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Katherine & William Bernstein
Katherine and William Bernstein together form an impressive pair. Katherine and William both grew up in New Jersey and met while attending art school in Philadelphia. They married in 1968, and anxious to leave the city, they accepted Artist in Residence positions at the Penland School of Crafts in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
Two years later, they moved to nearby Celo, North Carolina. They moved into a log cabin, planted a garden, and set up a studio in Celo Community, a land trust located on the beautiful South Toe River.
In the early years, Katie worked in hand built porcelain and Billy, very influenced by Scandinavian and colonial American glass design, started producing a variable line of goblets and sculptural pieces. In 1971, Billy, together with glass pioneers Mark Peiser and Fritz Dreisbach, took part in planning and hosting the first meeting of the Glass Arts Society. This organization has since grown into an international organization with over a thousand members.
In the mid 1970’s, glass master and educator Harvey Littleton moved to the area and he quickly took an interest in the young artist’s work. He insisted that Katie’s sculpture in clay would translate beautifully into glass. To make his point, he took several of Katie’s clay originals back to his studio and cast them in crystal. The results were wonderful, and Katie started working exclusively in glass.
By the 80’s, both artists had established themselves as major forces in the glass world, but to keep their studio running they needed a steady flow of sales which eventually brought them together on a line of goblets and tableware. Katie supplied the imagery with melted glass colored rods, and Billy formed the result into a vessel. This combination proved very popular and received wide recognition in design journals and magazines. They continue to produce these pieces today.
Currently, both Billy and Katie produce individual pieces for gallery shows and collaborate with two assistants on the functional work.
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Studio Process
Our work encompasses many different glass processes. The glass melted in our studio is based on high grade silica sand, in combination with many other ingredients. Our forms are created in the “free blown” style where each piece is formed by hand without the use of molds or patterns.
Most of the imagery is formed by drawing directly on the hot glass with thin colored glass rods, known as “cane,” and a torch in a technique not unlike welding. The image is usually drawn while the bubble is small and then it expands as the piece is blown.
In the enamel painted pieces, the form is blown, cooled, and decorated by brush with glass enamel in a liquid form. The piece is then reheated in a kiln and the enamel painting is fused into the surface of the glass.
Cast pieces originate in a clay or wax original that is invested in a plaster mold and later removed, leaving a negative form in the plaster. Cold glass ingots are then melted into the negative cavity, cooled, and the plaster mold is gently removed from the casting. This is known as a “waste mold” as each mold is good for only one casting. The finished piece is then cleaned and polished as needed.