New Member Profile - Angelic Glass

Angelic Glass “Recycles” North River Glass Studio

(5/15/09) “When Gabe Colwell LaFleur met his first glassblower, he was transfixed - - the roar of the glass furnace, the glowing glory hole, the searing heat was more than a boy of six could stand - - and at that moment he knew he needed to make glass and his life, one.

At Carnegie Mellon University, LaFleur tried to keep his mind on academic matters with a major in History/Anthropology, but the flow of molten glass was too strong a draw, and he ended up with a Bachelor of Fine Arts as well. “I just fell in love with the seductive and meditative aspects of the process,” he says.

In 1999, LaFleur took his first job at North River Glass in Shelburne Falls, and subsequently taught glassblowing and ran the studio at Horizons Craft Camp (now Snow Farm) in Williamsburg for 8 years. To sell his work, he set up shop in the Union Square Holiday Market in New York City. There he met his future wife, Tuyet Linh (known as “TL”) a respected artist in her own right with a BA in painting from Davidson College. She fell in love with LaFleur and with glassblowing, and together they opened their new studio, Angelic Glass, in the former North River Studio.

“We named it ‘Angelic Glass’ to capture the light, airy, fun of our work,” says LaFleur, “like a sprite or butterfly.” Today, many of their pieces reflect nature – flowers and animals are a specialty, named for local attractions, such as ‘Pothole Puffer” fish.

While watching other glassblowers and working at North River and Horizons, LaFleur recognized that there is a fair amount of waste - - cracked pieces, dropped glass globs, cast-off cuttings, leftover bits of color. In addition, glassblowing takes a tremendous amount of energy to keep the furnaces glowing 24 hours a day. So, in renovating the building to bring it up to code, LaFleur set out to make his studio as ‘green’ as possible by reusing material and reducing energy. He significantly reduced utility and operational costs, and operates on a philosophy of “reduce - reuse - recycle”. He proudly shows off a cabinet of coffee cups with color pigments too good to discard, and buckets of cast-off glass bits salvaged from other artisans.

Their shelves are filled with recycled Coke, beer and liquor bottles reblown and transformed into new mugs, vases and art pieces. “By reusing glass we can make our products accessible to all people because we all feel joy with aesthetic beauty in our lives,” he says. Pieces range from $6 hearts, fruits and decorative ‘tchotchkes’ up to $500 art vases and bowls. Many pieces show a multicolor pallet reflecting the colors of the original glass reused, while others radiate a blue color indicative of recycled and remixed glass.

While working for Chris Constantin and Kathy Young he learned how to combine both the idea of artistic beauty with the speed and efficiency needed to produce a viable product. “Our goal is to make a product that appeals to just about everyone and anyone, he says. Much of the glass on the market today is produced in mass factories in Mexico, China and Poland. “We can compete with these imports by cutting waste and costs to keep prices competitive with a handmade ‘all USA’ product.”

Angelic Glass is open Wednesday – Sunday from 10am -5 pm when visitors can see how glass is blown. LaFleur also teaches classes in the evening through Greenfield Community College. Pieces produced by Angelic Glass are available in Young and Constantine Gallery and on the Website www.angelicglass.etsy.com.

Angelic Glass, Gabe and TL LaFleur, 4 Deerfield Avenue, Shelburne Falls, MA
413-695-5898 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text26501 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it