Glass recycling in crisis

Two recent investigations by ABC journalists showed that the recycling industry in Australia is in crisis, with glass recycling being hit especially hard.

Currently in Australia, recycling companies collect, sort, and store waste. Much of it is then sold overseas for processing into reusable raw materials. However, on January 1 this year, China banned the importation of a range of recyclable rubbish, closing route for 600,000 tonnes of material exported by Australia each year. Australia's recycling industry is feeling the impact of that ban already, with recycled waste being stockpiled in warehouses.

China’s ban has hit Australia’s glass recycling industry especially hard, because the market for recycled glass is already undercut by cheap imported glass. Indeed, it is currently cheaper to import glass bottles than to recycle them. As a result, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of close to worthless used glass are being stockpiled and used as landfilled instead of being recycled.

Each year, Australia consumes about 1.36 million tonnes of glass, including bottles, jars and other containers.Industry leaders warn that they cannot keep collecting recycling if there's nowhere for it to go. In Victoria, recycling company Visy will stop collecting waste from 22 regional councils from February 9. However, many recycling companies are locked into contracts with local councils that last up to ten years.

NSW alone consumes about 460,000 tonnes of used glass per year and the NSW Environment Protection Agency (EPA) prohibits recycling companies from stockpiling large amounts of material. However, a confidential industry report provided to the NSW EPA in 2017 reported substantial stockpiling of used glass. The report also said that in many Australian states the market for used glass is depressed; and that in many rural areas, increasing freight costs mean that recycling glass is only marginally profitable.

Despite this crisis in glass recycling, cheap imports of ‘virgin’ materials are preferred to local reprocessed materials. For example, road base is constantly being made with newly mined sand, rather than with ‘sand’ using Australia's glut of recycled glass. Waste Management Association of Australia (WMAA) president Garth Lamb has said that Mr Lamb said, "A lot of the big state government road projects ... could suck up all the glass that's being stockpiled around Australia ...”

SOURCES

Nick Kilvert and Carl Smith “The demise of kerbside recycling? China ban disrupts rubbish removal and fills warehouses” ABC News

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-08/the-demise-of-kerb-side-recycling/9407650

Caro Meldrum-Hanne “Recycling companies stockpiling thousands of tonnes of glass as cheap imports leave market in crisis” ABC News

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-07/recycling-companies-forced-to-stockpile-glass-industry-crisis/8778088

Featured Festival of Glass sponsor: Rotary Club of Drysdale

admin@drysdalerotary.org.au                                                www.drysdalerotary.org.au

P.O. Box 123, Drysdale 3222, Victoria

Meets: Mondays at 6:30 PM at Clifton Springs Golf Club, 92-94 Clearwater Drive, Clifton Springs, Victoria 3222.

The Festival of Glass committee is very grateful to the Rotary Club of Drysdale for supporting the 2018 Festival of Glass. Rotary seeks sustainable improvements in local communities in over 200 countries; and the Rotary Club of Drysdale raises money to support a range of regional organisations. The Club promotes local artistic excellence through its annual Easter art show and has supported the Festival of Glass since its inception. The Club was a major sponsor of the Festival’s Welcome to Drysdale glass mural in central Drysdale; it is sponsoring the Award for Wearable Glass Art at this year’s Festival; and it is a sponsor of the Festival's Mentorship programme for local young aspiring glass artists.

Featured Festival of Glass sponsor: Stockdale & Leggo

Drysdale.                    2/11 Clifton Springs Rd (PO Box 732), Drysdale 3222

Tel. 5251 4888                   drysdale@stockdaleleggo.com.au

Portarlington.              92B Newcombe Street, Portarlington 3223

Tel. 5259 1315                   portarlington@stockdaleleggo.com.au

The Festival of Glass committee is very grateful to local real estate agents Stockdale and Leggo for supporting the Festival once again. In 2017, it participated in the Festival’s Treasure Hunt and this year it is sponsoring the Award for Sculptural Glass Art. The Stockdale & Leggo real estate franchise was established in 1936 and now has over 90 offices in city centres, metropolitan areas and regional districts across Australia. Group members – such as the local agents - specialise in buying, renting, leasing and managing residential, commercial and rural property; and they do so drawing on the group’s history, experience and constant search for innovation.

