The Glass Man

James Michael began blowing glass in 1990 at the Toledo Museum of Art. Since then, his work has been shown in numerous exhibits in the United States and abroad. James Michael's work is held in public and private collection in the United States, Mexico, Hungary, Germany, Canada, Great Britain, Japan, and the Netherlands.

James Michael has also been awarded grants under the Master Apprentice Program funded through the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, allowing him to pass on his glass making skills to an apprentice.

James Michael is actively involved in local civic and community leadership activities. His artwork builds on a lifetime of experiences in a wide variety of activities in other career fields.

His reply when asked about his profession: "While glass making has traditionally been viewed as a craft with a tangible, usable end product, I strive to evoke an emotional response. Glass, when it is being worked, has a personality. It is active, alive and ever-changing. To sculpt glass, you need only use temperature, air and gravity, you can't fight the elemental substance of glass. You must work with the material not at it."

Most of the glass used in James Michael's studio comes from one of two sources.

The crystal, or batch, is a modified formula from the late Dominic Labino. This glass is made from the raw elements of sand, soda ash, limestone, feldspar, lithium carbonate, sodium nitrate, zinc oxide, barium carbonate, flourspar, and antimony. These elements along with a few others are blended in just the right combination to produce a compound referred to as batch.

James Michael has created a technique to incorporate mixed media within a glasswork. He assimilates a variety of metals and alloys into clear and colored glass to produce a wide range of freeform sculptures. To achieve the truest and most vibrant colors James Michael uses Kugler Color glass from Germany in artworks created with the applied color technique. By purposely encasing air bubbles in the glass, James Michael adds yet another level of optics to the interior of a piece, reflecting color and light in unique ways. The combined use of color, encased metals and entrapped air produces abstract and ethereal forms within the exterior confines of many of his artworks.

Years ago, I made the comment that if I could find a way to pay the bills, I would give all of the glass away. This program is ~ in a way ~ my attempt to do just that.

The ACE program is an outgrowth of the Hot Glass Experience, an informal apprenticeship program that Glass by James Michael has offered for the last 10 years. Add to the Hot Glass Experience a desire to see the arts supported to the same level as sports in our area and a belief in the absolute necessity to give back to the community that supports you and you have the basic components for the services and programs ACE Inc can offer.

ACE: MISSION STATEMENT
"To foster teaching, promotion, recognition and accessibility of the arts for the enrichment of the community. " ACE Inc. was incorporated in the state of Ohio, February 2, 2006, by a small group of artist and art lovers as a non-profit organization.

Our goal is to address several needs in rural Ohio and Indiana for art support and education with an initial emphasis on hot glass work and to do so in a cost effective manor.

1. We intend to provide the Hot Glass Experience for up to 60 school groups in the 2006 - 2007 school year, free of charge, and to provide each of those school groups a hand blown vessel to auction off as a fundraiser for their art club.

2. We intend to provide assistance to teachers and community members in establishing art clubs that can function much like athletic booster clubs and to provide an independent revenue stream to support school and community-based art programs.

3. We intend to provide an opportunity for up to 4 area students to apprentice in the hot glass studio full time without charge to the students.

4. We intend to donate to local, regional and national nonprofit organizations up to $300,000.00 worth of hand blown art glass to support their fundraising efforts.

PROGRESS TO DATE FOR ACE
Hot Glass Experience classes and apprenticeships are scheduled to begin with the 2006 - 2007 school year. Over a dozen schools have already expressed an interest in participating.

DONATIONS BY ACE INC.
1. Drake County Habitat for Humanity - two vases Value $245.00
2. Cancer Services of Ft Wayne - one vessel Value $ 1400.00
3. Pet Jamboree - one vessel Value $ 850.00
4. PBS - ten Vessels Value $50,000.00
5. Ft. Wayne Philharmonic - one vessel Value $2300.00
7. Columbus Aids Task Force - one fountain and three vessels Value $11,145.00
8. The Light Foundation - two vessels Value $1380.00
9. State of the Heart Hospice - one vessel Value $90.00
10. Celina Hospice - one vessel Value $1300.00

ACE FUNDRAISING
We anticipate our first fundraising letters to go out March of 2006.

