GASnews
FALL 2020 VOLUME 34 ISSUE 4
Glass Expert Webinars®
INSIDE
Live Two-Hour, Interactive Web Workshops with Renowned Glass Artists Link to Class Recording Never Expires!
3 Letter from the Editor 3 Letter from the Executive Director 4 Material Made Over 8 Shedding Light: The Looming Impact of LED Signage on the
Neon Community
12 Romachs Recycle Everything! 14 Trials, Tribulations and Solutions for Flameworking Green
Borosilicate
17 (re)purpose Shake and Bake
19 Interview with Salime Harp Cruces from Xaquixe Glass
Paul Messink
Combing Glass with Dennis Brady December 3
New
21 Made at Home: Words of Isolation | Words of Connection 24 Student Center
Inside Out Flow Vessel with Nathan Sandberg December 8
25 GAS Opportunities
Creative Slumping with Lisa Vogt December 10
Joy of Fusing with Randy Wardell January 12 Kiln Sculpting with Lisa Vogt January 14 Shake and Bake Reduce or Even Eliminate Bubbles from Fused Layered Work with Paul Messink w Ne January 19
Cover: Bird of Paradise from WILD FLOWER Collection (2019). Juli Bolaños-Durman in
collaboration with Edinburgh based perfumers Jorum Studio. Acquired into the Collection of the National Glass Centre. Sunderland, UK,
GAS news
Art of Ice Glass with Rick Silas January 5
Innovation Studio, Pioneer in Sustainable Glass
GASnews is published four times per year as a benefit to members. Contributing Writers: David Schnuckel, Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez, Timm Muth, Eric Goldschmidt, Kayla Cantu, Maria Eugenia Diaz de Vivar, Laura Quinn Editor: Michael Hernandez Graphic Design: Mae Quach Staff Brandi Clark, Executive Director Lauren Bayer, Communications Manager Kristen W. Ferguson, Development & Membership Manager Jenna Green, Operations & Program Manager Mae Quach, Communications Assistant Cathy Noble-Jackson, Part-time Bookkeeper
Behind the Scenes of the Studio Glass Movement with Henry Halem w Ne January 21 Shatterglass withTony Glander January 28 Visit the Glass Expert Webinars® link under “What’s New” at www.GlassArtMagazine.com for more details and local times.
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Glass Art Society Board of Directors 2020-2021 President: Jessica Jane Julius Vice President: Nadania Idriss Vice President: Natali Rodrigues Treasurer: Heather McElwee Secretary: Caitlin Vitalo Ben Cobb Matt Durran Glen Hardymon Mike Hernandez Eric Goldschmidt Karen Mahardy Lynn Read Debra Ruzinsky Mike Saroka Masahiro Nick Sasaki Demetra Theofanous Lisa Zerkowitz Paige Morris (Student Representative)
700 NW 42nd Street #100, Seattle, WA 98107 USA Phone: 206.382.1305 Fax: 206.382.2630 E-mail: info@glassart.org
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©2020 The Glass Art Society, a non-profit organization. All rights reserved. Publication of articles in this newsletter prohibited without permission from the Glass Art Society Inc. The Glass Art Society reserves the right to deny applications for Tech Display, advertising participation, GAS membership or conference participation to anyone for any reason.
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DIRECTOR’S LETTER
EDITOR’S LETTER It’s time to go green. The effects of climate change have affected most of us in a noticeable way in the recent past. It seems that not a week goes by that we are reminded of the impact that poor personal, governmental, and global decisions will have on our collective future. We are at a crossroads to make critical changes in our lives and our communities. The glass community is no exception. While we constitute a rather insignificant portion of the population, we have a relatively large ecological footprint. In this Fall issue of GASnews, writers shine a light on Green practices and the ethos of energy conservation that will lead the glass art field forward. We can see that there is not only an embraced responsibility, but passion for innovation and adaptation in artistic approach, inquiry, and industrial processes. In Juli Bolaños-Durman, David Schnuckel has examined an artist whose practice is anchored by a strong will to create beauty in the refuse of glass studio knock off bins and the relics of discarded pressed glass. Bolaños-Durman’s approach is a testament to finding undiscovered potential to upcycling ornate and candy-colored remnants into unusual totems that celebrate form, surface, and transparency in highly embellished, cold-constructed glass. Also in these pages, María Eugenia Díaz de Vivar interviews Salime Harp Cruces, co-founder of Xaquixe Studio in Oaxaca, MX, who along with Christian Thornton have developed and implemented a business practice based on contributing a service to the community that goes beyond making beautiful, utilitarian objects. Theirs is a story of holistically examining the consumption involved in the glassmaking process to find ways to actively reverse waste, provide jobs, and improve the environment in and around Oaxaca. In a literal approach to working green, Eric Goldschmidt tapped the minds of some of most skilled and artistically renowned flameworkers around the world for tricks to taming the notoriously tricky, green-colored boro. As we can all agree that flameworkers are setting the bar for an eco-friendly approach to working with glass, we’ll let them off the hook for any criticism on a Green practice. This issue is stacked with insight from forward-thinking minds of glass art producers, facilitators, and practitioners whose ecominded work will inform and inspire. Enjoy!
Michael Hernandez GASnews Editor
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Green, sustainable, eco-friendly – no matter what term you want to use, it is something to be considered in every aspect of our lives, including how we work with glass, how we run our studios, and how we interact with our community. The Glass Art Society office feels that responsibility as much as those of you making glass every day. If there is a silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is that we at GAS have realized how we can be more mindful by making the transition to a virtual office and how we can better arm studios to operate more efficiently, leaving a smaller footprint on the environment. The following are just a few things we have been putting into place over the past six months: • We have transitioned from a physical office to a virtual office, reducing both overhead and transportation while also becoming paperless in our operations. • We have expanded the scope of our Green Committee, which is currently working on resources to help people run their studio practice as efficiently as possible. • We have realized the value of virtual content. While we are looking forward to gathering with all of you in Tacoma in 2022, you can expect a permanent change in our annual conference. We plan to continue incorporating a virtual component that will reduce the need for presenters and attendees to travel, reducing their carbon footprint. This is just the start of our journey. We are committed to regularly evaluating and reducing our environmental impact while also developing and providing resources that will assist our community in doing the same. From using local and recycled materials to monitoring and reducing your studio’s dependence on fossil fuels, minor changes add up to make a significant impact. The artists in this issue of GASnews are an inspiration, and they are only a small sample of artists doing fantastic sustainable work in our community. We hope you find their efforts as inspiring as we have! Cheers,
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Brandi P. Clark Executive Director
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MATERIAL MADE OVER by David Schnuckel It’s an interesting thing, to think and write about the culture of our field during a worldwide pandemic. No matter who we are or what our work is or where we’re located, engaging issues within the framework of glass amidst such a hefty backdrop has revealed one constant variable as we move a little deeper into this globally historic moment as glass practitioners: that the one thing we can all be most certain of, continued uncertainty. In terms of glass making, exhibiting, teaching, or learning, there’s been a lot of unforeseen obstacles that have gotten in the way of how we’d normally do what we do because of the pandemic. But, whether we’re at the beginning of our career as a student or an established professional within the field, these obstacles have also made way for some really interesting discoveries in response to new constrictions placed upon our usual way of doing things, seeing things, or pursuing things. There’s something unique about limitation (for better or for worse) in that it obligates us to be resourceful. And, if never before, perhaps we’re beginning to understand that success as an artist isn’t measured by what one can do, but, especially in times like these, measured instead by how one can adapt. And one of the most impressive examples of a masterfully adaptive studio practice is the one of Juli Bolaños-Durman. Resourcefulness isn’t a mere tool in her relationship to glass as much as it has been the cornerstone in which her extensive body of work is built upon. Things like intuition, elasticity, and improvisation has naturally been hard-wired into her modus operandi as a maker far before COVID-19 intervened, culminating in a critically acclaimed body of work that makes new use of found and discarded glass objects in whimsical assemblages that live as both artifact and arti-fiction.
