John Gibbons
Artist in focus
John Gibbons
Collectible glass has been part of this gallery since the early years — I started Dolphin Galleries in Lahaina in March 1976, and glass was already part of what we carried not long after. John Gibbons is where that continues: hand-blown, hand-sculpted sea-life forms, no two pieces identical.
- In this collection
- 20 works
- Ships from
- Our own inventory
- Returns
- 7 days
John Gibbons
Collectible glass has been part of this gallery since the early years — I started Dolphin Galleries in Lahaina in March 1976, and glass was already part of what we carried not long after. John Gibbons is where that continues: hand-blown, hand-sculpted sea-life forms, no two pieces identical.
Individually blown, no molds
Gibbons builds his Starfish Cluster Vases by blowing each starfish arm individually and arranging them around a clear inner glass vase — no molds involved, so every piece comes out slightly different from the next. The bowls and standalone vases use a different technique: he cuts small glass rods and tiles, arranges them into a pattern, fuses them together in a 2,100-degree kiln, then rolls a blowpipe along the edge to form a cylinder, closes the bottom to create a bubble, and blows and shapes the piece from there. The glass has optical properties that make the pattern shift as you move around it.
What's here now
The Starfish Cluster Vase comes in thirteen colors, each offered Small (7-inch diameter, 9 inches tall, $2,200) or Large (9-inch diameter, 14 inches tall, $3,875). Beyond the starfish series there are seven standalone pieces from the same coral-reef line: the Anemone Vase ($900, 11.5 x 6 inches), the Aqua & Pale Green Bowl ($190, 10.5 x 4.5 inches), the Fruity Anemone Vase ($4,000, 17 x 10 inches), the Rainbow Bowl ($1,800, 7 x 14 inches), the Warm Blue Vase ($225, 11.5 x 4.5 inches), and the two largest in the group — Sea Collage ($4,000, 18 x 8.75 inches) and Sea Collage Orb ($3,500, 16 x 11 inches), both built from murrine, small glass disks with a pattern fused into them. Sea Collage alone carries more than a hundred of them, and each one takes several hours to make on its own.
Glass ships differently than bronze or canvas — it's the one medium here where the packing matters as much as the piece itself, and every one of these leaves built into its own crate. Call us if you want help choosing a color or deciding between Small and Large before you order.
— Steve Schlag, founder, Dolphin Galleries
