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BIOGRAPHY
Michael Schunke began blowing glass in the Fall of 1988 while attending the
Tyler School of Art in Elkins Park, PA. He began his studies at Tyler with a focus on illustration, painting and graphic design. He was required to take a 3-D elective and chose glass, and while he continues to draw and paint,
glassblowing has been the focus of his artistic life ever since.
In early 1990, Michael traveled for a semester to the Rhode Island School of
Design in Providence, RI to study with glass sculptor Michael Scheiner. It was
there that Michael was first introduced to Venetian style glassblowing. Later
that summer, Michael traveled to the Haystack Mt. School of Crafts, Deer Isle,
ME and his life would change forever. He was introduced (and required to
assist) Lino Tagliapietra, a glass master from Murano, Venice Italy. After two
intensive workshops with Lino at Haystack and in Montreal, Quebec, Michael
returned to Tyler for his final year of school in 1991.
After graduating, Michael worked for a small production studio and began
his education in the business of glass. Two and a half years later, he left and
started Nine Iron Studios, Inc. In late 1998, he accepted a visiting professorship at the prestigious Toyama Institute of Glass, Toyama, Japan, a facility solely devoted to teaching various applications of glass art.
After two and a half years of teaching, several solo exhibitions of sculptural
work throughout Japan, acceptance into Young Glass 1997 and his work
permanently displayed at the Ebeltoft Museum of Glass, and the Toyama
Museum of Glass, Michael returned to the U.S. to reopen Nine Iron's doors.
In 1999, Michael was awarded a three month fellowship at The Creative Glass
Center of America in Millville, NJ. Upon completion of the fellowship, he set
up shop in West Grove, PA where he owns and operates a private studio.
It is here that he produces the current Nine Iron designs, privately
commissioned works and his own sculptural pieces.
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