Glassblowing
I have long dreamed of working with glass - perhaps because of my mom's introducing me to Chihuly when I was young (though she taught me about many artists that I have not longed to imitate in the same way) and perhaps because of my participation in a couple of flower-making workshops first at the Corning Museum of Glass with my family and then at the Artegon Marketplace on a class fieldtrip in high school. I used to ask for a flame torch so I could work with glass in my home, though my parents wouldn't buy me one unless I got training - which was probably wise of them. While I have not gotten around to buying a blowtorch even since moving out, I finally pursued my dream of glass working by signing up for Glassblowing 1 at the Foci Glass Arts Center. The six-week course was incredibly humbling as I slowly learned the basics of a completely new media - and one that requires the coordination of much more than just the familiar posture of sitting with pencil in hand. It involved a lot of fumbling and relying heavily on the patience and kindness of my instructors and fellow students, but I'm so glad that I was able to have this experience. My portfolio of glass is perhaps underwhelming, I am a complete novice and quite a bit of the class was spent on learning and practicing techniques and skills, which sometimes meant working collaborating on a single project as a class (glassblowing is a team endeavor as a rule, but I was largely the shot-caller in the making of each of the pieces featured here - with the possible exception of the flower and the pumpkin, each of which were beyond my skill level at the time and therefore relied on having an "assistant" who knew the processes involved and stepped in when I reached the end of my capacities), and a few of the pieces I worked on shattered along the way. It was difficult to capture a good likeness of the clear glass pieces, but they are my work and they do represent some level of growth (they are presented in largely chronological order). I have taken a few more, higher level classes, which have added to my repertoire and allowed me to develop my comfort with color and more complex (or at least better balanced) forms. We shall see how far it continues, but for now, I am enjoying the adventure. (2023)
Gathering glass from the furnace in the hot shop at the Foci Center for Glass Arts during one of our first Glassblowing 1 classes - I'm on the right in the blue shirt.
Solid Glass
This is my first ever glass work - created at a workshop at the Corning Museum of Glass. As mentioned above, I made another flower at another workshop years later (see the video below and to the right), but they were a much smaller studio and has less color options, so honestly I am not able to tell the flower I made apart from the one my sister made - so this one will suffice.
My mother shot a couple videos of me making a glass flower at the Artegon. I sped it up because a lot of the prep-work is a bit monotonous. Rewatching the original footage now with my training, I can recognize a lot of the things the instructor is walking me through (showing me how to balance the rod and keep it turning, how to shape the glass and pick up color, how to prepare the piece to break off and put away to cool, etc.) but the audio isn't clear so I removed it - there are plenty of walkthroughs online if you're interested.
(The song is High of 75 by Relient K.)
 Solid Shape - Cone (left) |  Solid Shape - Cone (right) |  Solid Shape - Cone (tipped) |
|---|---|---|
 Cat (in progress) |  Cat (left) |  Cat (right) |
 Cat (back) |  Cat (tipped) |  Conch Shell (right) |
 Conch Shell (front) |  Conch Shell (left) |  All Three Solid Glass Sculptures |
Blown Glass