'Bird of Paradise' from WILD FLOWER Collection (2019) . Juli Bolaños-Durman in collaboration with Edinburgh based perfumers Jorum Studio. Acquired into the Collection of the National Glass Centre. Sunderland, UK, 2020 Found & Blown Glass with Cuttings. Photo Credit: Shannon Tofts
WILD FLOWER Collection (2019) Juli Bolaños-Durman in collaboration with Edinburgh based perfumers Jorum Studio. Found & Blown Glass with Cuttings. Photo Credit: Shannon Tofts
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‘Queen Bishop, Juana La Cubana, Aubergine Esmeralda, Faberyé & La Virgencita’ from the ODE TO INTUICIóN Series (2013-2015) Juli Bolaños-Durman. Acquired into the Collection of Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts (MUDAC). Lausanne, CH. in 2014. Found & Blown Glass with Cuttings. Photo Credit: Shannon Tofts
A Costa Rican artist and designer currently living and working in Scotland, Bolaños-Durman collects, modifies, and repurposes glass both industrially manufactured and made by hand. Anything that the world considers useless, broken, empty, or “wrong”—anything ultimately bound to find its way to the bin—is full of untapped sculptural potential from her vantage point. Whether an emptied bottle or jar, an abandoned antique at the secondhand store, a cast-away blown object that didn’t meet the glassblower’s expectations, or a peculiar cut off from the cold shop, these seemingly trite, overlooked, and/ or unwanted glass specimens are not only resurrected, but revived in the most exotically spectacular of ways. Take, for instance, a recent acquisition into the permanent collection of the National Glass Centre, “Bird of Paradise” from Bolaños-Durman’s WILD FLOWER GASNEWS
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Collection (in collaboration with independent Edinburgh-based fragrance brand, Jorum Studio). Segments of made and manufactured glass items are cut, ground, and assembled in ways that build seamlessly from one glass foundling to another. Various deviations from symmetry in the occasional lean of a component ground at an angle provide structural sass to its stature. Salvaged glass shards emulating plumage act as a tactic in which BolañosDurman visually garnishes its form. Very carefully, here and there, a modest integration of colored foundlings are interjected within this assemblage; an exuberant punctuation mark to its verticality while the components at the bottom balance that language of extravagance in their shapely profile whispered in clear. Even though playful and vibrant, there’s a lot of serious consideration subconsciously VOLUME 34, ISSUE 4
informing her decision making. Deeper dives into her various bodies of work indicate a broad arsenal of formal strategies to transcend the predictable arrangement of sliced and diced glass bodies: vessel orientations switched upon assembly, even turned askew; sections of a truncated vessel body stacked in ritzy arrangements; glass components elegantly adhered in a variety of off-centered ways; structures built with tasteful wonk through proficiently engineered lilts and leans… these are just a few of the compositional tools in Bolaños-Durman’s toolbox that give these repurposed glass specimens an unforeseen and delightful charisma once unified. It also appears that no surface of her glass foundlings remains unaltered. Without really having a plan mapped out, Bolaños-Durman sees the engraving process as a documented conversation
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between her and her foundling, an interactive call and response notated by way of her lathe. Patterns and textures cut into each component’s surface are a method of improvised mark-making to further lend voice to each component’s transformational arc from something manufactured into something magical. Rubbish, in turn, has never looked so glamorous. It’s worth mentioning that the notion of upcycling in Bolaños-Durman’s work is certainly part of a conversation that considers a glass practice through the lens of sustainability. As a making methodology that is sensitive to environmental concern and an Earth in crisis, it is also a means to a broader humanistic consideration. Even though creative activity directed upon inanimate objects, there is a sense of sympathy at the heart of Bolaños-Durman’s vision. Hers is a making practice that emulates a life philosophy about bringing the best out of everything around us; of giving objects an opportunity to be more than what we thought they were; an interest in salvaging and second chances; a creative impulse that comes from a place of warmth, respect, and consideration. All conversations about trying to leave a little lesser of a carbon footprint in the world aside, the idea of repurposing discarded glass enables Bolaños-Durman to humanize material, to care for it by giving something back to it: a life anew. From her point of view, everything is useful. Especially that which has been abandoned…and the human desire to matter—to feel like we belong, to be seen as having value—is the anthropomorphic lens in which she looks at these glass foundlings through, prompting a making practice that is as provoked by compassion as it is distinguished by uplifting whimsy. I expect that we will not be the same artists we were before the pandemic took hold of the world. The way it locked us down, locked us out of our studios, and kept us from our usual resources and ways of generating work. But, if we’re able to adapt our making practices to, instead, a practice of “making do” we might possibly come out the other side of this moment transformed.
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OUR COMMON HUMANITY (2016-Ongoing) Juli Bolaños-Durman. Commission for Royal Edinburgh Hospital- Large Scale Installation in Partnership with Gras Architects. Found & Blown Glass with Cuttings comes to life with Light. Photo Credit: Gabriela Silveira
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(Far Left) Studio Shot- OUR COMMON HUMANITY (2016-Ongoing) Juli Bolaños-Durman. Commission for Royal Edinburgh HospitalLarge-scale installation in partnership with Gras Architects. Found & blown glass with cuttings comes to life with light. Photo Credit: Gabriela Silveira (Left) POWERFUL ORDINARY BONDS SERIES (2020) Juli Bolaños-Durman. Project developed during Dutch Invertuals Academy 2020, Theme-True Matter. Found & blown glass with cuttings mixted with waste material. Photo Credit: Jaro Mikos
Different artists, but still artists nonetheless. Ones who were forced to take an interesting detour from what we would normally do and, quite possibly, gaining new recognition in a practice that deviates from what we were originally all about or normally known for. There’s something kind of magical in anticipating just what that might be or how it might unfold. After all, the job we as artists are truly tasked with (especially in the presence of constriction) is to make something meaningful out of any given moment, whether that be with things or circumstances. In the case of Juli BolañosDurman, her work and her practice indicate a masterful handle of both…and one worth taking note of. Dwell in her website and her Instagram to see just how. David Schnuckel is an artist and educator, currently Assistant Professor within the Glass program at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.
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SHEDDING LIGHT: THE LOOMING IMPACT OF LED SIGNAGE ON THE NEON COMMUNITY by Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez often based overseas.” This increase in shipping equates to an increase in the carbon footprint of the piece. It also means that when clients go with an LED option, there are fewer jobs for local neon benders. DeLyser believes that a recent cultural interest and revival of neon has helped to counterbalance this effect—but only to a certain extent. “LED has represented a significant deskilling in a highly skilled industry. A 15-year-old with a glue gun can install LEDs. Not so tube bending,” notes DeLyser. “The technology in today’s neon signs has mostly been around for about a century. There are signs all over the country today that are 90-95 years old and still working outdoors every night. Neon has proven itself to be very, very durable.” Unfortunately, the immediate availability of LEDs has resulted in them becoming an increasingly popular alternative. But are consumers really putting their money into something that will last for decades, the way that neon does? “[LEDs] have been getting more reliable, but typically run into a lot of problems. Since they’re not very old, nobody knows how long they’ll really last,” shares DeLyser.
The battle between neon and LED lighting first came to my attention on social media. Neon benders such as Bay Areabased Meryl Pataky have been spreading awareness of the environmental and cultural pitfalls of mass-produced LED signs, in contrast to traditional “cold cathode” neon illumination. The growing popularity of LEDs, which stands for Light-Emitting Diodes, has undoubtedly directed revenue away from skilled glassmakers who create neon while also having a greater negative impact on the environment. To top it off, multiple members of the artist collective Pataky founded, She Bends, have pointed out direct plagiarism of their designs by companies manufacturing LED décor lights. By taking a “rope” or strip of LED lights and flexing it into the shape of lettering, these companies are able to make a product that approximates the appearance of a neon sign. A true neon sign is made by meticulously heating and hand-bending glass tubing into the desired shapes, then sealing the tubes and pumping them full of noble gasses that illuminate when excited by electricity. Pataky and others allege that LED companies have been known to steal
the designs of existing neon benders, as well as make fraudulent claims to manufacture real neon. One example of this trend can be seen in the Neon Beach Company, which has gone so far as to put the word “neon” in its name without producing any actual neon. Another tactic commonly used by LED sign companies is to spread false statements that neon signs are toxic, get too hot, are short-lived, or are non-recyclable, all of which are untrue. “They benefit from the out of context and very generalized information that most people know which is that LED is more efficient than incandescent bulbs. Okay, that has nothing to do with neon,” says Pataky. “Neon signs are sometimes made by larger sign companies, but often by little mom-and-pop shops. These shops are typically located in the towns/cities where the signs will be installed—local people making a local product,” states Dydia DeLyser, Ph.D., a cultural-historical geographer and Associate Professor at California State University, Fullerton. “LEDs, though they may be installed by small sign companies, are produced by major corporations, often global multi-nationals,
Pyre (2018) by Kate Hush, a neon artist and member of the She Bends collective.
An LED copy of Kate Hush’s work "Pyre," as seen on the Neon Beach website. (www.neonbeach.com)
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I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair (2017) by artist and neon bender Kate Hush.
What is known is that when an LED sign stops working, it is either irreparable or extremely difficult to repair, often resulting in the piece ending up in a landfill, where the plastic signage will live up to its claims of being “indestructible.” Meanwhile, a neon sign can be repaired and re-pumped indefinitely, depending on the color. Even signs that use mercury in multiple units can be maintained and preserved by remaking the problematic components. The website for West Coast Custom Designs LLC, a popular neon supply company, asserts “LED technology is at its infancy. Advances and new generations of LEDs are introduced quite frequently. When a sign has been installed for as little as 1 year, exact replacement LEDs can sometimes be hard to track down.” Furthermore, “New generation LED modules can give off a
LED copy of Kate Hush’s work I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair as seen on the Bro Neon website (www.bronosonicneonsigns.com)
different color and/or brightness than an earlier generation module,” making exact matches in repairs for LED signage very tricky. Additionally, the older an LED is, the dimmer it becomes, meaning that new LEDs added to an old sign are certain to be brighter than the rest of the unit. While the plastic used in LED signs will never break down, the raw ingredients of a neon sign, namely glass and noble gasses, are arguably infinitely recyclable. “If you break a neon tube, the gas escapes, returns to the air, and, instantly, is available to be separated again and put into a new tube,” points out DeLyser. Neon tubes typically last thirty to forty years if processed properly because they do not contain filaments to “burn out” the way incandescent bulbs do. The way neon is made has also changed very little since the 1920s, taking the
guesswork out of industry standards and methods for repair. In terms of energy consumption, a video published by The Neon Group conducting side-by-side comparisons of multiple brands of LED lights including Sloan, GE and US LED against white neon tubing is very helpful in understanding the power use of each product relative to cost and brightness. The video demonstrates that when achieving equal brightness within a channel letter, neon consumes fewer watts and has a lower initial install cost than LED. In addition, only one neon tube is needed to create the brightness generated by several modules of LED lights. From an artistic and aesthetic standpoint, there is also no denying that LEDs lack a certain sense of romance. LEDs produce strong, focused points of
Comforter (2019, Argon and Phosphor Coated Glass), an original work by She Bends member Carissa Grace, showcasing the versatility of neon as a sculptural medium.
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(Far Left) Artist and She Bends founder Meryl Pataky heating a section of glass tubing so that it can be bent into the desired shape. This process must be repeated multiple times to create the form of a neon sign. (Left) Artist and neon bender Meryl Pataky working on a piece in her studio.
illumination. Meanwhile, neon casts its glow 360 degrees around itself, as if the light were coming from a lantern, flooding the area. Even when used in channel letters or other illuminated signs that have a closed face, LEDs can result in blotchy, uneven light quality when compared against the soft, feathery, iconic glow of a neon tube. If neon gives work to skilled people, is more easily repaired, made of materials that are able to be recycled, lasts longer, is generally more aesthetically pleasing, and typically uses less power to produce equal brightness, why are consumers still going with LED options that might even be works of creative plagiarism? “Material truths are getting fuzzy,” theorizes Pataky. “There is a waning appreciation for craft and trade in the world with more favor towards technology, self-driving and self-diagnosing cars, no more woodshop in schools, etc. With this lack of knowledge around how things are made or what they are made of comes a reasonable assumption that there is a lack of understanding about how these things are discarded and therefore impact the environment.” Those in the neon industry want to inform their clients of the skill, finesse, and creativity it takes to make real neon well, but the question is, can they continue to expect consumers to wait the time necessary and pay the money appropriate for benders to
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create pieces? “One of the reasons why these LED Flex sign companies do so well is because they make ordering a custom sign SO EASY online. Neon sign shops and our suppliers are stuck in the 80s. You have to call almost everyone, correspondence is slow. There’s so much back and forth with custom work. People want to click and buy these days and even many of our [neon] material vendors still don’t have online stores!” admits Pataky. Aside from adapting to become more consumer-friendly, it seems another key is to get the correct information out there, and to fight against the torrent of false notions being spread amongst consumers about neon lighting. West Coast Custom Designs LLC has published information on their website comparing neon to LED lighting that is often cited by the community when arguing neon’s superiority to LED options. The Neon Group is another organization whose website lists several resources and reports comparing the cost, energy usage and sustainability of LED and neon in various scenarios of application. Finally, some benders have begun to take matters into their own hands by filing reports to directly call out false claims made by LED companies. Catherine Spink of Neon Creations UK has spearheaded reports to the Advertising Standards Agency concerning fraudulent usage of the GASNEWS
word “neon” to describe an LED product, and Pataky intends to begin a similar initiative in the United States. “I plan to compile information and resources for this, especially since the FTC has strict guidelines for companies making “green” or “ecofriendly” claims.” Ultimately, glass benders hope that space is held for neon in our culture through an increased awareness of how real neon lights are made. Maintaining enthusiasm for ideas like shopping local, valuing skilled labor, and behaving in ways that limit environmental impact will also prove important if we are to preserve this unique trade and artform. Special thanks to Dydia DeLyser, Ph.D. and Meryl Pataky for sharing your knowledge on this topic. http://theneongroup.org/knowledge.html https://prosites-llcwccd.homestead.com/ NEON-LED-COMPARISON.html http://theneongroup.org/images/ LEDs%20VERSUS%20COLD%20CATHODE. pdf Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez lives in Philadelphia, PA, and is on faculty in Glass at Tyler School of Art and Architecture. She enjoys working in her studio, writing poetry, taking care of plants, listening to new music, and learning about neon.
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ROMBACHS RECYCLES EVERYTHING! by Timm Muth re·cy·cle | \ (ˌ)rē-ˈsī-kəl : to pass again through a series of changes or treatments. : to process in order to regain material for use. : to adapt or alter something to fit a new use. The idea of recycling is nothing new. These days, most of us do it without even thinking. But do those efforts really have an impact in the glass world? We all accept that working with glass is an energy-intensive process. Most glass artists are cognizant that their concerns about global climate change are often in direct conflict with their personal levels of energy use. When asked, most artists will express a desire to be less energy intensive, to reduce the size of their carbon footprint, and lessen their impact on the world. But for many, this remains just an item on their wish list, because making a living usually trumps concerns for the climate. However, in Antwerp, Belgium, one glass artist insists on putting his beliefs foremost, incorporating every aspect of sustainability he can manage. Refusing to play a role in a single-use world, Frederik Rombach made a commitment early in his career to incorporate the mantra of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” into the very bones of his business. This commitment then drives his daily decisions into studio operations, energy use, materials sourcing, and community impact. At his studio, Rombach uses only recycled glass bottles for his raw materials. He fostered a connection with a local recycling firm and picks through their mountains of collected bottles -waste glass- taking what he wants for free. In return, Rombach brings in objects created with the materials as a gift. This has resulted in the recycling firm commissioning him to create sets of custom mugs for their employees and clients. Frederik feels that this practice GASNEWS
Photo courtesy of Frederik Rombach
allows him to be an active part of the overall waste stream. It also provides an opportunity to encourage others to recycle and reuse waste glass. Frederik also incorporates recycled energy, as it were, into his operations. Rombachs Glass is one of the only public glass studios in the entire EU using biogas to provide the heat for the furnace, glory holes, and other hot shop equipment. Biogas—which is simply methane derived from the decomposition of organic materials—is a simple replacement for propane or natural gas. While biogas use is fairly commonplace in many EU countries, it is usually reserved for largescale uses such as transportation and is unavailable to small-scale users like glass artists. Unwilling to accept such limitations, Frederik installed a large gas
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storage tank behind his studio. He then partnered with the creative hub where the studio is situated to be able to meet the gas company’s quota. Now a delivery truck visits Rombachs Glass on a regular basis, providing all the gas he needs to fire his entire shop using a sustainable energy resource. With an eye to the future, Frederik is looking to create a mobile glassblowing furnace that can be fired using recycled cooking oil, using a specialty waste vegetable oil burner designed by Organic Combustion Systems LLC*. He sees this as an opportunity to incorporate another renewable energy resource into his operations and create a platform by which he can take his message of sustainability out into the community. Perhaps the most important piece of this sustainable puzzle for Frederik is
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Photos courtesy of Frederik Rombach
the human-centered one. Rombach is passionate about helping immigrants who find themselves struggling to fit into a new culture, learn a new language, and find a way to make a living. Frederik knows firsthand how difficult such transitions can be. At the age of 4, Frederik’s family relocated from Belgium to South Africa, necessitating many changes and adjustments. Then at 13 years old, his family relocated back to the EU, once again thrusting Frederik back into an unfamiliar culture filled with a host of different languages. Navigating such difficult changes instilled in Rombach a sense of understanding and compassion towards immigrants. Now, that understanding helps guide Frederik as he uses his glass skills to bring meaningful change to their lives. As he puts it, “Many of these people arrive in Belgium with little to no language skills. So working with glass gives them an opportunity to use another medium with which to express themselves. This allows us them to integrate the richness of all these people into our society.” While many might not see the connection, Rombach draws a direct line between immigration and climate change. As certain areas of the globe become
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unlivable due to changing economics and the impact of climate change, people will naturally travel to other locales seeking a new way to make a living. Frederik sees the potential for these immigrants to develop careers as artists with meaningful contributions to the community. For the past four years, Frederik has partnered with several galleries and schools to start setting up a learning program specifically for new immigrants to the country. While they take basic language classes at school, Frederik brings young immigrants into the shop to both teach them glassblowing skills and reinforce their language skills. Rombach Glass typically opens its doors to eight new students each year, coming from places such as Morocco, Syria, Tibet, and Bulgaria. One of the students has progressed to become a part of the studio, hosting her own Paint on Glass workshops. In the end, all of these recycled elements – materials, energy, and people – form a pattern of sustainability that can be adopted by many others in the industry. It’s more than just a story about glass. It’s an opportunity to change the way the world looks at discarded or unwanted things, and to see the beauty that still lives inside them. It’s Frederik’s way of forging a GASNEWS
collective path forward and taking as many people along for the journey as possible. Frederik states “[I am] constantly searching for ways to understand how we as humans interact with each other. I have come to realize that glassblowing aids me with this in that I can visualize these interactions in the products I make, and more importantly in the process I follow where I invite people to be a part of the glass forming process.” It’s an idea that needs to be recycled over and over again. Frederik Rombach is the owner of Rombachs Glass in Antwerp, Belgium. He can be reached at info@rombachs.com. Website : www.rombachs.com Instagram : Frederik_Rombach / Glaswerkt FB : www.facebook.com/RombachsGlas -and- www.facebook.com/glaswerkt Timm Muth has worked as an engineer within the energy industry for almost 40 years. His passion for renewable energy resources has led to a number of innovations in micro-scale applications of both biogas and waste vegetable oil for use in the glass industry.
