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By Tim Ellis, Staff Writer for the OLE supplement to the Sierra Vista Herald and The Bisbee Daily Review. This feature article was published March 28, 1985. All photos by Richard Byrd of Bisbee, Az, Staff photographer.
Artistry in Glass
Artist heats, twists and molds Pyrex
until a delicate scene emerges
BISBEE -- When Rex Cravat sits down at his workbench, be becomes at once creator and artisan.
Cravat twists and molds an inanimate rod of Pyrex glass after heating it to molten stage, infusing it with life until a delicate, detailed scene emerges.
After using cobalt or copper for coloring some details, Cravat coats the piece with a thin layer of gold or silver. This "fuming process" imparts subtle hues of lavender, pink and blue to the piece.
Cravat said the fuming process is used by only a handful of glass artisans.
Recently, Cravat has been working with variations of a series of scenes of a bird hovering near a flower, as if frozen in an approach to sip some nectar. Among the works at Bisbee's Office Gallery are one depicting seahorses fluidly cavorting around coral pillars, and one of an elk peacefully grazing.
"I like doing the whole scenes. Then you get a picture, not only of the animal, but of the landscape behind it, " Cravat said.
"Glass lends itself to the shape of animals and trees," he added.
Glass sculptor Rex Cravat adds a leaf to the stem of one of his handcrafted roses, photo by Richard Byrd.
Detailed work like attaching thorns to rose stems require tedious concentration and strict attention to timing; the piece could fall apart or begin to sag from heat when any of several pieces are added on the the original piece, he said.
Petals are textured in the molten stage with tools fashioned by Cravat. Birds are added and the piece is finished with the fuming process. Sometimes, he event adds scent to the flowers. The result rivals nature's model.
"The roses have everything but the aphids," Cravat said.
Most of his works sell for $65 to $85, some for up to $165 to $225, and some of the larger collector's items are priced around $600.
Aside from the many pieces of display at the Office Gallery - where a show of his works will be held beginning in mid-April - Cravat's works can also be seen at Misty's Gift Gallery in Sierra Vista, and other galleries in Tucson, Sedona, Scotttsdale, Phoenix and Las Vegas, from where he moved to Bisbee.
Cravat said he first became interested in Bisbee in August of 1983, when he toured the area on motorcycle trips from Tucson. Here, he said he found inspiration and subjects for his pieces, not to mention relief from the tedium of working in Las Vegas.
Even though his former employer, The Crystal Palace Glass Shop in Las Vegas, "has the best glassworkers in the country," Cravat said he is glad to be here.
"I was so sick of Las Vegas," he said, "No bush grew over two feet tall. If you took a picnic, people could see you for miles."
Cravat said he learned glassworking from his father, who built entire scenes from the Old West in glass.
When he was a teen-ager, his father showed him how to make a mouse, an elephant and a swan. After he sold those pieces, he said he decided to make more complex pieces.
"Gradually, I got better. I got a kiln, and that's when I could do scenes without them cracking," he said.
Now, in his shop at 79 Main St., he uses two kilns and custom-designed tools to make his extraordinarily elegant works.
Dog & Pheasant Hunt Scene, glass sculpture by Rex Cravat, photo by Richard Byrd of Bisbee, Az.
Cravat begins with a rod of Pyrex glass, which he said is stronger than ordinary glass and does not expand or contract greatly.
Using a propane-oxygen torch, he heats the Pyrex until molten, then twists, presses and coaxes the Pyrex to yield an animal form.
He then gently sandblasts the animal form to make the surface porous and frosted.. This is necessary before using the fuming process to coat the piece with 24-karat gold or pure silver, Cravat said.
The entire work must be reheated when a new piece is attached - a meticulous process as the whole work can fall apart during any reheating, he said.
Cravat said that he sometimes works for hours or even days at a time with the detail work, until he finishes the work or until he is exhausted. During those long hours, Cravat thinks about his goal of working for the Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning, N.Y.
One of the curators of that museum sent him a letter in 1979 expressing interest in the fuming process, as well as in his works. Since then, he has corresponded in hopes of becoming a museum staff member to further refine his glassworking methods.
"I want to work for them to have the equipment and safer conditions," he said. "There's no limit to what I could do."
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Glass sculptor's works reflect a full-blown talent This article about Rex Cravat by Janet Purcell was published in The Times, Trenton, NJ, on 09/14/01, three days after Rex died.