Explore the magic of glass and fire in this project where you’ll learn to fuse, shape, and blow glass into your own, original creations. You’ll explore the properties of glass and the art of glass fusing, flameworking, and glassblowing. You will learn the history of glass and its many uses today—from art to technology. By the end of the week, you’ll have your own unique glass pieces and a newfound appreciation for this versatile and beautiful material. No experience needed—just bring your sense of wonder and imagination.
Day 1: Glass!
The participants of Blown Away started their adventures in glass art learning the history of glass and the incredible versatility of the material. Each student researched and presented a PowerPoint slide of one of the many current uses of glass, from dinnerware to radiation barriers. We then learned how to properly and safely cut glass into shapes. The students spent the rest of the morning practicing on pane glass in preparation for tomorrow's full day of fused glass art. After lunch, we piled into a van and headed up to Ashland, NH, to visit Shani McLane at her Squam River Studio. Shani is an internationally renowned glass artist who uses silkscreens to print with glass powder on glass. She also prints on handblown vessels, among many other glass processes. She developed many of her own unique processes through experimentation and perseverance. Shani was generous with her time, showing us around her gallery and studio. Her artworks will certainly inspire us for the remainder of the week!
Studio Visit with Toland Sand & Fused Glass
DAY 2
We started off our morning with a trip to Meredith to meet a world-renowned glass sculptor, Toland Sand. Toland has been in the glass industry for over 50 years and makes glass sculptures for 12+ galleries around the world. In his studio, he showed us around and introduced us to many of his designs, his tools, and how he used each in his creative process. He was even kind enough to give us some highly reflective glass that we would eventually use for glass fusing. After lunch back on campus, we began working on our fused glass projects. We applied our color theory and our inspiration from Toland Sand to cut, shape, and grind the glass to our desired designs.
Flamework and Flowers!
Day 3
Today we left campus before 8 AM and headed for Fiamma Glass Studio in Waltham, MA, for a two-hour flamework class. In flamework, the artist uses mounted propane torches to heat and mold glass into glass sculptures. We had to be very carful as the glass could reach temperatures of up to 4000 ºF. A teacher gave us an introduction to the studio and to safety precautions for using the torches, glass, and tools. Then he gave us a step-by-step tutorial on how to create a fish, which we then copied with our preferred colors. For our second project we made cute animal faces, and Howard made Shrek. After lunch, we went to the Harvard Museum of Natural History where we saw the Glass Flowers and Glass Sea exhibits that used old glass techniques to make super realistic reproductions of flowers and marine invertebrates originally used to teach botany and zoology at Harvard. In all, Harvard has over 4300 glass models in their flower collection. After, we walked Harvard Square and had some free time to check out the stores. We ate dinner at Bosso where we enjoyed some sushi and ramen. We then headed back to the van but not before stopping for some macaroons for dessert. To end the day, we checked into our hotel and decompressed before our next day out. Tomorrow, we look forward to a second day of flamework at Fiamma Glass studio.
Second Day of Flamework at Fiamma Glass Studio
Day 4
Today, we returned to Fiamma Glass Studio, where we continued working on our flamework skills. We made 2-3 small pieces each, reviewing the steps we had learned yesterday. We warmed up by choosing our own colors and learning to stamp designs into pendants, before moving on to a more complicated level 2 piece. Our more complicated design was meant to be a bunny, but people took it in a more creative direction and started making dachshunds and other animals and characters. The instructors enjoyed our rebel/creative students. The workshop was amazing. Two hours felt like minutes. We could have easily spent another day on flamework. After our workshop, we ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant before heading back to campus. After our return, we took 20 minutes to write thank-you notes to the three studios we visited this week so far and reflected on our favorite experiences.
Glassblowing!
Day 5: Glassblowing!
Today, we visited the Hot Glass Art Center in Marlborough, NH, where we made glass vessels with glass-blowing techniques. Each one of us started our glassware by choosing our own colors and forms. There were many possible projects, including bottles, vases, bowls, cups, and even pumpkins. We looked through all the glasswork for sale in the shop to help us make our decisions. Two artists, Jordana and Joey, guided us individually through the process. Joey gathered clear, molten glass on a blowpipe from the furnace. He handed the pipe to each of us in turn, and we added our preferred color to the gather by rolling it in a bowl of pigmented glass dust. Joey, with the blowpipe, sent a quick burst of air into the pipe, and the glass gather became hollow inside. We used jacks, tools that look like giant tweezers, and blocks, wooden tools soaked in water, to shape our pieces. Some of us even used a piece of wet newspaper as a tool. The glass and the furnace were so hot that we could feel the heat radiating even from a few feet away. We put on an oversleeve on our working arm to protect against the intense heat. Each piece took approximately 20 minutes to make, but it went by like a minute. We also spent a lot of time with two dogs, Oakley and Hooper! They are both very cute, and they would try to eat our Dunkin Donuts! After our workshop, we had lunch at The Works in Keene and ice cream at the Maple Creamery on our way back to campus. We took some time to write thank-you notes and to reflect. We went to lots of places, learnt lots of new things, played with lots of glass, and had lots of tasty food in the five days of the workshop. Enjoyable time flies away quickly. We will always remember the wonderful memories we spent with the artists, teachers, and hot glass!
Credits:
Created with an image by Sergej Razvodovskij - "Work of Glass Blower"