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TRIALS, TRIBULATIONS, AND SOLUTIONS FOR FLAMEWORKING GREEN BOROSILICATE by Eric Goldschmidt Green was a finicky color when I first started flameworking with borosilicate glass 25 years ago. As the flameworking world grows, so too do borosilicate color manufacturers and the palettes they present. Many new options are available in the range of green glasses. I reached out to a few contemporary borosilicate flameworkers to get their take on experiences with different greens in the past, options that are available these days, and some tips on how to make the most of these glasses. Suellen Fowler has been a crucial pioneer in the development of colored borosilicate. She has a great deal of insight to share from her early attempts to create green. “When I began learning about flamework glass in 1969, there was no commercial boro color available, for the most part. At the Glass Workshop at Pepperdine College, we learned to hand mix basic oxides into clear glass, to make colored rods. We had two methods of producing the color green, the first one being chromium oxide, which makes a very rich opaque jade green, but has serious COE [coefficient of expansion] issues. We worked around that by adding in other oxides, such as tin oxide, which lightened the shade of green but was pretty effective in producing a decent opaque green. John Burton often used cobalt and silver oxide as additional elements, which gave more of a lighter forest green. And you could mix a larger proportion of clear in, which would give you a somewhat grainy looking translucent green. There are a number of opaque manufactured greens available today that include chromium oxide in their chemical mix. The second combination was mixing cobalt and silver oxide in various proportions, which would produce shades from an ultramarine blue to a pretty decent semi opaque leaf green, etc. Achieving the shade of green one wanted was very much like mixing paints together to produce the desired color. The one technical problem with that was that the silver Perfume Bottle from Suellen Fowler with cobalt and oxide in a certain saturation would leave little silver balls in your cane, that liked to rise to the silver oxide greens. Photo Credit: Rachel Close surface of the bubble and often explode, leaving a spatter of silver on the side. I began experimenting with other oxides in combination. I discovered formulas for making an opaque, but heat reactive dark green that produced surface tones of blues and purples. These formulas would produce various translucent and transparent greens when mixed with more clear boro. I found that I could strike nearly clear looking rods of the combined oxides and produce a lovely pale leaf green. And because Germanium oxide binds excess silver in the glass, the problem of the exploding silver beads was almost completely eliminated.” As Suellen mentioned, chromium-based greens can present some compatibility issues. These issues are compounded when one applies these greens in an encased design, whether it be for murrine work or in marbles and paperweights.
Jason Lee is an innovator in the use of borosilicate glass for pipes, murrine and the application of murrine into hollow forms. He provided helpful suggestions for handling these often troublesome greens. “Chromium greens build crystal content over time which eventually causes checking. The keys to succeeding are to bench cool or kiln crash all prep stages til final completion, run the kiln at lowest set point which is 980ºF to prevent popping during work. I always imagine a timer counting up to detonation with chromium green, and just try to finish with the most efficient moves possible to duck that peak of time.” It is helpful to realize the chemical composition of these glasses continue to change dependent on how long they are kept above their strain point. Deep encasement of greens can be troublesome, but Jason suggests Timber and Roswell for such applications in his murrine work. GASNEWS
Murrina by Jason Lee using Glasstronix Green and Roswell yellowish-green
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Flower marble by John Kobuki with gold and silver fumed petals and Green Dwarf leaves
John Kobuki has been a pioneer with his explorations on the possibilities of compression marbles. This technique requires colored glasses that are as stable as possible for deep encasement within clear glass. “Since I started with Borosilicate glass in the mid 90s, green has always been a troublesome color, whether it was getting the right combo of gold and silver in fume work or finding a true opaque green that didn't crack when encased. Since mostly all my work involves green being encased, it became quite frustrating. When I taught classes, I would say to not trust any green except the original Corning Green Dwarf and the India Glasstronics green. Both of these were cintered glass and no major cracking issues; however, they are no longer made. There are friendly shades of green in the traditional pulled rod form mostly made with a cobalt and cadmium yellow combo, you can also achieve these shades with a veil of this combo.”
Mike Mason spectrum eye murrin: Left= Glasstronix Green; Right= Timber
Mike Mason from Torch Talk and Glass Central Station also notes that “Timber and Roswell by Northstar Glass have filled this gap in the market but lack the density of Glasstronics, leaving their discontinued greens highly desirable.”
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Pipe maestro Eusheen Goines achieves great results from Plantphibian green from Molten Aura. In the recycler pictured below, the blueish/green areas are tubing he created from layering Glass Alchemy Steel Wool with clear on the inside. Then, he applies a layer of Plantphibian, and a thick layer of clear goes on top of that. He finds it best to work Plantphibian in a neutral flame and create tubing from the “blowout” technique. This technique involves gathering up a large amount of solid rod into a thick mass; pushing a tungsten rod into the middle of that mass to begin an air cavity, then adding a glass blow tube to the mass to further inflate it into finished tubing. Layering with lots of clear thins out the Plantphibian to create the wonderful range of greens in the recycler (pictured).
Remibulator by Eusheen Goines and Nate Miers with encalmo bands of Plantphibian
Muranese maestro Cesare Toffolo used a transparent green tubing from China for his GAS Conference demonstration of the classic Veronese vase form in Murano in 2018. He used green for that demo “because the Veronese vase that appears in the painting of the Annunciation is green like… many of the glasses of the time.” He had the following insight to offer: “Chinese glass tubes are not perfect, they have problems of purity and uniformity in thickness, but currently, they are the best we find on the market. Often, to overcome the drawback of imperfect thickness, I twist the glass as is done for a twisted rigadin [optic twist] or a filigree. This mitigates the problem but, sometimes, it can have a negative effect on refraction.” Working with Chinese tubing led me to treat the glass almost as though it is soft glass. It is helpful to warm into it slowly with an annealing flame before cranking up the Cesare Toffolo finishing his green Veronese demonstration piece from Murano GAS Conference 2018. Elia Toffolo prepared to assist heat for shaping. Either putting it directly into a hot annealer, or flame annealing it back down below the strain point, are crucial as well. Hopefully these insights and suggestions provide a better understanding of how these new options continue to evolve within the growth of using borosilicate glass for artistic work. Enjoy experimenting with these techniques to get better, more consistent results moving forward. Eric Goldschmidt is an artist and educator. He works full time as the Properties of Glass and Flameworking Supervisor for the Corning Museum of Glass as serving on the Board of Directors for the Glass Art Society. GASNEWS
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(RE)PURPOSE by Kayla Cantu (Far Left) Forest Glass (2009) by Katherine Gray Media: Glass, acrylic, steel Dimensions: 63” x 30” x 120” Imagery provided courtesy of Katherine Gray and the Corning of Museum of Glass (Left) Forest Glass (2009) by Katherine Gray Photo Credit: Joshua White
I can confidently say I have come to a valid conclusion in my relatively short amount of time inhabiting both the Earth and the glass community…humans can be terrible, and the glass community is wasteful. To clarify, I don’t mean all humans are terrible and that everyone in the glass community extrudes copious amounts of glass related waste. As it has become clear in my tenures as a human and a glass artist, we must reconsider things we thought we knew everything about in order to find value in what traditionally gets overlooked (or blatantly disregarded). It is our responsibility to think about the glass community and the ways we take part in the global environmental conversation through this lens. We walk a strange, binary line. There is a collective desire to be environmentally considerate within our studio practices, and yet, we place great value in this seductive material and pride ourselves on our abilities to go in the furnace for a fourth gather, cast bubble-free objects, and make perfect implosions in flame-worked glass. We turn a blind eye in order to continue producing a medium we’re obsessed with at a level of craft and refinement that is predetermined by market expectation.
