I know today’s post title is somewhat confusing, but it’s the name of the artist’s studio. I found it to be so incongruous in contrast to the classical-looking glass he produces, I couldn’t resist!

This is the phenomenal glasswork by Detroit native Marc VandenBerg. Using both furnace and flameworking techniques, the artist creates complex, graceful glass pieces that I find irresistible. Formerly a student at my two favorite glass institutions, The Corning Museum of Glass and Pilchuck Glass School, VandenBerg is generous with his time and knowledge, teaching master classes all over the world.

Though the pieces VandenBerg and assistant Adam Thomas make certainly have modern sensibilities, it’s his classical techniques that first turned my head.

“A lot of the techniques I use are Venetian influenced. My style is figurative. I use a lot of furnace tools when I work glass on the torch. I usually try to say something with what I’m doing but sometimes I just want to do something different. The antelope-headed woman to me is a representation of Mother Earth. I made a goblet where I had a male rhino-headed man stabbing people and I called it Natural Disaster. I mostly just enjoy beautiful figures.”

The video below of the two creating a glass vessel is positively mind-blowing. I keep thinking I would like to learn to work glass, but then I see something like this, and I’m sure I could never do all that! What a talent!

You can follow The Juice Box Studio on their website and on Facebook.

All images property of Marc VandenBerg/The Juice Box Studio.