Thom,Hand Blown Glass Art
Lillie Glassblowers - Our story
Lillie Glassblowers has been creating Hand Blown Glass Art for 40 years. Lillie Glassblowers is a father and son glassblowing studio based in Smyrna Georgia who creates beautiful hand blown works of art on a daily basis. Don Lillie acts as the company patriarch, presiding over basic operations. But Thom has the most enviable position being (for lack of a better term) genius in residence. His job is producing phenomenal amounts of salable works in sheer numbers in addition to drafting the design of some of the most unusual and unique hand blown glass art never before seen. Thom Lillie could be found anywhere in Atlanta, conferring with a client, rushing a delivery, stopping by the studio to brainstorm, or possibly chatting with one of the stream of fascinating people who stop by the studio and are enthralled by the whirlwind inside. Thom's father Don described the work environment best saying "If you get bored in our group, you would get bored in the middle of a tornado." Thom and Don have produced some amazing art pieces that truly capture his artistic passion.
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How ideas become Hand Blown Glass Art
While I wandered in the Lillie studios in Smyrna, I overheard a conversation between Thom's father, Don Lillie, and the Smyrna fire marshall concerning a suitable symbol for a fire fighter's hand blown glass award. They finally agreed on a fireaxe. But from this point on, whoever makes the award has the responsibility, as an artist, to create a recognizably "Lillie" work while meeting the unknowable standards of the fire marshal. Many times, custom clients are not pleased and Thorn must head back to the studio to design something in keeping with the customer's tastes. Hence his assessment of commercial limits is "I make things I relate to but since we are retail, things that the public will relate to and enjoy." As a result, every project Lillie creates is a sentence in a continuing dialogue between himself and the customer. Lillie acts as the reconnaissance man who brings ideas back from an unexplored aesthetic landscape and translates them into forms for those who do not comprehend this non-verbal language as clearly as he does. But some fans do understand more than others, so naturally his sculptural statements speak to different levels of fluency. Familiar forms make the base of his sculptures.
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Don uses his blowtorch to finish an order. |
Thom technique on making Hand Blown Glass Art
Thom has the unique ability to conceive an idea for a glass art piece, sketch it for symmetry and technique, and finally transform it into a tangible crystal sculpture. Many of Thom's glass art pieces reflect his personality and interests. Some of his more recent designs have never been attempted before and they represent challenges and development procedures in rare in unfamiliar areas; truly a modern day explorer in the uncharted sear of crystal design. Thom's Stunning glass technique is a hybrid of technical virtuosity tempered by a deft personal touch. The techniques Thorn uses are all derived from scientifc glassblowing - not blowing molten glass bubbles over a raging furnace, but molding smaller pieces of glass with his breath and hands using an adjustable handheld flame or a stationary torch. While most scientific glass blowers manufacture technical product such as test tubes, beakers, or coiling, Thorn utilizes these same methods to produce smaller, precisely scaled, truly subtle pieces that could never be equaled by furnace blown work.