Stockdale & Leggo has its own finance arm - S&L Financial Logic – offering a range of financial services, including home loan finance (which compares over 20 leading banks and lenders and hundreds of home loan options), financial planning & investment, self-managed super funds and personal insurance.

Thanks to the City of Greater Geelong and the Bendigo Bank, our Awards sponsors, our Treasure Hunt sponsors and other local ‘in kind’ supporters.

Get the latest Festival news

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Festival-of-Glass-189670377738114/

Web site: www.festivalofglass.net.au

Blog (you’re here!): http://festivalofglass.blogspot.com

Volunteering at the Festival

Our Friends of the Festival online newsletter gives the latest Festival news, with special emphasis on opportunities to volunteer to help. To become a Friend of the Festival, please send an e-mail to: festivalofglassdrysdale@gmail.com

Put “Festival Friends” in the subject bar and put your name and address in the body of the e-mail. Thanks - we look forward to welcoming you!

Venice comes to the Bellarine

An evening with Venetian glass master Mauro Vianello at Leura Park Estate is so popular that it has sold out weeks ahead.

Mauro Vianello at work in Venice

At "Twilight Flames" on saturday 17 February, Mauro will work his magic, blowing and sculpting glass while talking about his home on the historic island of Murano. The event is part of the 2018 Festival of Glass, where Mauro is the Artist in Residence; and the Festival is co-hosting "Twilight Flames" with Leura Park estate.

Mauro is an internationally renowned glass master, in demand by museums, universities, research centres and galleries around the world because of his ability to create extraordinary replicas of animals and plants, especially marine life. He will run classes between 20 February and 1 March in Drysdale for beginning and experienced glass artists.

Mauro's classes will feature traditional and modern glassworking skills and techniques; and he will show how to use these techniques to create a wide variety of glass art, from beads to sculptures.

Featured Festival sponsors: During his time in Drysdale, Mauro will stay at a local rental property owned and operated by Shane and Lorraine Cole; the Festival committee is grateful to Shane and Lorraine for supporting the Festival in this way.

Featured Festival of Glass sponsor: HelloWorld Travel (Drysdale)

Shop 3, 3 Wyndham Street, Drysdale VIC 3222                   5202 2718

https://agents.helloworld.com.au/helloworld-drysdale

The Festival of Glass committee is grateful to helloworld Drysdale for its consistent support for the Festival.

helloworld Drysdale owner Carol McCarthy has worked in Geelong for 3 years and has owned the agency for the past 18 years. Her agency specialises in personally escorted group tours - perfect for solo travellers and for those wanting to meet like-minded people. Recent tour destinations have included Canada & Alaska, Japan, Sri Lanka, Europe, Africa, China, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Cruising is another helloworld Drysdale specialty and the agency is accredited by the Cruise Lines International Agency Association.

The staff at helloworld Drysdale have decades of travel experience between them. More importantly, they are passionate travellers themselves - between them, they have covered just about every holiday destination! They would love to share their considerable knowledge and experience with clients, offer advice and help to plan the next adventure.

Whatever your dream destination, start the journey at helloworld Drysdale!

Get the latest Festival news

On Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Festival-of-Glass-189670377738114/

On the web site: www.festivalofglass.net.au

On the blog (you’re here!): http://festivalofglass.blogspot.com

Volunteering at the Festival

Our “Friends of the Festival” online newsletter gives the latest Festival news specifically for our volunteers. To become a Friend of the Festival, please send an e-mail to: festivalofglassdrysdale@gmail.com

Put “Festival Friends” in the subject bar and put your name and address in the body of the e-mail.

 

New life for old bottles

Drysdale will ring to the clink of bottles at the third annual free Historic Bottle Evaluation on Sunday 11 February, 10.00am to 3.30pm at the Drysdale Courthouse.

The record-breaking bottles

The Bellarine Historical Society and ABCR Auctions are running the event as part of the 2018 Festival of Glass.

Experienced valuers Paul and David Bruce, assisted by leading Geelong collector Cam Ward, will appraise and value bottles and expect to see around 75 hopeful locals.

David Bruce said, “We’ve found some real treasures, which fetched record prices at subsequent auctions.

