guests will have a chance to get an in-depth look at how each artist creates their glass art. Check out this years line up.
Cédric Ginart
While studying biochemistry, Cédric Ginart feel in love with scientific glassblowing, he decided to took a course in scientific glassblowing at the lycée Dorian (Paris, France), from which he graduated in 1995 , he moved to Quebec a year later.
Over the years, he has worked with scientists, artists, industrialists, designers and architects on experimental projects, on creating unique artwork and prototypes as well as limited-run series and art installations.
Frequently on exhibit, his artwork is part of private and museum collections, such as the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery (Waterloo, Ont), Niijima Glass museum (Japan). He periodically showcases hand torch glassblowing techniques in festivals and events in Canada and the United States.
Cédric currently Works at Montreal University (Qc) as a scientific glassblower, while pursuing a widely-recognized artistic career. he teaches regularly at the Corning Museum of Glass Studio (NY) he has been invited to teach at Pillchuck Glass School (WA), Niijima Glass Museum (Japan), Penland School of craft and Pittsburgh Glass Center (PA).
Karina Guévin
Karina Guevin is a french Canadien glass artist Her playful flamework sculptures inspired by popular legend, stories and happily ever after tales has been recognized with a Francois-Houdé Award and grants from the Canadian and Québec Consul for the Arts, La SODEC, and a Gilles Verville grant in visual art. Guévin is regularly invited to teach in many studios including the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass, Penland Shool of Craft, Pilchuch Glass school, Nijiima (Japan), Pratt (Seattle) and the Pittsburgh Glass Center. Her work is part of many private and public collections and has been showed in North America, in Europe and in Asia. She is always ready for news adventures….!
Ferran Collado
Ferran Collado is the 4th Generation of a family dedicated to the world of glass. Ferran was born and grew up surrounded by glass, so he does not have a clear notion of the first day he started working with the material because everything started as a game. Most of his learning of all kinds of glass and its techniques comes from the hand of his own family, from a very young age followed by a specialization in flameworking as he grew up.
Throughout his professional career, he has been training in different places in Europe and the US, to polish or learn new techniques and formats. He also welcomes many artists from all over the world in his studio in Barcelona, sharing knowledge and learning new things.
Currently, he has improved his technique by finding an aesthetic and functional language to his pieces, trying to create a more open and more global vision of glass. He plays with textures and gravity, capturing the light in different ways, making the glass has life and movement. Becoming an artistic referent in his country with blowtorched glass, where he currently collaborates, designs and manufactures pieces for artists, designers, chefs, and major global brands.
Madeline Rile Smith
Madeline Rile Smith uses glass as a performative vehicle to consider notions of intimacy, compromise, and embodiment. Informed by her background in music, she creates objects and videos that explore connection and isolation.
Madeline's work has been exhibited in venues throughout the US and internationally, including the Museum of Arts and Design, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art, the Toyama Glass Art Museum, and in New Glass Review 41 and 35. She earned an MFA in glass at Rochester Institute of Technology, and a BFA in glass from Tyler School of Art. A passionate educator, she has instructed glassworking in schools and institutions throughout the East Coast, including Rochester Institute of Technology, UrbanGlass, The Crefeld School, Tyler School of Art, and Salem Community College. Madeline is currently the Assistant Professor in Glass Art at Salem Community College. She is a recipient of a commission award for Glass Meet the Future 2021 with North Lands Creative.
You can see more of her work at madelinerilesmith.com or @madhotglass.
Walter “Rocko” Belloso
Rocko Belloso is an American glass artist best known for his modern approach to centuries-old techniques. He specializes in murine, cut and flip, sculpture, and stringer drawing, and is an innovator in his combination of these elements, as well as his custom color mixing methods. Rocko has also updated the craft by way of subject matter, infusing his influences from comic books, cult movies, metal music, and lowbrow art into his imagery—which ranges from stylized depictions to hyper-realistic portraits. His strong foundation in drawing was cultivated since childhood when he aspired to be a cartoonist and was sent to extracurricular art classes. As a young teen, Rocko anticipated attending art school to pursue his passion, but his plans changed in 2003 when he saw the 2D rendering possibilities with murine, and consequentially accepted a glassblowing apprenticeship and employment at Third Eye Design in California. He spent the following 7 years there as a production artist, assigned to make mostly dry pipes. In his free time, however, he took classes from artists including Scott Deppe, Jason Taj, Marcel Braun, and Jason Lee, whom he respectively credits with learning murine, chip stacking, line-work, and reticello. In 2010, Rocko moved to doing hourly work for an independent glass distributor, for which he was allotted more freedom to explore these specialized techniques. After his murine work began to circulate the market, garnering him notoriety, Rocko decided to make the leap to working for himself in 2014.
