My Journey into Glassblowing
The welcome sign to Junction where I took my first glassblowing class! Image by Sarah Hartman
Blowing my First Bubble
An image of me standing next to a Mural I painted at Pediatric Associates in Wichita Falls, Texas, my hometown.
While in College I was studying to become a Mural Artist. I loved the idea of making something so huge because it demanded my full body to do so! During my college experience, I took many drawing and painting classes, but it all felt like something was missing. I wanted to make art that was more physically involved because I was a very active person. The thought of making art excited me, but the thought of sitting and painting for hours did not. I needed movement. I took several courses outsied my painting focus to broaden my skillsets including woodworking, jewelry making, and ceramics. Ceramics fascinated me because I loved the science behind it. when signing up for classes fo the year 2015 I had one more open credit to take whatever introduction class I wanted, so I signed up for something called “ glass-blowing.” I had no idea what glassblowing was going into my first class, but after day one, I was hooked!
My first day
My beginning glass instructor, Bob!
I distinctly remember my first day of beginner glassblowing class. It was a summer class in 2015 in Junction, Texas. I received an email from our instructor, Bob, to meet everyone at what was called the “Hot shop” next to the ceramics studio - which was where glassblowing took place. It was the middle of August in Texas and our hot shop was outside, so it was *definitely * a HOT shop! Why was it so hot over here?
Surrounding me were a bunch of long metal sticks in metal buckets, some hollow and some not. There were large boxes that were making loud “whooosh-ing” sounds, one with a bright glowing opening. Around the shop were various foreign and barbaric-looking tools that sat on peculiarly shaped benches with rails sticking out their sides to the front, like student desks with no tabletops, and a large shiny metal table with wheels on the bottom. I had no idea what any of this stuff had to do with glass.
The Instructor, Bob, introduced himself to the class and jumped right in. He began with safety in the shop. To this point, I still had no idea what was going on, where was the glass? What does “blowing” glass mean? I figured safety would be ‘don’t cut yourself on sharp glass, etc.” But his first safety explanation was to be careful not to burn ourselves. “Burn??” I thought as Bob picked up a metal rod and held it in his hands.
“Hold the pipe like this to go into the furnace,” Bob said as he held the pipe horizontally with his left hand in front and right hand behind. The next thing Bob did changed the course of my career.
Metal rod in hand, Bob opened a small door to what looked like a kiln and I felt an immense heat crawling out onto my skin. Bob put the end of the rod into the opening (how were his hands so close to that heat!?) and twisted it around a few times before pulling it back out to reveal a large glob of what looked like lava on the end of the rod.
“What is that??” another student asked in amazement.
Working with my glassblowing partner, Linda
“Well,” Bob said, “It’s glass.”
Everyone’s jaw dropped.
“HOW?” asked my classmate and later glassblowing partner, Linda.
Bob spent the next few minutes explaining the chemistry behind the making of glass and displayed the physics of basic glass sculpting with that small wad of glass that he called a “gather.” He made it look so easy.
After half an hour of Bob giving us a brief history lesson and safety talk, we all were ready to grab a rod and get our first gather out of the furnace of molten glass. I was the most eager, others were nervous and some complained about the heat before even stepping near the furnace. I went first. I readied my metal rod, holding it how he had instructed, and waited for Bob to open the furnace door. He opened it and I flinched back from both the overwhelming heat and the intensity of the roaring fire, which made him chuckle. I shot a look at him and he yelled, “Go ahead!” over the roaring flame. I sucked in a breath and stuck the metal rod inside and went for it. I peeked over the edge of the door until it seemed like the rod met the glass and turned my rod a few times. When I took it out nothing was on the rod. I hadn’t gotten any glass out at all!
Learning how to gather on Day 1
Bob closed the furnace door and said, “You didn’t stick the rod in far enough, look for the reflection of the rod on the surface of the glass. It’s like getting honey out of a jar with a knife, it will change the shape of the surface and you’ll see the glass twist over your metal rod’s edge.”
I sucked in another breath and said, “That makes sense! Let’s try again.” Bob opened the door of the furnace again and the flames roared at me from within. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and gripped the rod, going into the furnace again, hot end first. I stood up on my tippy toes to peer inside the furnace and saw the reflection of my pipe on the surface of a pot full of bright, hot molten liquid. The tip of my rod met the surface and plunged into the glass. It DID look like a knife twisting in a jar of honey! I twisted the pipe and pulled it out of the furnace. I was now holding a rod with MOLTEN GLASS on the end!
“Perfect gather!” shouted Bob. The other students wowed and clapped, and grabbed their rods with eagerness to try next.
After we all practiced our gathers a few times, it was time to learn how to Blow a bubble into the glass. This time we all were instructed to grab hollow metal pipes instead of solid rods.
“Wait, so we are literally about to blow bubbles into molten hot glass?” I asked, amazed.
“Yep,” answered Bob nonchalantly but with a slight smile.
Excitedly, we all grabbed piped and formed a line. Once again, I was first.
Standing proudly with my first glass bubble!
Bob walked us all through the steps to get to where we could blow a bubble into the glass. He explained that “when we blow into the mouthpiece and trap the air inside the pipe, the air will heat up. Since we have trapped the air in the pipe it can’t escape through our finger holding it in the pipe, so as the air expands it will have to take the path of least resistance, that is - up and through the hot glass.’ The science behind all of this fascinated me like nothing ever had, and I couldn’t wait to blow my first bubble. Bob got a pipe and showed us how the science worked, and we all gasped as the bubble blew up with what seemed to be magic!
I was way too eager to get started. I did my best to get a decent gather, and Bob walked me through the steps to get to where I could blow my first bubble. Bob sat down and I did exactly what he said and blew air into the pipe, quickly trapping it with my thumb to close the entrance of the pipe. As I stared at the pipe with anticipation, Bob yelled as if surprised, “There it is!” He jumped to his feet and clapped loudly and excitedly as I watched a pocked of air start to expand inside the molten glass on the end of my pipe! I was in awe.
“First try and she got it!” Bob shouted. “Whose next??” he asked turning to the rest of the class. I was grinning ear to ear as I held up my bubble in triumph!
From that moment, I realized that everything I wanted for my art career was at the end of the pipe I held. Science, athleticism, community, and creating art. I never looked back for a second. Nothing else mattered except blowing glass, and then blowing more glass, drinking water, and blowing glass again.
The Junction Experience, 2015
I’ll never forget my first gassblowing experience. It has carried me to where I am now. Ill always cherish the time I spent with this group of beginner glass students. We still cheer each other on, keeping in touch through social media!
