Le Cirque - Full Core

As an incredibly talented and skilled sculptor, Jack Storms was destined to be “a talent to be reckoned with”. As a boy growing up in New Hampshire, he was both a gifted athlete and a motivated student. It wasn’t until later in life that Jack discovered his passions in contemporary art and graduated at age 30 from Plymouth State University with a BA in Art focusing primarily on studio production. It was during his junior year there that he happened upon what would eventually become an entryway to his legacy - the studio of a glass artist that was close to his school where the artisan was producing a phenomenally rare style of glass art work, combining lead crystal and dichroic glass using a cold-glass process.

The process itself, which required weeks and weeks to produce a single completed glass sculpture was incredibly intense and physically challenging. The number of glass artisans working in this form of fine art could be counted on one hand. Working side by side with the artisan for over a year, Jack Storms learned every component and facet of this incredibly challenging and rare art form and became a strong enough sculptor to branch out on his own in 2004 and open StormWorks Studio.

Both challenged and inspired by having been told that his personal vision was impossible, one of Jack Storm’s first major accomplishments as an independent glass artist was to invent and design a cold-working lathe, offering him the ability to turn glass and sculpt shapes with curves and details like one would produce from a wooden medium. Early memories of studying his fathers craftsmanship as he worked for hours in his own studio with a wooden lathe provided him with the blueprint of his vision. His intense drive and deeply embedded passion as a glass artist combined with the inspiration that came from the idea of pioneering new trails in the world of fine art motivated him toward this remarkable accomplishment.

The intense cold-glass process, which can take up to 10 weeks for each contemporary glass sculpture to come to life, begins at the heart of the design, by creating a core of lead crystal which is cut, polished and laminated creating reflective mirrors. When wrapped in optical glass, the refraction of light as it passes through the glass art creates rainbows of hypnotic color. The drawn out process of repetitive cutting, grinding and polishing requires rigid self discipline, blood sweat and tears, and intense passion. The results are mind boggling works of contemporary Jack Storms glass art.

His inspiration comes from both heart and mind when conceiving his artistic designs. At the crux of each lead crystal sculpture by Jack Storms lays the theory of Fibonacci, a great mathematician that articulated the natural math seen in nature. “Natural beauty is created, not manufactured. From the repetition florets of a flower to the scales of a pineapples skin, Fibonacci numbers are found in the pattern of growth of every living thing in nature”.

Jack Storms: His Process & Story

We highly encourage you to watch Jack Storms talk about his work and his process in these videos, where he sheds light on what makes his pieces unique. Seeing the talent and time involved in the making of these incredible sculptures will heighten your appreciation and understanding of this unique medium.