Walk In The Park: Glass

Using the wet wooden block to shape the layer with the second addition of colored glass.

Working on the neck of paperweight.

Focus

JD shaping a piece with a wooden block with the assistance of SB.

KB opens the lip of a cup while SB paddles the lip to keep it level (as he helps spin the pipe a little).

....Never from herald's breath
   In brazen horn,
Telling of strife and death
   Or of peace new-born;
From silver clarinet
   By fingers small
To lips of ruby set
   In raftered hall;
From jilted shepherd's reed
   Plaintively proving
How he in very deed
   Must die of loving–
Never from all these came
   A music sweeter
Than this bright sphere of flame
With neither sound nor name,
   Cadence nor metre,
That steadily, as he blows
   On his iron flute,
Trembles and swells and glows,
Gold-amber, amber-rose,
   In melody mute.
~ From The Glass Blower by "Jan Struther"
(Joyce Anstruther/Maxtone Graham/Joyce Placzek, 1901-1953)
Copyright, The Estate of Jan Struther, 1940

I ran into an artist friend at a concert a few weeks ago. "We are going to teach a glass blowing class this summer. I thought you might be interested," said he.

This friend directs the art department at a local college.* We have discussed different community classes that colleges are providing these days as costs continue to rise and enrollment begins to drop. I confess I have been suggesting a summer clay class...almost every time I see him. And, while this was not clay,** it would be something new - a challenge.

[I have had some issues with fire. I burned my left hand in a space heater when I was 2 or 3.*** There was a brush fire in the neighborhood when I was about 12 that we don't talk about much. I burned my face with a marshmallow when I was at scout camp (sounds funny now, but the left side of my face was seriously blistered). There are more stories, but these illustrate the reason(s) for my hesitation to be working with molten glass and furnaces.****]

I signed up.

The first day I learned to blow a bubble and came home with a small bit of my breath encased in clear glass. "Here." I offered it to DH. "This is my last breath."

That first day we learned about the process and the tools. Each devilishly hot thing has a particular use.

FURNACES:

Three furnaces are fed and emptied as the week goes by. One furnace holds a crucible of clear glass. While some can open, gather, and close the door to the furnace by themselves, we learn to hold the door open when our partner give the signal they are ready. Our partner spins the blow pipe (if blowing glass) or punty (if making something where no blown air is required) in the hot glass gathering the right amount and exiting as the furnace door closes.

Yes, the furnace is hot...very hot.

The second furnace is called the glory hole. One reheats glass or melts color into a work in this furnace. It stands with its glowing eye open. Successive doors allow for larger and larger pieces to enter or exit. Glass must be worked at the appropriate temperature. It is a subtle art.

Why the hula girl? I do not know. Whimsy?

A cup in the final stages of shaping returns for heating.

The third furnace is the annealer. It allows the completed pieces to slowly cool to prevent thermal shock and a fractured work. [It is just a box really. You can see it just to the other side of the glory hole furnace.]

TOOLS:

Some appear to be instruments of torture, but in the right hands they guide the glass: Edges to shape and cut and twist and pull. Paper and wooden blocks for shaping. Water to cool. Wax to decrease friction on the glass. Gloves to catch and carry works to the annealer.

Blowpipes and punties are heated before used to gather the molten glass.

A number of sizes of jacks are used to narrow necks and shape pieces and cool glass.

Shears and tweezers.

Paper used to shape pieces burns in a beautiful pattern.


Teamwork. JD, the gaffer, sits at the bench and spins the blowpipe. She has tweezers in her right hand. They are used (among other things) to carry water to drop carefully at the neck of the piece allowing it to fracture when the pipe is struck.One instructor uses the jacks to narrow and cool the neck while another prepares to catch the work when it is separated from the end of the blowpipe. It is a dance.

The second day I made a clear glass cup. It was a quick project and gave me time to try another work. I decided to try a paperweight. I learned how to twist and swirl the colorful inside layer, gather more clear glass, melt on tiny bits of black glass, and add a final gather of clear glass.

The instructors assisted with each stage - helping the neophyte blow a bubble, add the colors, spin the glass, gather more fluid yellow/orange/red-hot glass, reheat when necessary, shape the creation and, finally, remove it from the metal rod - all without putting a hand down where it should not be. The instructors were relaxed and professional, efficient and crazy/mad/brilliant artists.***** They explained and collaborated. They were able to salvage a bubble or blob of glass gone awry. They coached and, I repeat, prevented placement of hand on hot pipe or hot glass.

SB and HS reheating. Unfortunately I found I had no photos of the loyal and helpful volunteer, ND. She works behind the scenes - bringing water, switching out and organizing tools, cleaning up blobs and shards and wisps of glass, and so much more! All three of these folks make amazing glass creations.

My first paperweight:

The intended view.

The side view. OC has a number of paperweights and I thought she might appreciate this, my first attempt.

During the third class a made a blue cup. It is a perfect size for a whiskey.

OK. OK. I love blue...get ready for more.

Top view.

At the end of the first week (three classes) I concluded that I was glad to have tried glass, but probably wouldn't take another class. Ambivalent. Is that the word?

But then, during the next three classes, I decided to make more paperweights. I needed no cups or goblets or bowls, but there is always room for a paperweight:

Three types of blue glass "dust" smokes through the clear glass.

And yesterday brought:

Blue and white and bubbles

[You will have to wait for the last paperweight. It is still in the annealing oven.]

7-10-15

OK. Here is the last one. It has some beautiful "moments." I love the red and purple swirls and the big bubble.

By the end of the course it was clear. I was in. I would be back next summer.

NOTES:

OK. There's supposed to be a video of KB wrapping a cup with a ribbon of black glass right here. I am having technical difficulty. I will add it to this post when I figure out the process. Bummer.

*The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. This college has some wonderful fine arts (and science) programs for young people during the summer. And I recommend the glass blowing class.

**I did have a long discussion with one of the students who focuses on pottery. While we were looking at her work, the pottery professor arrived and gave me a tour of the studio. We talked equipment, clay and kilns. He showed me his work and we discussed summer internships and fall classes. I requested and received permission to visit their fall classes and volunteered (in advance) to stoke the wood-fired kiln (they don't have one yet, but will - I have confidence!) and to provide sustenance for the workers.

***My sister and I were playing "king of the suitcase." It wasn't as dangerous as the time she told me to bite into an oleander branch. Maybe.

****I burn myself cooking all the time, but that doesn't stop me from baking banana bread and chocolate cake. I have hit the hot engine on the lawnmower more than once, but I still mow. So...

*****I have known one instructor peripherally since I was a teenager. He grew up 30 miles from my hometown and played in a duo that performed at area churches. But then his children and mine went to school together here. We share this town and a connection to the arts community. And we have "run into" them at parades and art shows, concerts and school events for years. Our oldest children even "ran into" each other at a gated apartment complex in LA when he was there to cut a record and she was interning for a semester. The other instructor is "family" to some of our good friends from the neighborhood. We are all connected. It hardly needs saying.

An assortment of works (some from the summer course, some from the college course) just sitting around on tables: