Faith in the process

Glassblowing is a sequential process. It starts with raw ingredients mined from the depths of our earth. The raw materials are mixed by specialized chemists who in turn deliver the ‘batch’ to our studios for melting in high temperature furnaces. A gather of glass is taken on the end of a metal pipe that was crafted by experienced tool makers. So the process is in depth and begins far far away from anything that looks like a beautiful work of art.

I gather glass in faith and go through the motions to complete my vision of creating a beautiful work of art. I know that this vision is not an easy task to accomplish but I give it my best effort anyway. I’ll tell ya, blowing glass can be very frustrating because sometimes the glass does what it wants to do. It will flow like water causing excitement and accelerate my heart rate making it difficult to control the glass, and loose focus. On the other hand, when I remember to focus I calm myself and slow the flow - then I can mold the material into wonderful objects.

I learned about the murrini process from the great Lino Tagliapietra of Murano, Italy. His demonstrations in this process informed me of the possibility to make mosaics in glass. The combinations are limitless and the results are awesome. Like Lino, I too have designs i’m working on perfecting. Recently I tried using a new type of murrini with ‘bundled cane’ for the center. Here is the murrini before getting heated up to roll up.

White vail around red center.

The finished piece after hours of preparation. Check the Shop for details and pricing.