New to the Permanent Collection: "Triceratops" by Buck Harris
Buck. Triceratops, 2022. Flameworked glass. 9 x 5 20 in. Collection of Museum of Glass, anonymous gift. Photo by Lucas Reilly.
Triceratops is an intricate, fully functional glass pipe painstakingly flameworked by artist Ryan “Buck” Harris. Harris owns and operates his own studio on the central Oregon coast and has a reputation for sculpting these unexpected – and awesome – pieces. Adapting hot-glass techniques to create pipes started in the 1980s, when flameworker Bob Snodgrass began making small pipes to sell at Grateful Dead concerts. Like street artists, this community of pipe-makers developed largely underground over the next forty years, pushing the technical boundaries of this torch-based sculpting technique well beyond its traditional use to create paperweights and marbles.
Triceratops is an example of this complex, and once taboo, artform. It bridges the gap between functional and fine art and is the first example of functional glass pipes to be accepted into the Museum’s Permanent Collection, the tip of an iceberg of innovative and avant garde glassmakers.