Michael Robinson

"Glass: It can endure millennia or be destroyed in an instant. It is, simultaneously, eternal and etherial — totally dependent on external conditions. My designs are influenced by the fluid motion of wind and water and the delicate existence of those creatures that inhabit those realms. I believe glass is the ideal medium for my designs because its enduring but fragile quality best reflects nature."

Robinson has found glass to be the ideal medium to express the forms found in nature — the fluid motion of wind and water and the shapes of the creatures that inhabit those realms — because glass echoes nature; it is enduring but fragile. This is the underlying message of glass. A message that Robinson endeavors to convey in his work.

Lampworking is the specific technique of glassblowing that Robinson employs to create his designs. All of Robinson’s designs are worked freehand in an open flame. Glass rod is heated to its melting point in an oxygen/propane torch or “lamp." This molten glass is then formed into various shapes using only simple hand tools, gravity and other pieces of glass rod.

Robinson is a second-generation glassblower who, as a young child, watched his father work hot glass in an open flame. Molten glass became a familiar medium for Robinson as he honed his skills working as a scientific glassblower. Such exacting work set Robinson’s technical skills, but he credits his childhood exposure to glass for forming the solid foundation upon which his creations stand today.