“One was a Les Bray St. Arnaud ginger beer bottle, made between 1900 and 1918, which sold for a record $650; the other was a hand blown wine bottle dated 1740 from Oxford University’s Magdalene College, which sold for a record $980!”

If you have some old bottles that have been around for years, bring them along – they may be worth more than you think!

Featured Festival sponsor – Parkers Steakhouse, Drysdale

7 Palmerston Street, Drysdale, Victoria 3222                        (03) 5251 5551

eatmorebeef@parkerssteakhouse.com.au                   www.parkerssteakhouse.com.au/

Open 6.00pm to 9.00pm Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday; 6.00pm to 10.00pm Fridays and Saturdays. Fully licensed; no BYO.

The Festival committee is grateful to Parkers for their continued support of the Festival.

Customers at Parkers come from Drysdale, Geelong, Melbourne and further afield for the friendly, relaxed ambience. Entrees include grilled beef sausage, grilled halloumi cheese or lamb loin chops; and there are decadent deserts such as Double Chocolate Hot Fudge Cake and Warm Sticky Date Pudding.

The stars of the Parkers show, however, are the steaks! Simple, boldly flavoured 28-day aged T-bone or certified Australian Angus eye fillet steaks come from Australia’s best pasture-raised cattle. Non-steak eaters can delight in the delicious Atlantic salmon. An extensive wine list and knowledgeable, attentive staff round out the whole Parkers experience. 

Steuben crystal animals – art, not science

Steuben Glass Incorporated’s signature range of crystal glass animals originated in 1949 with “The Snail” and grew into an ever-growing managerie in the 1950s.

Steuben Glass Snail

The Steuben glass animals are unusual in that they combine the flowing, fluid forms of Art Nouveau and the massive, geometric lines of Art Deco. Neither of these artistic styles was still in vogue by the 1940s, although At Deco was still influencing some architects.

Steuben Glass Trout

Many Steuben glass animals, such as The Whale, The Trout and The Lion, make very striking ornaments. Others are just twee. The Owl is a good example of twee - and we won’t even mention The Koala!

Representation versus replication

Steuben’s glass animals are part of a long history of glass artists creating glass models of plants and animals. However, Steuben’s animals are in the realm of art, not science. Each one interprets its subject in glass, whereas other glass artists have sought to replicate the original plant or animal with scientific accuracy.

For example, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Dresden glass artists Leopold Baschker and his son Rudolph created hundreds of scientifically accurate glass models (to scale and enlarged) of plants and animals for universities and museums. (See “[Glass] Art imitating life” on this blog, 29 January 2018)

Similarly, contemporary Venetian glass artist Mauro Vianello creates meticulous replicas of plants and animals – especially marine life – for universities, research centres and museums. (See “Glass adds a shimmer to summer” on this blog, 12 January 2018) Mauro is Artist in Residence at the 2018 Festival of Glass, where he will demonstrate his glass art magic and teach beginning and advanced glass artists some tricks of his trade.

Steuben Glass – a short history

Steuben Glass Whale

The company originated as the Steuben Glass Works, founded in 1903 by Thomas G. Hawkes, an Irish-American glass engraver, and Frederick Carder, an English glassmaker. They named the company after its location in Steuben County in the south-west of New York state. In 1918, the nearby Corning Glass Works (now Corning Incorporated) bought Steuben. In 1933, Steuben created a formula for crystal that was stronger than ordinary glass, with a very high refractive index that made it reflect and refract light better than any other. What followed were Steuben’s ‘golden years’, which ended in 2008, when Corning sold Steuben to the Schottenstein Stores Corp. of Columbus, Ohio. In 2011, Schottenstein closed Steuben, but Corning re-purchased the Steuben brand name; and in 2013, Corning licensed The Corning Museum of Glass to oversee sales and production of Steuben glassware.

SOURCES

Plaut, J. S. (1972) Steuben Glass. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. (3^rd revised edn.)

Steuben Glass web site https://www.steuben.com/

Footnote - the Steuben Lion
The Steuben Lion resembles the lion in the Holden cars current version of the ‘lion and stone’ logo. The logo has evolved significantly from its original, designed for Holden by Rayner Hoff in 1929. It refers to a prehistoric fable, in which observations of lions rolling stones led humans to invent the wheel.

