
Dominick Labino, Glass Artist and Inventor
Labino was an internationally-known scientist, inventor, artist, and master craftsman in glass. His experiments with color, glass composition, and furnace construction propelled glass in new directions.
"The possibilities are all inherent in the glass itself, in the blowpipe and in yourself." Dominick Labino, Ceramics Monthly, 1967
Known as Nick, he was born in 1910 to immigrants from the Turino area in Italy, who lived in Clarion County, PA north of Pittsburgh. As a youth, he worked for a blacksmith and as an instrument maker. At 19, he created what was believed to be the world's smallest engine. He studied mechanical and electrical technologies at the Carnegie Institute of Technology.
From 1934 - 1947, he worked for Owens Illinois at container manufacturing plants, where he supervised furnaces and experimented with glass formulas and glass-making equipment. In 1947, he became director of research and development at Glass Fibers Inc. (subsequently Libbey-Owens Ford and Johns Manville) in Waterville, Ohio. His lab was responsible for many innovations using fiberglass, including the insulation blanket placed behind the heat shields on the Apollo and other manned space capsules. He retired in 1965 and, while he continued to serve as a research consultant until 1975, his focus had turned to studio glass.
In 1956, Labino and his wife, Libby, moved to Grand Rapids, Ohio, where he built a 6,000 square foot workshop on their 150 acre property along Beaver Creek. In this studio, Labino produced blown and hot-worked glass, formulated his own glass compositions and colors, and designed and built his own furnaces, annealing ovens, glassblowing tools, and finishing equipment. His introduction of a small, portable furnace capable of melting glass at low temperatures was crucial to the development of studio glass.
Labino was described as "a handsome man with thick white hair brushed back from his forehead, often peering over his glasses, and smoking a pipe". He was driven and a workaholic, a lover of "music, dogs, technology, history, traveling, and people". He always described himself as a craftsman, not an artist.
Labino spent more than a year creating the glass panels for "Vitrana", a 33 piece mural that was commissioned by the Toledo Museum of Art in 1969 to serve as a focal point for its new gallery dedicated to art glass. Today, the donated piece is housed in the Glass Pavilion.
As an inventor and scientist, he held 60 U.S. patents for glass furnaces, tools, and machinery. Labino's glass works are shown in more than 100 museum, universities, and public and private collections. He was given the first Ohio Art Council award in 1971 for his contribution to the development of molten glass as a fine-art form. He is the author of Visual Art in Glass (1968), an important reference for studio glass artists and collectors.
Labino continued his work in studio glass up until his death in 1987 at age 76 at his home in Grand Rapids.
Labino was an internationally-known scientist, inventor, artist, and master craftsman in glass. His experiments with color, glass composition, and furnace construction propelled glass in new directions.
"The possibilities are all inherent in the glass itself, in the blowpipe and in yourself." Dominick Labino, Ceramics Monthly, 1967
Known as Nick, he was born in 1910 to immigrants from the Turino area in Italy, who lived in Clarion County, PA north of Pittsburgh. As a youth, he worked for a blacksmith and as an instrument maker. At 19, he created what was believed to be the world's smallest engine. He studied mechanical and electrical technologies at the Carnegie Institute of Technology.
From 1934 - 1947, he worked for Owens Illinois at container manufacturing plants, where he supervised furnaces and experimented with glass formulas and glass-making equipment. In 1947, he became director of research and development at Glass Fibers Inc. (subsequently Libbey-Owens Ford and Johns Manville) in Waterville, Ohio. His lab was responsible for many innovations using fiberglass, including the insulation blanket placed behind the heat shields on the Apollo and other manned space capsules. He retired in 1965 and, while he continued to serve as a research consultant until 1975, his focus had turned to studio glass.
In 1956, Labino and his wife, Libby, moved to Grand Rapids, Ohio, where he built a 6,000 square foot workshop on their 150 acre property along Beaver Creek. In this studio, Labino produced blown and hot-worked glass, formulated his own glass compositions and colors, and designed and built his own furnaces, annealing ovens, glassblowing tools, and finishing equipment. His introduction of a small, portable furnace capable of melting glass at low temperatures was crucial to the development of studio glass.
Labino was described as "a handsome man with thick white hair brushed back from his forehead, often peering over his glasses, and smoking a pipe". He was driven and a workaholic, a lover of "music, dogs, technology, history, traveling, and people". He always described himself as a craftsman, not an artist.
Labino spent more than a year creating the glass panels for "Vitrana", a 33 piece mural that was commissioned by the Toledo Museum of Art in 1969 to serve as a focal point for its new gallery dedicated to art glass. Today, the donated piece is housed in the Glass Pavilion.
As an inventor and scientist, he held 60 U.S. patents for glass furnaces, tools, and machinery. Labino's glass works are shown in more than 100 museum, universities, and public and private collections. He was given the first Ohio Art Council award in 1971 for his contribution to the development of molten glass as a fine-art form. He is the author of Visual Art in Glass (1968), an important reference for studio glass artists and collectors.
Labino continued his work in studio glass up until his death in 1987 at age 76 at his home in Grand Rapids.