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There is a trend of devaluing glass in our community that we deem “not good enough.” First attempts at blown glass pieces, an imperfect casting, as well as glass that has not been crafted by the skilled hands of an artist. I’m curious about the qualities that have come to define “Glass Art”, and how powerful the work can be when it pushes back against those expectations. There is great conceptual and metaphoric potential in taking a common material and utilizing its qualities in uncommon ways. There’s a fascination in the exploration of these specific instances as singular answers among many for how the glass community impacts the globe. By reconsidering ways to utilize readilyavailable glass, we gain the energy spent, the material produced, and the context of their designated or prior uses. By repurposing this material that already exists in the world, we can, in turn, repurpose our studio practices. Think of the 2,000 crowdsourced and found, mostly industrially-produced drinking glasses utilized in Katherine Gray’s work, Forest Glass. All of the glasses were salvaged from thrift stores, with a sprinkling of some hand-blown vessels; a GASNEWS
curious intermingling of the hand-crafted and machine-made. From a distance, this work depicts three jewel-toned trees that are composed of amber and emerald hues. As one approaches the work, finite details of each vessel become pronounced. Yet, the identity of each glass is blurred of its own identity amongst the collective. Gray uses these as a metaphor for the loss of ecosystems through “forest glass” production in medieval Europe. Each tree serves as a ghost of the industry and environment through a recreation of the processes that once destroyed them. Glass intersects our daily lives as a material that is simultaneously physically present and visually absent. Camoflauged by optical phenomenon, glass can be hiding in plain sight. An impressive example of an artist using this “formless” glass is Gracia Nash’s “skins” of reflective glass beads. Due to their reflective quality, the beads are intended to be used for safety purposes in traffic paint, signs, and pavement. Nash utilizes the beads in her work, Amorphous Flesh, to address feelings of comfort, internal and external feelings of safety, and bodily sensation through tactical experiences.
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Amorphous Flesh (2018) by Gracia Nash. Reflective glass beads, LEDs, sensors, glass head pins, chair. Dimensions: 31” x 32” x 32". Photo Credit: Elizabeth Lamark
By combining the beads with high-grade silicone to create these protective “skins," she modifies the initial use of the beads. Nash conceptually reframes the material, yet creating a metaphor in the presence of awareness (and self-awareness) felt through the medium of skin and the function of the industrial glass beads. Through appropriated, industriallyproduced glass objects and materials, artists can access unique physical and visual qualities, and address meaning as something more powerful than what first meets the eye. Still, the impact of this work goes beyond concept. Subverting the traditions of glass art and its energyintensive studio practices, artists using repurposed and upcycled material shift the impact on natural resources. While we cannot assume that a significant segment of the glass community will be re-directed from two millennia of glass traditions, perhaps some shining GASNEWS
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examples that reframe the way we think about glass as a material can inspire others to use the material in repurposed forms that already exist around us. From one perspective, these approaches to repurposing seem too insufficient to make a difference in the long run. But, my concession is that small, well-considered actions can lend way to better informed technical and conceptual practices amongst our collective community. Kayla Cantu is a fat, female, half-Mexican, bisexual artist who utilizes glass, video, photography and mixed-media. She resides in Rochester, New York, while she pursues her artistic practice.
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INTERVIEW: XAQUIXE GLASS INNOVATION STUDIO, PIONEERS IN SUSTAINABLE GLASS by María Eugenia Díaz de Vivar Xaquixe Glass Innovation Studio works in a 380-square-meter space that, for 18 years, has been performing glass recycling techniques and renewable energy in Oaxaca, Mexico. The studio uses processes based on sustainability for the benefit of the ecosystem. Today, it is the only factory in the world that uses 95% recycled glass and 95% reused cooking oil. In addition, Xaquixe provides jobs to communities, selling unique pieces in shape and color, reflecting the culture of Oaxaca. We were able to chat with Salime Harp Cruces, founding partner of Xaquixe Studio, along with Christian Thornton. An engineer by profession, she has built a great team with her partner, an expert recycling artist who deals with technology. In addition to collaborating with the planet, they create culture, art, and employment from reused and recycled materials through the collection of glass bottles and burnt oil from restaurants and hotels in Oaxaca and its surroundings. Innovation and passion are two words that define this duo. They place great importance on reducing harmful materials for the environment with a very specific action: reuse everyday materials with amazing results.
