glass art

Sometimes life get interesting

It's been awhile since I posted updates. The primary reason is that I had a misfortunate mishap where I dislocated and broke my shoulder, and damaged a tendon and my rotator cuff. This took place in mid-April. I had successful repair surgery on May 2nd and have been doing physical therapy to rehabilitate my shoulder.

I had already started my artist residency for the University of Wyoming's Microbestiary project. I'm one of three artists who are working on interpreting microbiology through art. The other two are Tristan Duke and Reza Safavi. We had a visit together in March where we visited scientists and facilities at the University of Wyoming. I was scheduled to do a second trip in May, but had shoulder surgery a few days before the trip was to happen.

I was about half-way through my installation project for the residency when my mishap occurred. As soon as I was released from the sling after my 6-week post-surgery appointment, I got back to the project.

My main project for the residency is an installation of glass blown and sculpted borosilicate protozoans. I included 168 protozoans to fill a 3 ft X 9 ft space (same proportions as a microscope slide). I had fun doing research on protozoa for this project, and I enjoyed making my sculptures. The exhibit opens on August 26th, at the University of Wyoming Art Museum, and will run through the end of the year.

There are 168 protozoans in this installation, which is titled Microcosm

I based the sculptures on real protozoans. There’s more diversity in these eukaryotic unicellular organisms than I had ever imagined.

This was my mock-up installation. The frame for the exhibit will be different, but the arrangement of the sculptures will be what is shown here.

Here’s a link to a video I posted on instagram, which gives a more intimate view of the installation: Microcosm

Vitrispathis albus - My Latest Wood and Glass sculpture

I usually start a new project by thinking about it for awhile and then just jumping into the work. This piece took a different path. I started with a sketch of the overall piece and then worked on each element of the design, in sketches and then figuring out the logistics.

2021. Wood, turned and carved; acrylic paint; fused and sandblasted glass; blown and sculpted sandblasted glass; LEDs.

31.5 X 15.25 X 13 inches.

Side view

Back view

This is the most challenging piece I’ve ever done. The woodturning and carving were familiar and, aside from the design elements, straightforward. The leaf shape (patterned on a spathe in the Arum family) was my first challenge. I had to first make a clay texture mold in the shape of a leaf and bisque fire it. I’ve never done ceramics so this was a fun thing to learn. Then I had to cut two large leaf shapes out of sheet glass, fuse them in the kiln, and slump this onto the texture mold.

The gallery photos below have captions that you can see by hovering your mouse over the image.

The other glass element took myself and a team of seven assistants about 2.5 hours to make in the hot shop. That was then sandblasted after it came out of the annealer. Jonathan Capps was gaffer for the cylinder and then I took over the bench for the sculpting. My glass classmates were fantastic in helping me pull this off.

The only log section in my shop large enough for the base was a 20-year-old honey locust piece. Hard as concrete and cracking like crazy. Enough said… I don’t recommend this approach. I also turned a bowl for the top insert and a disk for the inset base (held by magnets).

The final step was to place LED strip lights in the light chamber and wire it. Right now the LEDs are powered by two 12V batteries daisy-chained together. A big thanks goes to Steven Sabin for helping with this step.

The lighting is soft and subtle. This sculpture is not meant to be a lamp, but it does have a lovely ambiance for relaxing in a comfortable room.

Parallels and differences

I've been learning techniques in glassblowing and fused glass since the beginning of last year. Fused glass seems like puzzle solving to me much of the time. However, glassblowing is much more akin to woodturning than I would have ever thought. How so? Both involve rotating material that is shaped, both have highly specialized tools and equipment, both engage the hands and mind during the crafting with an intensity in focus that takes one into a different realm of awareness.

There are lots of differences, of course. Glassblowing often requires a team of craftspeople to complete a project, and the person who designs the piece is considered the artist. This is a concept that is foreign to woodturners. In woodturning, the designer is usually the sole maker involved in creating a piece. The way the material is rotated is also completely different. For example, in woodturning the lathe rotates the material towards the turner while he or she applies the tool - using both hands - to make a form. In glass blowing, the gaffer (the one sitting at the bench) or an assistant turns the pipe or rod holding the hot glass while the gaffer uses a tool to shape the material. The pipe or rod is rotated toward and away from the gaffer, using the left hand, while the right hand uses the tool on the hot glass, which is hanging off the end of the pipe or rod. Hot glass has to be kept in motion or the glass can drop onto the floor or become a misshapened mess. Wood secured on the lathe is much better behaved than liquid glass on a blowpipe.

Having the ability to multi-task and complete tasks in rapid succession is essential in glassblowing, and one certainly gets a full-body workout from spending several hours at a time in the hotshop. If glass gets too cold while it's being worked, it will crack or break. Woodturning is much more sedate in its pace - you can walk away from the lathe and return hours or days later and continue working the wood. That only applies to dry wood, of course. Turning green wood is another challenge that requires a faster working time in order to keep the wood from cracking as it dries.

To make a hollowform in woodturning, the maker removes the material from the inside of the wood blank using specialized tools. A hollowform in glass is formed by blowing a bubble into molten material, which then hardens as it cools. Woodturning is a subtractive process - removing wood to make a shape. Glassblowing is an additive process - gathering material from the furnace and adding it to the pipe or the form that is in the process of being made.

Both activities have their dangerous sides - a spinning block of wood can cause a lot of damage if it is thrown off the lathe and one can be injured in numerous other ways, too. In glass blowing, the temperature of the glass exceeds 2000°F as it comes out of the melting furnace and the working temperature of the glass is not much cooler. When a piece is finished the temperature is closer to 1000°F. Burns are the most common injury in glassblowing, but one can also get cut in various ways, some torches can cause damage to the eyes if protective gear is not worn, and I would hate to drop some of the things we use in the hotshop on my foot...

Common aspects of both crafts include the making of functional objects (tumblers, cups, vases, bowls, plates, candle holders, etc.). Both crafts can be used to make sculptural objects or purely decorative ones. I think most people have a greater appreciation for glass than wood, unfortunately.

Although I'm approaching my two-year anniversary in learning to blow glass, I'm just now becoming comfortable with the material and tools enough that I can actually make things that people think are cool. In contrast, my beginner's stage in woodturning lasted only a few months. At an equivalent stage in my woodturning adventure I was gaining attention (nationally and internationally) for the work I was making. I don't think that will ever happen with my glassblowing adventure, but I'm having a whole lot of fun.

Here's what I've been making in the hotshop this past month. I'm just happy that I can actually make something people can recognize as the object I intend it to be ;-).

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Heres the link to My Etsy Shop if you’d like to see some of my works in glass, including glass-blown pumpkins.