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Author: Glass_Masters, Contributing Editor
| Yikes, your parents must have seen the glass master in you! So, what first sparked your interest in melting glass?
Somewhere in the early to mid eighties I was poking through one of the "Whole Earth Catalogs" and spotted a review on this series of pamphlets published by a couple who worked with the carnivals in the forties and the fifties. These pamphlets detailed how to build all the rides, booths, musical instruments like calliopes, and all the tricks used by the carny (carnival) workers. I sent away for some of the pamphlets, one of which was "Ornamental Glass Blowing". After reading just a short while, I definitely knew I wanted to try my hand at what was in the glassblowing pamphlet. I sent away for some glass and went at it with my welding torch. I had just enough success to encourage me to find more books on the subject and put in a lot of time practicing. |
 | Are you influenced by other glass artists, if so, whom?
Some of the original glassworkers that took hot glass out of the factories and back into the studios in the sixties have been very kind to me in sharing what they know. Pete Vanderlaan, Dudley Gibberson, and Henry Halem in particular. Some of the new breed of furnace workers such as Brad Shute have been unusually kind to me too. Particular thanks go to Tennessee Tom Fuhrman and Sky Campbell for helping me with my hands-on skills in my current furnace glass education. I'm also extremely grateful to everyone else who ever has helped me via the internet hot glass electronic forums such as; Handmade Glass, Warm Glass, Craftweb, and now Wet Canvas. |
| Did you take any formal classes?
In the era when I began anyone who knew anything about glassblowing would tell you nothing. If an old time lampworker spotted you watching them for technique they would shut down and wait for you to go away. I'm self taught via books and much experimentation and practice, which led me back to looking into things I would have picked up in my art classes at school if I had been paying a bit more attention. |
| Wet Canvas is a very diverse artists site, do you have any training in other artistic mediums?
I had a good amount of training in watercolor, graphic, and similar two-dimensional arts through the grammar and high school years. I was pegged as a creative one early on, although that was considered a low value or hobby skill at the time. I had a lot of parent/educator pressure to become something that would ensure high pay, and creative work was definitely not considered to qualify in that category. |
| How have you used your other artistic skills to help you in the glass art field?
Building tools and equipment is one of my arts. All my mechanical and fabricating skills have been priceless to me, enabling me to custom build equipment for the high BTU and equipment intensive demands of hot glasswork. Not to mention the manual dexterity and eye-hand coordination skills acquired along the way. All the mechanical things I chose to work on, past and present, were always unusual in the sense that they required a high level of adaptamania in terms of having to build your own parts, tools and equipment to get the job done. This sort of challenge has always been one of my major creative outlets for as long as I can remember. |
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