Since becoming an independent artist, Rocko has received accolades for his unique work, which has been displayed at galleries and created at live demos across the country. His art has been included in various glass competitions, for which he has received medals and first-place awards, and he has also served as a judge at the World Series of Glass and Champs Glass Games. As a result of his extensive knowledge and groundbreaking applications, he’s been invited to teach workshops at institutions including Corning Museum, Carlisle School of Glass Art, and numerous glass studios coast-to-coast. Rocko currently lives in Philadelphia, where he is a resident artist at Hancock Studios.
Percy Echols
Percy Echols II began working in glass in 2011 where he took his first Glassblowing Class at Illinois State University. In 2014 he took his first Plasma Light workshop at Pilchuck Glass School, where he met his long-time friend and mentor Pat Collentine. Percy took home this experience to apply what little he knew of this process to the success of his graduating exhibition. After graduating in 2015 with a BFA, he moved to Pittsburgh in 2016 for a year-long apprenticeship at Pittsburgh Glass Center which quickly became his new home. With the support of PGC, along with his podcast and educational project, Taming Lightning, he is currently researching and developing a space for Neon and Plasma Sculpture as an artistic medium.
Jessica Tsai
Jessica Tsai is a Taiwanese-American artist and fabricator based in Philadelphia. She earned her BFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design. Jessica was introduced to glass a few years ago, and in 2019 she attended Salem Community College to complete the Scientific Glass Technology program. She currently works as the flameworker for Blob Blob Studio and is a teacher's assistance at Salem Community College for the glass art flameworking courses.
Through observation and study, Jessica aims to pay respect to the intricacies of nature, both beautiful and discomforting. Inspired by the challenge of recreating lifeforms in glass, Jessica loves the process, problem-solving, and detail required to achieve realism in a difficult material. Nostalgia, anxiety, impermanence, and fragility are some current themes of her work.
Stephan Peirce
Stephan Peirce is a stay at home flame worker, with 18 years of glass-blowing experience, 13 years on the lathe. He's a family man just outside of Austin, Texas, with two kids, a tolerant wife, and a backyard farm. Self taught, Stephan enjoys making functional glassware.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
I create functional glass art that is meant to be interacted with on a daily basis. Whether drinkware or smokeware, these pieces are designed to marry form and function, and feel great in the hand. I am constantly experimenting with new processes to achieve my goals, and I love exploring tools and finding new ways to improve my craft.
Katie Severance
Katie Severance earned an associate degree in Scientific Glass Technology from Salem Community College in 2011. While studying at Salem, Katie completed an internship with Mike Souza at Princeton University. There she fabricated target cells for high-powered lasers while working with specialty glasses such as aluminosilicate, GE180, and quartz. In 2010, Katie joined Chemglass Life Sciences, where she learned to fabricate various borosilicate apparatus while operating a glass lathe. During this time, Katie furthered her glass education at night by studying artistic flameworking with renowned artist Paul J. Stankard.
Katie has presented at the annual symposium of the American Scientific Glassblower Society, and at the International Flameworking Conference. Katie teaches in the Scientific Glass Technology program at Salem Community College and is an independent artist in Philadelphia, combining her skills as a scientific lathe worked with her passion for sculpting realistic floral designs.
Film Screening
Join us Friday evening at 7:00 p.m. in the Davidow Theater for a film screening presented by Eric Goldschmidt: The Flame: The Art and History of Lampworking, an InMurano production.