cause in Maho Bay (USVI) when we met. His objective was to transform the waste glass from beer bottles and other containers into souvenirs and decorative pieces that would be sold back to the same tourists that consumed them. MEDV: How did you decide on making glass from recycled bottles? SHC: My concern comes from my childhood; even then I was struck by the mismanagement of waste in my city (Oaxaca). As years went by, my interest in this grew. I did my graduate studies in glass production and learned that it takes less energy to melt waste glass than raw materials. Furthermore, when melted, 40% of the raw material mass is lost. Christian Thornton was the one who
designed all the furnaces and equipment that we use at Xaquixe for blown, fused, cast, and flameworked glass pieces. This equipment has been in operation for 20 years! At Xaquixe, he developed the concept of "formulated glass" which consists of 95% waste glass and 5% raw materials, which achieves an similar first-batched appearance by restoring shine and transparency, but also makes it compatible to use with color. We currently use Reichenbach brand colors, but have also used Zimmerman and Gaffer. While we have faced many challenges from the beginning, today this glass has a quality and resistance that allows Xaquixe to produce articles for tableware and architectural works in glass. (Left) The great team of Xaquixe is ready for work Photo Credit: Xaquixe Glass Innovation Studio
María Eugenia Díaz de Vivar: How did you start working together? Salime Harp Cruces: Christian (Thornton) was my teacher at UrbanGlass (Brooklyn, NY). I had the idea for a project of creating a recycled glass workshop in the city of Oaxaca. When I told him about it in class, I was glad to hear that he was interested in my proposal. Christian already had experience with recycling and we began to see that our projects were converging. Recycling glass is helping to reduce the burden on the environment, and this is where Christian and I found a common mission. He was already supporting this
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(Left) Christian Thornton and Salime Harp Cruces working on a commission for the artist Nicola Lopez (NYC). Photo Credit: Xaquixe Glass Innovation Studio
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Brita Filter image from Kickstarter. Photo: Kyle Mickleson
Design of blown glass pieces inspired by organic shapes. Utilitarian and decorative. 95% recycled glass and use of alternative energy. Photo Credit: Xaquixe Glass Innovation
MEDV: How did you switch to using burnt oil to heat the furnaces? SHC: The challenge was presented to us in 2011, when the price of gas increased by almost 300% and we were on the verge of bankruptcy. By 2012, 85% of blown glass workshops in Mexico had closed and the same was happening in other countries. That same year, we learned that glass workshops generate a lot of pollution (CO2 and NOx), so the challenge was two-fold. We decided to present a
project to the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) that proposed using burnt cooking oil as a renewable energy source. Christian developed (and we patented) the appropriate burner to achieve its combustion. Today we have the support of around 120 restaurants in the city of Oaxaca and its surroundings that provide us with raw materials. This allows us to collect burnt oil, avoiding contamination of the city's river. Now vegetable oil is the renewable energy used to fuel our gloryholes. Photo Credit: Xaquixe Glass Innovation Studio
MEDV: What changes or improvements have been required to adapt to the use of oil? SHC: At one point we realized that we needed to optimize the energy of the smelting furnace. In 2014, we observed that we had accumulated a substantial amount of "sludge" from the oil casting and centrifugation. Advised by scientists from the Brandenburg Technical University, we again applied CONACYT to, through an anaerobic reactor (biodigester), obtain methane gas (biogas) from these solids. We are currently in the research stage to generate electrical energy from solar concentration and micro turbines, to be used in our tempering furnaces. MEDV: How does the Studio currently function? SHC: Today, there are fifteen people working with Xaquixe, among artisans (glassblowers) and other areas. Many others support us by collecting glass and oil. We are glad to know that the work done generates income for other people. In addition to our tableware, we produce a range of other objects. Currently, we export our products to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, and the Cayman Islands. MEDV: Does Xaquixe collaborate with artists and designers? SHC: Yes, we made a big collaboration with Gandalf Gavan in 2005; an installation for the Museum of Contemporary Art of Oaxaca entitled "Ă?caro", composed of 3,500 organic silver spheres of different diameters that hung over the tourist walkway of our city. From 2008 to 2018, we worked with Maestro Francisco Toledo on various projects, including a glass installation in a building of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), pieces for the "Instrumenta Oaxaca" festival and lead-free stained glass for the San Pablo Cultural Center in Oaxaca.
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MEDV: Have grants helped you to finance your research? SHC: Yes. CONACYT and the Alfredo Harp Helú Oaxaca Foundation (FAHHO) allowed us to design and develop clean technologies, and generate renewable energy. Thanks to this, we have also been able to support artisans who work with clay and ceramics, as well as mezcal producers. The support of these institutions has allowed us to design ovens so that artisans can, for example, stop using wood. Based on these improvements, they can reach the appropriate temperatures to use lead-free enamels (in the case of ceramics and clay), and carry out agave cooking and distillation (in the case of mezcal producers). This considerably reduces CO2 and NOx emissions, improving the health of artisans, and a better quality of their products. MEDV: Please describe the educational space you created, Xaquixe Proenvironmental Processes (PPX). SHC: It's a non-profit education and laboratory arm of Xaquixe to research and adapt green technologies based on local systems and resources. We evolved PPX into a skills training center, consultancy, and prototype lab to support small, artisanal enterprises. PPX space includes: mezcal distillation ovens with copper and clay stills, ceramic oven, lab equipment, multi-union solar cell tower with heliostats for solar concentration, biomass burners, multicombustion burners, glass kilns, glass annealers, glass reheating furnaces, anaerobic biodigesters, solar concentration panel prototypes, rain catchment system. MEDV: What impact do you generate in the social environment? SHC: Xaquixe works with research centers and universities so that the principle of "sustainability" spreads to students and academics. We are interested that they can know the relevance and importance of
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The partners since 2002, Salime Harp Cruces and Christian Thornton in Oaxaca, México.
transforming waste into new products or clean energy. On the other hand, we want our clients to feel part of this positive impact on the environment through responsible consumption. Let them know that with each glass or jug they support our mission and that by promoting our work, they spread the message in pursuit of a greater balance with nature. Finally, we are excited to be able to generate income for the families of artisans who collaborate with us and to see how people in restaurants, bars, and hotels respond when it comes to separating glass and oil to give them a valuable purpose. Xaquixe Bios: Salime Harp Cruces was born in Oaxaca. She is an industrial engineer who graduated from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) with a thesis on industrial processes in glass production. She specialized in glass techniques in blowing, fusing and lead-free stained glass. She has participated in national and international group exhibitions. Christian Thornton is an American artist who has been immersed in the world of glass for more than 30 years, including GASNEWS
as a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Chicago Navy Pier Museum. In 2000, he began researching and experimenting with recycled glass, and in 2001, settled in Oaxaca and founded Xaquixe with Salime Harp Cruces. He has developed both material processes and equipment they use to produce an array of functional glass objects. He actively collaborates with artists and designers. www.xaquixe.mx Instagram: @xaquixe
Para leer la versión original en español, haga clic aquí.
María Eugenia Díaz de Vivar is an artist, researcher, writer, and editor. Since 2007, she has directed the publication Objetos con Vidrio, an online platform that disseminates the work of contemporary artists and reflects the activity of artistic glass. With her research she collaborates with the National University of Art of Argentina.