HOW YOU CAN HELP ACE
If your school would like to participate in the Hot Glass Experience, please contact us.

HOW IT CAME ABOUT
One of the most exciting aspects of owning a hot glass studio is being able to share with others the magic of working with molten glass.

The Hot Glass Experience began as way to get some free press for my studio and thereby generate sales. I held an open house and invited each of the area newspapers and television stations to send a reporter to the event to make a paperweight for free.

The response was good. A number of print reporters and one TV reporter came. No one was hurt, each made a paperweight, each loved the experience and each ran a story. Our sales picked up and all was well.

THEN THE EXPERIENCE GREW...
One of the reporters asked if I would talk to a friend who was an art teacher and was interested in bringing her students to the studio on a field trip. I spoke with the teacher and soon we hosted our first high school group.

An enthusiastic response from the first group led us to conduct an informal survey of about 50 area high school art teachers to gage their interest in a hands-on field trip to the studio. The survey also identified several things they had in common:

None of the schools mentioned glass in their art program.

Most schools charged extra fees for art supplies.

Every teacher took money out-of-pocket to buy class supplies.

Most arts programs were on the top of the list for budget cuts and at the bottom the list for new funds.

Few of the schools offered students any opportunity to see a working studio and to talk with a full time professional artist.

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Now, the Hot Glass Experience for Schools is a one or two day program that gives students the opportunity to visit a working hot glass studio and to create a unique work of art from molten glass under the supervision of a master craftsman.

Sessions begin with safety instruction and a general introduction to glass. Subjects covered include: the composition and properties of glass, the many uses of glass in our society and its effect on modern living, the glass making process in general and an introduction to the studio equipment.

This general introduction is followed by a demonstration of basic paperweight making styles and techniques. Each student is then guided through the hands-on process of making a paperweight. The student starts with a glob of molten glass, chooses size, shape, style and colors and melds this into his or her own creation.

After the paperweights are made and placed in the annealing oven, the making of a hand blown vessel of substantial size is demonstrated. Remaining time is then used as a question and answer session. Students are encouraged to ask questions about the glass, about art as a livelihood, about marketing, or about any other subject related to the class, studio, or business of art.

After the annealing process is complete, the students return to the studio where each can then finish his or her paperweight by grinding, polishing and signing the creation.

HOW THIS PROGRAM IS FINANCED
The vessel that the class sees created as a demonstration is donated to the art teacher or group leader with the following stipulations:

They must bring a class back the following year.
All money raised from the sale or auction of the piece must be kept in his or her art department.

During an interview, I once said that if I could give all the glass I made away and still pay my bills, that's what I'd do. This program has become a way to do it.

It is our hope that by donating a vessel to each teacher or group leader, they will be able to organize a successful raffle or auction that produces sufficient revenue to pay for the next class and have a significant surplus to be used for the purchase of art supplies.

With everyone doing their part, up to 50 schools a year can have 20 or more of their students participate in an experience that not only teaches them something about glass and the business of art, but also provides them with a unique, positive, confidence building experience. To date, everyone who has participated in the Hot Glass Experience for Schools has successfully made a paperweight.

The program addresses all of the other issues discussed earlier:

1. It introduces glass into the arts curriculum.

2. It provides an opportunity for art students to visit a working studio and ask about the realities of making a living in the arts.

3. It provides a revenue stream to the arts department that is insulated from budget cuts.

4. It helps relieve some of the out-of-pocket spending by the teachers.

5. It allows me to give away my glass, share the magic and wonder of working with hot glass with a lot of people and I still get to pay my bills.

6. Everyone wins!

What are they?

The PBS Blues are an annual series of 10 hand blown works, predominantly blue in color and each unique in form, created expressly for local PBS auctions.