The Flame: The Art and History of Lampworking, an InMurano production
The Flame follows Eric Goldschmidt, Flameworking Supervisor for The Corning Museum of Glass, as he learns about the origins of his craft and starts a beautiful journey that takes him to Murano, Italy. In Murano, he engages with Rosa Barovier Mentasti, Verilda De Polo, Lucio Bubacco, Cesare Toffolo, Vittorio Costantini, and Bruno Amadi, among others, to discover more about the history of lampworking. The Flame travels across lampworking history through the works, words, and memories of these notable artists and scholars.
Eric Goldschmidt
Since 1996, Eric has devoted his efforts to practicing and developing his work having learned while studying and assisting with many of the World’s most talented glass artists. These experiences have given him a vast array of techniques and inspirations from which to draw. He combines this wealth of knowledge with his own interests in the subtle energies of the natural world, delicate forms, and the capture of raw human emotions to create original new works.
Eric held the position of Resident Flameworker at The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass for 6 years. He then worked with Arribas Brothers Company where he designed, developed, and produced works at Walt Disney World. He returned to The Corning Museum of Glass in the spring of 2008, and as Supervisor of Properties of Glass Programs he develops demonstrations that help to educate, inspire, and spread the word of the very fascinating glass World to hundreds of thousands of visitors per year.
IFC Information
The International Flameworking Conference returns to Salem Community College’s Samuel and Jean Jones Glass Education Center.
- Friday, March 17 - Davidow Theatre
- 7:00 p.m. Film Screening Presented by Eric Goldschmidt: The Flame: The Art and History of Lampworking, an InMurano production.
- Saturday, March 18 - Glass Education Center
- 8:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast
- 8:30 a.m. Caterina (Trina) Urrata Weintraub Demo
- 10:30 a.m. Break
- 11:00 a.m. Ferran Collado Demo
- 12:30 p.m. - Lunch
- 1:00 p.m. - Percy Echols Demo
- 2:30 p.m. - Break
- 3:00 p.m. - Karina Guevin and Cédric Ginart Demo
- 5:00 p.m. - Exhibits Close
- Sunday, March 19 - Glass Education Center
- 8:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast
- 8:30 a.m. Madeline Rile Smith Demo
- 10:00 a.m. Break
- 10:30 a.m. Walter “Rocko” Belloso Demo
- 12:00 p.m. Lunch
- 1:00 p.m. Jessica Tsai Demo
- 2:30 p.m. Break
- 3:00 p.m. Stephan Peirce and Katie Severance Demo
- 4:30 p.m. Last chance to visit vendors
- 5:00 p.m. Exhibits Close
IFC PARKING
- Glass Education Center
- Salem Community College
- 460 Hollywood Avenue, Carneys Point, NJ 08069
- 856.299.2100
- gec@salemcc.edu
Holiday Inn - Philadelphia South-Swedesboro
Hotel includes a bar and lounge for gathering with friends. Restaurant onsite. Rooms include free Wi-Fi, microwave, mini-refrigerator, and Keurig. Onsite fitness center and outdoor pool.
Exit 10 off Interstate 295 (1 Pureland Drive, Swedesboro, N.J.)
$129 per night (plus tax)
856.467.3322
Reference Group Code "SAL" when reserving your room.
Limit availability. Special rate available until 3 weeks prior to your stay.
Book online: Salem Community College International Flameworking Conference
Hampton Inn - Swedesboro
Right next door to the Holiday Inn Philadelphia South-Swedesboro. Rooms include free WiFi, microwave, and mini-refrigerator. Onsite fitness center and outdoor pool.
Exit 10 off Interstate 295 (2 Pureland Drive, Swedesboro, N.J.)
$119 per night (plus tax)
1.855.244.8990 (Mention "Salem Community College International Flameworking Conference" when booking.)
Book online with discounted rate: Hampton Inn Swedesboro
Guests using Hilton Honors App can use the group code "FLA"
Hampton Inn - Pennsville
Closest to the college. No lounge.
Exit 1 off Interstate 295 (429 North Broadway, Pennsville, N.J.)
$139 per night (plus tax)
856.351.1700
Mention the International Flameworking Conference when reserving your room.
Barrett's Bed and Breakfast
Super cozy, super quiet. Good for those who enjoy a peaceful retreat.
Exit 2B off Interstate 295 (203 Old Kings Highway, Mannington, N.J.)
856.935.0812
Mention the International Flameworking Conference when reserving your room.