Dominick Labino

American inventor and artist Dominick Labino (1910–1987) studied engineering at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (later Carnegie Mellon University), graduating in 1932. He spent most of his early professional career in the glass industry, developing glass formulas and designing furnaces; his name is tied to over sixty patents in the United States alone. Labino’s participation proved vital to the success of the 1962 workshops that Harvey Littleton organized at the Toledo Museum of Art—heralded by many as the beginning of the studio glass movement. At the workshops, Labino’s knowledge and the glass materials he provided made it possible to melt and work hot glass in a small studio setting, outside of a factory. Labino retired from industry the following year and set up his own glass studio in Grand Rapids, Ohio, where he worked until his death.