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MADE AT HOME: WORDS OF ISOLATION | WORDS OF CONNECTION by Laura Quinn
Learning lampworking with a chef’s torch. 2020
In April 2020, during the early stage of the COVID-19 lockdown, I had just started employment at University for the Creative Arts (UCA) in Farnham, UK, as the Glass Technical Tutor. The staff and students at UCA began to reform learning methodologies in response to the rapidly changing restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Once full national lockdown began, we turned to online teaching and learning. It became a time when tutorials between teaching staff and students to discuss projects and ideas was facilitated through online video conferencing. There was a distinct frustration from both sides as it has been an established custom for educators and learners to navigate craft and glass education with the knowledge and information that hands-on making provides. With limited resources, but a need to keep our hands learning, I started to use and teach with unconventional tools and materials from around my house, or that were easily accessible online. Through live video calling demonstrations and GASNEWS
Learning lampworking at the kitchen table using a chef’s torch. 2020
classes, paired with pre-recorded and edited online video tutorials, my students began, or continued to learn, fundamental processes in coldworking by using wet and dry sandpaper, lampworking with a chef’s torch, copper foiling, etching, laminating, glass cutting, and glass bending using a candle flame. As the weeks went on, seeing the positive impact of setting these at-home tasks for my students, I decided to share them publicly through social media and on my YouTube channel. The series of videos entitled, Home Glass Hacks, allowed students, glass makers and complete novices to start, or continue to develop their material and process knowledge by using accessible tools from around the house. One of the Home Glass Hacks shows how to bend thin glass stringers using a candle. When I was conceptualizing this, I couldn’t help but remember what I had learned about glass bending during a class at Neon Workshops in Wakefield, UK. I began to bend the glass into words, starting with a simple message to the
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community, Hello. I shared the message with the public online, and to my surprise it seemed to garner attention. At a time when the global community was separated by isolation, our written and spoken words and messages online became so important. Connections through social media allowed us to communicate our paradoxical experience of shared isolation in a way that hadn’t existed before. It became poignant to capture these words in a physical form. Translating the words we use to connect into the material of glass seems to have an ability to make something be viewed as precious, as delicate, and fragile. This was the inspiration for the Words of Isolation | Words of Connection project. Words of Isolation | Words of Connection is an international collaborative project that calls on members of the public to get involved in communicating their experience of the COVID-19 isolation through making glass words by bending glass stringers using a tealight candle flame. Submissions to the project have
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been made by scientists, engineers, butchers, artists, entrepreneurs, photographers, teachers, and students to list a few. Words of Isolation | Words of Connection crosses boundaries, language, race, sex, gender, age, religion, background, and culture. The low-tech and low-cost nature of the process allows the work to become accessible to a large and diverse group. Through the creative catharsis of craft, it provides a physical representation of the feelings and words we have been sharing during this virtuallyunified period in the COVID-19 crisis. The project has allowed the public to develop their relationship with glass, a material many of which have never worked with before. It has opened up conversation and further appreciation of our craft. For some makers, where the treadmill of orders, exhibitions, and commissions keeps coming in, national lockdowns brought a full stop to this momentum. This had a significant, negative impact on many small businesses, but it has also provided many with a chance to finally make improvements to their studio equipment and processes, and to make changes that allow their process to become more sustainable. This project has given me and many other makers the opportunity to create work in a far more accessible and sustainable way due to the low-fi making method and lower energy consumption needed to form the glass, compared to traditional gas furnaces and torches. The project resonates with greater global objectives such as the Sustainable Development Goals set out by the UN in climate action, responsible consumption and production, and reduced inequality. This project and its gaining momentum on an international level has forced me to ask myself, “How much energy do I need to spend to make glass art that matters?� Recent participants to the project include Hilltop Artists in Tacoma, who work with youths from a varying socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. They will be making glass words with their students over the coming year to be submitted to the
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Hello glass bending using a candle. 2020
Words of Isolation | Words of Connection glass words. 2020.
project and shown at the Glass Art Society Conference in Tacoma, WA, in 2022. The first iteration of the project has been installed as part of the Design and Craft Council of Ireland outdoor exhibition trail, Connected, which is running throughout Kilkenny city from 30 July- 20 October. During this time, Ireland has gone from COVID-19 restrictions where national travel was possible, to county-wide travel limited to a 5km radius from their homes. The artworks in the Connected exhibition are displayed outdoors across the city of Kilkenny. GASNEWS
This has provided a way for exhibitions to continue, but it has also allowed the work to reach a public which has changed immensely in the time it has been on display, from a national audience to a local community audience. The project has paralleled our experience of the period of isolation. Each work is made in isolation, but when we are all allowed to be back together again so too can the glass words, it is a reflection, and a celebration of community and resilience in one of the most challenging years we will have experienced.
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Words of Isolation |Words of Connection installed as part of Design and Crafts Council Ireland Connected Sculpture Trail, Kilkenny, Ireland. July-Oct 2020. Image Source: Design and Crafts Council Ireland
When an artwork encapsulates a range of people’s experiences and reaches those who it would never have previously, when it allows a creative catharsis for people across different countries, when it allows young makers a chance to add to their resume and professional practice by being involved in an international collaborative art work, and all made with a candle, I wonder how can I learn from this and include its more sustainable nature in my work after the pandemic? I hope that being away from our usual modes of making has allowed us to consider more closely what we are making and why we are making it. Perhaps it will allow us a chance to make sustainable changes to our glass practice. The Words of Isolation | Words of Connection project is ongoing, you are invited to get involved by making and submitting a glass word that reflects your time in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. More information about the project is available here: https://www. lauraquinndesign.com/open-call www.lauraquinndesign.com www.instagram.com/lauraquinndesign www.facebook.com/lauraquinndesign Words of Isolation | Words of Connection installed as part of Design and Crafts Council Ireland Connected Sculpture Trail, Kilkenny, Ireland. July-Oct 2020.
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STUDENT CENTER SPOTLIGHT
Glass Educator & Student Environmental Survey by Paige Morris & Michael Saroka, GAS Education Committee As the world population continues to grow, we now realize that our impact on the environment will need to be part of our everyday thinking. Part of this new way of thinking will be the re-evaluation of traditional practices and current methodologies. Like all previous intentional social pivoting and redirection of culture, the change will start with education: the education of the community, the education of the industries, and the education of the up-and-coming generation. This education will take shape in modeling behavior, it will come from teaching skills and giving tools to people to enact positive change, and it will come from encouraging the exploration of knowledge to compound our ability to shape that change. This gives educators and students a unique position to be the driving force to move society to where it needs to go. By evaluating where we are today, we can see where we need to be tomorrow. METHODOLOGY: We surveyed both educators and students, receiving 13 responses in total from universities and programs across the globe. Respondents self-identified as students (53.8%), faculty (23.1%), and educators (23.1%).
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WHAT'S NEW GAS Student Meet-Up Connecting with other glass students is crucial for getting critical feedback, building your network, and making new friends along your educational journey. The GAS Student MeetUps are designed to create a space for students to learn, share ideas, and develop connections with colleagues from around the world. These virtual monthly meetings are moderated by the GAS Student Representative and create a space for students worldwide to discuss glass materials and processes, view lectures and demos, attend virtual studio tours, meet leaders in the glass community, and more. Explore our website to find out what’s in store for our next GAS Student Meet-Up, reserve your spot, and spread the word with your classmates!
Pay-What-You-Can Student Memberships Get all the benefits of membership to the Glass Art Society for as little as $5 a year! This new model allows us to provide young professionals with resources and opportunities they may otherwise miss out on. GAS also recognizes that students come in all forms! Whether enrolled in a degree-granting program or starting your journey at a public-access studio, if you are a young adult with less than five years of experience pursuing an education in glass, a student membership might be the best option for you. Know a student who would benefit from a GAS Membership? Spread the word!
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CALLS FOR ENTRY JOB POSTINGS On the Cover of the Fall 2020 issue of The Flow®, Mother, Maiden, Crone by Shayla Berhman aka Windstar Glass. Photo by SlyVegas Photography.
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