Trautman Art Glass, Inc.

There was a time when American artistic lamp workers only worked with clear borosilicate glass; these were the guys making little glass menagerie animals at the carnival or Disneyland. The Italian soft-glass sculptors had color but the Pyrex glass workers used paint, or, if so inclined, mixed chemicals into some of their clear glass by hand to make a little bit of color for their sculptures. Then came Paul Trautman.

Immersed in both the arts and sciences, Paul worked with neon and played with the artistic side of lampworking, including the art of hand mixing color. At one point in his career, he even made lab equipment, but Paul was thinking big. By the mid-1980’s, Paul Trautman had conceived, designed, and built the world’s first commercial operation to manufacture colored borosilicate rod glass. Northstar Glassworks set the standard for modern boro color production, and now several small companies are using Paul’s techniques to manufacture colored glass. These companies also use recipes pioneered by Paul, which expanded the borosilicate glass palette from a few red and blue transparent colors into bright opaque jewel tones and highly reactive metallic colors that shift their hue depending on the atmosphere of the flame.

Paul sold Northstar in 2002, intending to return to art and his own lab, but the urge to mix color (and requests from his fans) lured Paul back to manufacturing on a smaller scale. After perfecting his recipe for a self-striking ruby red—the now hugely popular Red Elvis—Paul started working on both a new palette and on improving some old favorites.

Now, Paul also makes soft glass, when TAG has the space. The luscious reactive effects of the silver-strike boro colors Paul initially created are now available in the 104-COE glass used by Italian sculptors and American bead makers. Our soft Dalai Lama reacts to changes in the flame atmosphere in a similar way as the borosilcate Caramelo, but it works taffy-soft, like all the 104 glasses...and it is completely compatible with the Moretti/Effetre Italian 104 glass lines.