Hot As Glass

Artist Lanuti demonstrates Saturday

For about two years, Denise Lanuti walked away from "the torch," as she refers to her vocation of creating lampwork beads.

Also known as "flameworking" or "torchworking," lampworking is a process of melting and redistributing glass using hand movements and breath. Lanuti started working with fire and glass in 1989 and "did that for 20 solid years."

FAQ

Denise Lanuti

Glass Demos

& Trunk Show

WHEN — 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, with demos at the top of the hour

WHERE — Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, in the area between the entrance and the museum shop

COST — Free

INFO — crystalbridges.org or deniselanuti.com

"Then I took a few years off to let my body kind of rest -- my hands were going numb too badly and too often."

It was during a trunk show at the shop at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art that the Prairie Grove artist discovered her next big thing -- a tiny dish she'd made of fused glass.

"People thought it was incredible," she says, still sounding surprised.

Lanuti has been invited back to the museum store, where her work has been offered since Crystal Bridges opened, for a demonstration coinciding with the unveiling of "State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now." She'll be working at the torch, as will her husband, Rich, who does much of the "ribbon cane" and "latticino" she uses to accent her fused glass. Demos will start at the top of the hour from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

"It's been good for me to sort of step away from the torch a little bit, but it's also really handy I can make fancy extra components for my fused work," she says. "I'm so, so happy with what I've been turning out."

Lanuti says she's been putting in 12-hour days getting ready for the trunk show that will accompany Saturday's demonstrations, but there's no rest for the weary. She's hoping for confirmation of a huge project in her near future.

"When I get something in my mind, I just put my nose to the grindstone and work until it's done. And Rich knows that about me," she says with a laugh.

-- Becca Martin-Brown

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NAN What's Up on 09/12/2014

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