Steuben Lion

Holden's 'lion and stone' logo

Holden's original logo

Featured Festival of Glass sponsor: Decal Specialists 
The Festival of Glass committee is very grateful to Decal Specialists for supporting the 2018 Festival of Glass - in particular, for sponsoring the "Encouragement - Best in Show" Glass Art Award.

The company manufactures ... well ... decals! Decals can be applied to any solid sealed surface, enabling artists to ‘import’ a lacquered image to the surface of their work. The company stocks a range of images, or they can create custom decals from a customer’s images.

The company makes three types of decal: ceramic decals, for fired glazed finishes; glass decals for transparent or opaque glass surfaces; and ‘non-fire’ decals for use on any sealed surface (e.g. terracotta, woodwork).

Contacts:

6/2 Brand Drive, Thomastown, Victoria 3074

Tel. (1300) 132 771    (03) 9380 7722

E-mail: enquiries@decalspecialists.com.au

Featured Festival of Glass Sponsor: Leura Park Estate

The Festival of Glass committee is very grateful to Leura Park Estate for being a major sponsor of the Festival’s 2018 Treasure Hunt (8 January to 18 February) and for co-hosting “Twilight Flames” (17 February).

Established in 1995, the 150 acre Leura Park Estate includes 40 acres planted with premium, cool climate varietal vines, from which grapes are predominantly hand-picked. In the hands of winemaker Darren Burke, they yield the Estate’s renowned Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay wines, as well as Sparkling Shiraz, Sparkling Pinot Chardonnay and Sparkling Blanc de Blanc.

Owners David and Lyndsay Sharpe have designed menus to complement their wines, including stone-based pizzas, seasonal grazing platters (ideal for groups), steak sandwiches and salt & pepper calamari served with a Greek salad. Also on offer is exclusively roasted coffee and an extensive range of teas.

Visitors to Leura Park Estate can relax on the sun drenched alfresco area or on the lawn under market umbrellas, while an open fire beckons on cooler days.

The Estate staff can assist people planning a private function, a party, or a special occasion such as a wedding or work function. For informal occasions, the Estate offers its ‘fabulous, fun, finger food functions’.

Contacts

1400 Portarlington Rd., Curlewis Vic. 3222

(03) 5253 3180                       http://leuraparkestate.com.au/

Open: 10.30am – 5.00pm Sunday to Thursday and all public holidays; open daily in January. Live music on Sundays. Bookings recommended.

Thanks to the City of Greater Geelong and the Bendigo Bank, our Awards sponsors, our Treasure Hunt sponsors and other local ‘in kind’ supporters.

Get the latest Festival news

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Festival-of-Glass-189670377738114/

Web site: www.festivalofglass.net.au

Blog (you’re here!): http://festivalofglass.blogspot.com

Volunteering at the Festival

Our Friends of the Festival online newsletter gives the latest Festival news, with special emphasis on opportunities to volunteer to help. To become a Friend of the Festival, please send an e-mail to: festivalofglassdrysdale@gmail.com

Put “Festival Friends” in the subject bar and put your name and address in the body of the e-mail. Thanks - we look forward to welcoming you!

(Glass) Art imitating life

From the time of the rock artists of Arnhem Land, the natural world has always inspired artists, including glass artists.

Mauro Vianello - Artist-in-Residence at the 2018 Festival of Glass - is a world respected glass artist and teacher because of his extraordinary skill in creating glass replicas of animals and plants, especially marine creatures.

Mauro Vianello Two jellyfish

Mauro’s work draws on that of Leopold Blaschka (27 May 1822 – 3 July 1895) and his son Rudolf Blaschka (17 June 1857 – 1 May 1939). Glass artists from Dresden, Germany, they were renowned for producing glass models of plants and sea creatures.

Generations of Blaschkas had made a range of glass items since the Sixteenth Century, including eyes, jewellery and scientific equipment. In his spare time, Leopold Blaschka made glass models of plants and when Prince Camille de Rohan of Prague saw them in 1860, he commissioned 100 glass orchids.