Why do we make them?

We are honored and pleased to be able to provide the PBS Blues series of works for this our 8th year. It has long been my policy to make donations of works to non- profit organizations doing outstanding work. So in 1999 when asked to donate works for PBS, it seemed like a great idea. With great pleasure, the first group of 10 individual works were completed and donated to PBS that year.

It might have been a one-and-only event, if not for what happened next.

The day after one of the first auction items sold, I received a phone call from the purchaser who asked if she could stop at the studio on her way through our part of the country. A few days later, I had the opportunity to meet that early buyer who proceeded to buy quite a few more works - a quick and immediate conformation to us that supporting PBS was not only the right thing to do, but a good business decision too!

Another decision was made then and there: PBS would receive our support in the future. That was in 1999 and with the help of my talented associates, I have produced 10 works each year since then to contine the PBS Blues series.

Soon we will celebrate our 9th anniversary of working with PBS by creating the PBS Blues series for 2007. Each piece as it is produced will be shown here on this web site - coming soon.

I hope you enjoy our upcoming creations and would encourage you to support your local PBS station by purchasing items from their auctions or by simply making a donation directly to your local station.

James Michael Kahle

Over eight years ago, the PBS (Public Broadcasting Station) in Dayton, OH began shooting footage of the toils and trials in the art glass industry known as Glass by James Michael from Rockford. As recently as 2 1/2 years ago, the PBS writers began to talk seriously with Jim about shooting and writing a documentary on his glass-blowing techniques which have won him many awards and the recognition as a master craftsman with many major, solo exhibitions around the United States and overseas.

Kahle's unique glass art, secret formula for "mixing" hot glass and metals, a genuine desire to share his talents with school students of the Northwest Ohio Communities, and his philanthropic donations to the PBS Blues Fund-Raising Campaigns (10 PBS large bowls, vases and paperweights ~ in all 150 pieces), over the last six years, have earned him a feature on the 29 minute documentary that is an accounting of his life's work of "Turning Fire Into Ice." The program is intended to help raise awareness of his work and the items that he is donating for their fund-raising event in March (2006).

The documentary was written and produced by Julie Davis and covers all aspects of Jim's life and work as he goes about his creative routine. Other locals featured on the documentary are: Rachel Harshman of Rockford, Duane Darland of Peru, Indiana (formerly of Celina), and Erin McMillen of Van Wert. Kahle is pictured on the cover of the March 2006 program guide, Spectrum, for PBS.

Encouraged by the arts community of Dayton, Ohio, James Michael Kahle relocated his main glass operation to 545 West Siebenthaler, Suite B, Dayton, Ohio 45405 in the Summer of 2007. Located on the northern side of the city, just off I-75, the building was formerly a landscaping business an features spacious workrooms and a glass showroom.

Said Kahle, of the move,"There is the advantage of greater opportunity in Dayton ~ it is a good move for us to reach more people. This studio will address the needs of students, teachers and the public for their art glass needs. In addition, this opportunity will allow us to seek non-profit funding in the Dayton area."

The hot glass studio is set up with two firing glory holes to rent. Classes are always welcome.

The Dayton facility plans a schedule of torch classes in hard glass, and in bead-making with soft glass. Jim Kahle and Noah Wilsey are handling all instruction at the present. However, on the non-profit side of the operation, ACE is looking for qualified volunteer instructors as well as students to fill classes in slumping, fusing, casting and stained glass. Neon sign-making is to be added later.

As always, donations are always appreciated to ACE (Arts for Community Enrichment).

Open by appointment or by chance.

Phone: 937.567.9966

Let us create a one-of-a-kind unique desktop sculpture of your loved one's or your beloved pet's cremains. Have the cremains beautifully encased in glass with the birth and death dates engraved in the glass. Signed by Glass Master, James Michael Kahle

Human Cremains start at $900
Pet Cremains start at $400