Twist and Shout

Twist and Shout
Life is never straight (Joey Kulkin photo)

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Vignettes from Vermont: Of Glass Balls and Sunshine

Joey Kulkin photo

BENNINGTON -- Blown-glass balls fly off the hooks here at Fiddlehead at Four Corners, and we just received a new shipment the other day. All of them will be for sale on the website that goes live in the coming weeks.

The art gallery owner's wife and I spent an hour Friday afternoon trying to figure out how to best photograph the beautifully painted transparent balls to give customers the best sense of what they're buying after they've seen them on the website.

This posed an interesting dilemma because I held a few of the balls up, and the sunshine burst through them and whammo! -- I went goo-goo at the transformation I saw. The photo above is a perfect example of how sunshine makes a blown-glass ball come to life.

This is what the ball looks like without sunshine or bright light:




That's what customers will see on Fiddlehead's website.

The difference is night and day.

And this is where the discussion with the gallery owner and his wife took flight. I argued to take photos of the balls in the full thrust of daylight. The gallery owner and his wife said such a photo is deceiving because a customer will receive the ball in the mail and go, like, "Whaaaaat?!?! This isn't the ball I ordered!"

I countered, to the effect, "But I think people will hang these balls near spots where the sunshine bursts through them so let's give customers a true idea of the their potential."

We did not come to a conclusion. A logical one might be that we upload 2 photos for each ball: one unlit by the sun, another fully blazed by the sun.

What do you think? Leave a comment below. If you want to buy glass-blown balls call Fiddlehead at (802) 447-1000.

Here are a few more examples of balls as is and of balls ablaze:

















2 comments:

  1. Two shots, with and without sun. But I would hang/dangle them in non-sun shot. The one I have is pretty either way.

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  2. We found the images particularly striking and admired the uneven handmade aspect of each sphere.
    Great to see so many new glass spheres.

    Buy Crystal Ball Online

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