Leopold Blaschka Sea Anemone

When Dresden natural history museum director Professor Ludwig Reichenbach, saw the Blascha orchids, he realised that glass could be the key to showcasing marine invertebrates (creatures lacking a backbone). In 1863, Reichenbach commissioned Leopold Blascha to produce twelve model sea anemones. The resulting models were a great improvement on those used previously to present such creatures.

At the time, while durable specimens of vertebrates (animals with backbones) could be created by stuffing and mounting them, the only way to showcase invertebrates was to place a live specimen in a sealed jar of alcohol. Eventually, however, these specimens degenerated into little more than colourless blobs of jelly. Consequently, biologists used drawings, pressings, photographs or models in wax or papier maché to represent marine invertebrates, each with its own drawbacks.

Finding success

On Professor Reichenbach’s advice, Leopold closed the family business and established a mail-order business, selling glass marine invertebrates to museums, aquaria, universities and private collectors. The business was a great success.

Blaschka Tubularia indivisa

In1880, Leopold and Rudolf produced hundreds of glass models of sea creatures for the Boston Society of Natural History Museum (now the Museum of Science) and Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. In 1886, Professor George Lincoln Goodale asked Leopold and Rudolf to make a series of glass botanical models for the Harvard Botanical Museum that he was establishing; and in 1887, the Blaschkas signed an exclusive ten-year contract with Harvard to make around 4,400 glass models. When Leopold died in 1895, Rudolf worked alone until he retired in 1938.

The Blaschkas pioneered many techniques and formulas and experimented with glues, colours and glass. However, neither Leopold nor Rudolph employed an apprentice and Rudolf left no successor. Consequently, some of their techniques and formulas disappeared when they died, making it hard to repair and preserve these intricate antiquities. Even simple cleaning can have devastating effects on the glue and colour.

Featured Festival of Glass sponsor: Drysdale, Clifton Springs and Curlewis Association Inc.

Members of the Drysdale, Clifton Springs and Curlewis Association (DCSCA) live, work or study in the Drysdale, Clifton Springs and Curlewis areas and they aim to improve local people’s well-being and to improve the natural, social and built environments. DCSCA members meet regularly to discuss how the local community is changing; to work with other local groups and organisations to shape the area’s future; and to represent local people's ideas and opinions to outside organisations.

In 2011, DCSCA initiated the annual Festival of Glass to link the area with a major cultural/social event; and it established a Festival of Glass sub-committee to run the event. DCSCA's intention is for the Festival to offer a new and unique showcase to local glass artists, craftspeople and companies; encourage others to establish themselves in the area; and encourage local glass companies, artists and craftspeople to collaborate.

Contacts:

P.O. Box 581, Drysdale Vic 3222

E-mail: dryclifton@bigpond.com

Blog: http://drycliftdays.blogspot.com

Featured Festival of Glass sponsor: Glass Fusing

The Festival of Glass committee is very grateful for the support it receives from the Glass Fusing company. Glass artists Ashley Williamson and Bec Schaefer established Glass Fusing because, as they put it, “We decided to sell glass supplies and raw materials because we got tired of having to buy so many of our supplies from overseas, incurring significant freight costs, simply because the products were not available locally at reasonable prices”.

Glass Fusing sells a range of supplies for glass artists doing fusing (of course!), slumping and casting; as well as tools, kilns, findings, books and magazines. The company holds a range of System 96 glass, made by the Spectrum Glass Company and Uroboros Glass. Ashley and Bec have found that, in general, System 96 glass cuts well, fuses well, and tolerates multiple firings without devitrifying. Glass products in the System 96 collection are extremely stable and consistent, designed and produced to be compatibly both technically and artistically. “We find that System 96 glass gives us a great palette of colours”, they said, “as well as an ever-increasing range, whilst being quite affordable.”

Fusing Glass p/l, 5 Hammond Close, Oxley, ACT, 2903

Tel. 0421 444 291    Web: http://www.glassfusing.com.au/

E-mail: via web site

Thanks to the City of Greater Geelong and the Bendigo Bank, our Awards sponsors, our Treasure Hunt sponsors and other local ‘in kind’ supporters.

