Jean Salatino & Steven Gandolfo
Glass

Jean Salatino and Steven Gandolfo are a husband and wife team working together to create unique hand-carved glass vessels. Both Jean and Steven were awarded a Bachelor of Fine Arts from California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA. Jean has studied and worked at Pilchuck Glass School, and in 2001 received Pilchuck’s prestigious Centerpiece Design Award, which is associated with their Annual Gala Auction. Steven has worked as a gaffer and glass-blowing assistant in Oakland and Berkeley, CA. The couple currently lives in Sebastopol, CA.

Their work explores form, texture, light and color. Drawing inspiration from nature, the forms are suggestive of leaves, seedpods, shells and flowers.

Each piece is meticulously carved away, revealing the brilliance of the glass and celebrating its relationship to light. The process of blowing and carving the pieces is extremely labor-intensive. Gandolfo blows the “blanks” for the pieces, which can be up to an inch thick. Salatino carves these blanks using a series of abrasive diamond wheels of diminishing sizes. She cuts deeply into the pieces, not just giving them surface texture but changing the form. The carving creates facets and planes that catch and bend light. The carving process can take up to 40 hours to complete, and the finished piece often weighs less than half its original weight.