Virginia Wilson Toccalino
Virginia has been a devoted citizen of the glass world since 1982, the year she first laid her hands on stained glass. She experimented with the medium for 12 years, before being inspired to study other aspects of glass making. Virginia’s interest in glassblowing was sparked while taking an engraving course at a local college. She could not resist the lure of the glass blowing studio and immediately enrolled full time in the college’s intensive, three year glass program. Since graduating, she has been rewarded numerous grants and scholarships.
Tony Toccalino
Tony spent over twenty years in the custom contracting industry, building and designing one-off proposals using log fitting and timber framing techniques. He was involved in projects ranging from solariums to eco-friendly and efficient homes. During this time he cultivated an excellent sense of scale and balance, and developed an understanding for how the blending and complementing of individual components relate to the total picture of a given project. These are skills that Tony has successfully applied to his work as a glass blower.
Testimonials
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Virginia Wilson Toccalino is a Milton, Ontario-based artist who completed the Sheridan College School of Crafts and Design 3 year glass program in 1996. Virginia and her husband Tony work together specializing in filigree glass techniques mastered by Venetians over 500 years ago. These glass blowing methods were held as closely guarded secrets for centuries, incorporating simple and complex glass cane as the decorative medium on her forms.
“As a child growing up in a rural setting, the neighboring natural elements awed and inspired my young imagination. Now, as then, the colours, shapes and patterns of creation subtly inform my work. Given my very early background in textiles, I now create linear and threadlike patterns on complex and shimmering works of glass”.
Virginia’s glass has been exhibited widely in both juried and invitation only exhibitions across Canada and the United States. Her work is represented in private and public collections throughout North America and abroad. Most notably, selections of her work are housed at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto, Canada, the Claridge Collection in Montreal, Canada and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
My filigree glass rods have been compared to strands of DNA, the building blocks of life itself. In that context, my glass art reflects the strength and fragility of nature’s works. I am fascinated by the parallel between glass and the delicate balance of life on earth, which in both cases possess an eternal quality that can easily be shattered.”
See Us In Action! Watch the videos below.
The film crew from the Discovery Channel show How It’s Made visited our glass studio early 2010 and filmed two segments on our specialized ancient glass making techniques. The first segment is on Filigree Glass. Filigree glass is a highly advanced form of glassmaking. First we produce threads of coloured glass, then we weave these magnificent threads together, in intricate patterns, encase them within clear crystal, then known as complex canes. See how we use very skilled glass making techniques to shape these patterned rods into breathtaking works of art!