Latest Festival news

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Festival-of-Glass-189670377738114/

Web site: www.festivalofglass.net.au

Blog (you’re here!): http://festivalofglass.blogspot.com

Volunteering at the Festival

Our Friends of the Festival online newsletter gives the latest Festival news, with special emphasis on opportunities to volunteer to help. To become a Friend of the Festival, please send an e-mail to: festivalofglassdrysdale@gmail.com

Put “Festival Friends” in the subject bar and put your name and address in the body of the e-mail. Thanks - we look forward to welcoming you!

Festival favourites grow and diversify

In the eight years of the Festival of Glass, several features have become firm favourites, each one growing and becoming more diverse each year.

The Expo - Sunday 18 February, 10.00am - 4.00pm Christian College, Drysdale.

The Expo is the heart of each year’s Festival of Glass and the Festival’s eight years have seen it grow and diversify steadily. Festival organisers expect the 2018 Expo to attract 4,000 to 5,000 visitors, drawn by a record number of stalls featuring glass art, sculpture, jewelry, mosaics and home ware.

Several Expo exhibitors will demonstrate various glass working techniques and the Festival’s 2018 Artist in Residence, Mauro Vianello, will blow and sculpt glass and talk about his life as a glass master on the island of Murano, in Venice.

Several Expo exhibitors and Mauro Vianello will run classes after the Expo, where complete beginners can try their hand at glass art while experienced glass artists can refine and develop their skills under the tuition of specialists.

The Glass Art Awards – 2018 winners announced at the Festival Expo.

Each year, the entries to the Awards grow steadily each year in numbers and diversity. This is especially true of entries for the Bella Wein Award, which is sponsored by the Clifton Springs and Curlewis Lions Club. This Award is for the entry that captures best the character of the Bellarine Peninsula. (“Bella Wein” is the original Wathaurong name for the area.)

The Treasure Hunt – grand draw at the Festival Expo

In just three years, the Treasure Hunt has captured the imaginations of businesses and Treasure Hunters across the North Bellarine. For the 2018 Treasure Hunt, Diane Schofield’s team visited virtually every business in the area, inviting each one to participate. They were met with warm welcomes from past participants and quizzical curiosity from potential ones. As a result, a record 32 businesses are participating in the 2018 Treasure Hunt and have commissioned dozens of glass art prizes, which are on display in their premises.

Featured Festival of Glass sponsor: Clifton Springs and Curlewis Lions Club

Building communities through good practice

Lions Clubs aim to promote understanding, good government and good citizenship and to encourage people to serve their community. For many years, the Clifton Springs & Curlewis Lions Club has supported the Festival of Glass and the Festival Committee is very grateful to for their support. The Lions’ support has been an excellent example of service to community. They’ve been a major element of each Festival Expo; they help to set up and take down the venue and their sausage sizzle tent keeps Expo visitors fed and watered.

Since 2016, the Clifton Springs & Curlewis Lions Club have sponsored the Festival's "Bella Wein" award - part of the Festival's annual Glass Art Awards. The Bella wein Award is worth $500 and goes to the piece of glass art that best interprets the identity of the Bellarine Peninsula. The Award celebrates the continuity between the past and the present - "Bella Wein" is the name given to the Peninsula by the area's original owners, the Wathaurong people.

Featured Festival of Glass sponsor: Bayshore Electrical and Air Conditioning
Bayshore Electrical and Airconditioning services the Bellarine Peninsula and surrounds. Steve has supported the Festival of Glass for several years as a sponsor of the Festival's Glass Art Awards and the Festival committee is very grateful to him.
Contact Steve: Tel. 0400 201 396   Web site: http://bayshore.net.au  
 

Thanks to the City of Greater Geelong and the Bendigo Bank, our Awards sponsors, our Treasure Hunt sponsors and other local ‘in kind’ supporters.

Latest Festival news
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Festival-of-Glass-189670377738114/

Web site: www.festivalofglass.net.au

Blog (you’re here!): http://festivalofglass.blogspot.com

Volunteering at the Festival

Our Friends of the Festival online newsletter gives the latest Festival news, with special emphasis on opportunities to volunteer to help. To become a Friend of the Festival, please send an e-mail to: festivalofglassdrysdale@gmail.com

Put “Festival Friends” in the subject bar and put your name and address in the body of the e-mail. Thanks - we look forward to welcoming you!