When I was very young, in high school, I wanted to be a fashion designer. I read every “Seventeen Magazine” and peered over the pages loving all the fabrics and styles. It was the 60’s and women’s fashion was making quite a stir in the world with it’s bell bottom pants and little tiny mini skirts. Being a world famous fashion designer wasn’t going to be in my cards. I had another road to travel before becoming an artist.

 

    Now, some 30 years later, I am finally able to do the work I was born to do. I am making clothes. Not clothes out of fabric, though the fabric imprint is clearly  to be seen, but rather clothes out of glass.

 

    Retro clothing is very much in fashion. Girls are wearing little tiny mini skirts hanging around their hips with their belly buttons showing. The styles are very similar to the clothing of my time,  except the clothes of today are not made and worn with the same revolutionary meaning.  In the 60’s,  women were trying to change the world. They wanted a voice. They wanted to express themselves in anyway they chose. Today?  There is hollowness in the voice of clothing.  The deepness of spirit is lost in all the commercialism.

 

    In my  glass clothing I have  sculpted the garment leaving the imprint of the  person wearing the garment within the folds of the glass. These little mini skirts and tank tops are the vessels that hold so much meaning from my generation.  It has to do with peace and love and good will toward man. Bringing these same fashions forward to today  I have felt the need to leave them empty much like the figures of today.

 

    The process I use is unusual. The original is made in wax which I have imprinted with the pattern of the fabric. From patterns I have made, I  cut out the wax pieces as one would cut out fabric to make a garment. I then weld the pieces together molding the form as I go until I feel I have captured the essence of a person. I then make a mold of the garment casting it in glass.

 

Carol Glashoff

749 Loring Ave

Crockett, CA 94525

925-330-0551