BOLDLY CONTEMPORARY,
ELEGANTLY TRADITIONAL
Artist profile by Dr. Lew Deitch

      Free form and color are the hallmarks of the glass artistry of Elliott Calvetti. He urges visitors to his Scottsdale gallery to "take and alluring walk through the world of color." His gallery, though small in size, is brimming with a kaleidoscope of boldly stylized glass pieces that can be used as one of a kind accents or combined into unique chandeliers, wall sconces or coordinated into an exceptional and distinctive floor sculpture. The availability of colors appears to be as endless as the varied molded shapes that dazzle the eye. Each piece is an individual creation, but when viewed in combination, the gallery takes on a rich glow as only glass can produce. This ancient art form was nearly forgotten by both traditional and contemporary galleries until the last few years when glass art has made a major impact upon the art scene.
There is more to Elliott's gallery than just glass art as this multi-talented artist has spent nearly 25-years as a custom jewelry designer. His skills enable him to work with all precious metals and stones, designing creations that are either bold and contemporary or subdued and traditional. His Scottsdale gallery is still very much a studio for the display of his fine custom creations as well as being a showcase for his hand blown glass art.

Like many artists, Elliott was not satisfied with creating works of art in precious materials, a form of creative endeavor that is painstaking and exacting. Working in precious metals and gemstones is rewarding to one's creative spirit, but the evolution of a piece may involve dozens to hundreds of hours and often the slowness of production can be personally frustrating to the artist responsible. Elliott's artistic spirit needed and wanted to soar and be free to express itself in another genre, one that allowed for unlimited boundaries with a shorter turn around between inception of an idea and final realization. In 1999, he chose glass blowing, or it can be said that the long standing traditions of glass making chose him, as it was an almost immediate bonding. He discovered his fascination with glass blowing, an art form steeped in antiquity, while visiting a small studio here in the west, and his interest blossomed rather rapidly.

It is a difficult skill to master, especially when one considers that the artist starts with a molten lump of glass several thousand degrees in temperature balancing at the end of a long hollow tube. Without too much instruction, Elliott was soon producing such distinctive pieces that friends purchased his creations as fast as he could produce them and soon he was accepting commissions for his work. Today, he displays his glass art in his own Scottsdale gallery and jewelry design studio as well as in other galleries across the west.

Elliott Calvetti is a quiet and modest person, one who essentially scoffs at the suggestion that what he is creating is true art. But if given the opportunity to demonstrate his craft, he is animate and filled with the exuberance that reflects itself in the clarity of his finished creations, carefree in form and pure in color. Glass has enabled him to "fill rooms with smiles," as he states. There is a definite balance and harmony in each finished piece, an outgrowth of the intense discipline needed to create fine pieces of jewelry.

The glass work has been featured in such publications as Robb Report, Phoenix Magazine, Millionaire magazine, Scottsdale Life, Interior Design, Arizona Foothills, Crafts Report, Niche Magazine and many other specialty publications. Scans to be displayed soon.

For your pleasure, you may visit one of many galleries in which Elliott's art is featured, some of those locations include: LaJolla, Laguna, Las Vegas, Sedona, Park City, Ft. Lauderdale, Dayton, and Scottsdale.
 Elliott Calvetti's work is available through Elliott's Diamonds and Design
7077 E. 5th Ave., in Scottsdale Arizona
(480) 947-9934
and through this website - send email to ecalvetti@cox.net