Irene Steffens Colin Miller/Strauss Peyton

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In his early years of glassblowing, Sam Stang visited a Smithsonian exhibition displaying pieces of mid-century Venini Murano glass, an exquisite glass from Murano, Italy. It was this fortuitous trip that inspired and influenced the direction of his career.

Traveling to Venice in the early ’90s and then to Murano, the cradle of European glassblowing, Sam became a student of Lino Tagliapietra, a world-renowned glassblower. “The whole experience was magical,” he says. “It was an amazing place, and I was ready to be amazed.”

“I am more interested in the fine
design than the fine art of glass.”

Today, in his Augusta Glass Studio, Sam creates each piece using traditional European glassblowing techniques. The process usually begins with a drawing. “A drawing is deliberate and can be reproduced,” he says, “but not replicated, because of the human element.” Then, creating his own glass rods cross-sectioned into murrini pieces, he arranges them on an iron plate, heats and rolls them into a tube on the end of a blowpipe and shapes the piece into its final form. Each piece is produced hot at the furnace – fused, not glued together. Because of the complexity of this technique, known as “incalmo,” he works with a highly skilled assistant.

Sam considers himself a designer rather than a glass artist. Each piece is functional, deep, rich and opulent, full of pattern or color with a quality of magnificence. “I design on my own terms,” he says. “I am more interested in the fine design than the fine art of glass.”  With his creative vision and many more designs ready to draw, Sam notes that at this point in his life, “One thing always leads to another. I’m not looking for the next big thing, the next big thing always seems to find itself!”