Jen Violette Guest Artist Demonstration (August 9, 2018)

welcome to the hot glass show here at the Corning Museum of Glass amphitheater tonight we have a very special guest artist gen violet yeah and welcome her that's great yep gen violet very accomplished young woman she's going to make a very interesting piece tonight with the team that cactus that you see there that's what is going to be created tonight on a larger scale yes right and so to introduce the team we have mr. George Kenner the young lady with the tool in her hand Teresa your Genson we have Heather speemac we have Frederick but I always Van Atta right we have Rasmus and my name is Bob I'm gonna talk we're gonna we're gonna try to keep you informed as to what's taking place what's going on okay it's a nice group here but we're also streaming live we're all over the place everywhere and so with that we want to welcome everybody who may be watching on the internet yeah welcome welcome this evening Jen wasting no time here she went together that's the green glass right that's the green glass our studio for those of you who wouldn't be familiar here in the center is our 1,000 pound melt furnace clear glass in our melt furnace a reheat furnace there on the left a second reheat furnace here on the right but way over here in the corner we have a special melt furnace that has green glass for Jen and so that she's going to be able to accomplish this nice cactus because I think it's only one right even though it may have those extra lobes on there you still only call it cactus not cacti right but she's going to be able to use that green glass from the furnace to be able to make this all come together make it happen now some of you may wonder how do you make the green glass how is it different all glass is not equal right so by adding different minerals and metal oxides we get to create different colors in glass before you melt the raw material you add these different materials you know these different metals and when it melts it becomes that color so iron is used iron oxide used to make green glass and so one of our crew here at the Corning Museum was able to put together this special tank of green glass for Jen here tonight now Jen hails from Vermont she's here at the Corning Museum of Glass to instruct at the studio the studio our teaching facility across the parking lot from where we're located and she's been working this week with a group of students showing different techniques helping them develop their skills before we began I had a little conversation with Jen and so I asked her if there's anybody special to say hello to while we were streaming live right on the internet and she said yep Nikko and Bennett so if you guys are watching you can you can send us a little note send us a little message telling telling us hey mom we got you on the Internet yep there we go we'll get that first shout out taken care of so you know this is a nice intimate group all day long this arena for watching glassblowing there have been lots and lots of people in all the seats off of top and everything so with this size of a group I think I can handle questions if you've got different kinds of questions while we're going through the process feel free raise your hand ask me a question I do my best to answer so you see Jen collected that green glass out of the furnace this is solid now this there's no air bubble in there but she's taking two cork paddles and squeezing the glass to create that nice disc right flatten the two sides that cork is nice and soft against the glass if you were to use harder materials when the glass is nice and hot and she can compress it like that it would leave little marks it would leave little impressions but those corks they're nice and soft and they're nicely burnt in so she's able to give it a nice squeeze and create that I'm almost lollipop look to it I wouldn't you say it looks kind of like a big lollipop on the end of that metal pole Jax the glassblowers most versatile tool she squeezes that constriction into the glass off the end of that blowpipe to help facilitate breaking the glass free a little bit later as she's ready to complete this part of the process but we know that there's gonna be lots of little detail that goes on with this we can see from our sample here Jen puts lots of little prickly spikes on the ends of those nice glass of dollops there that she's got she's using some special colored glass rod and with that glass rod she adds those with the torch fuses them on immediately and she's able to decorate each of those lobes I don't know what that I'm not much of a plant guy I don't know what they call those lobes on the cactus they must have a special name right it's not a branch but it might be a branch I could be a cactus but I don't know much about them so a few moments she gets to add some of those nice little details and then the entire piece has to go into that furnace to get a little bit of a reheat the glass is very susceptible to thermal shock and so if the glass should get too cold too quickly it'll crack and break so jen has a few moments the glass is hot enough she can do the decorating and then Rasmus will take it and put it back in the furnace give it an overall heat establish that good safe temperature which is about 900 Fahrenheit lots of Jen's work is very plant-like she likes to find influence in plants for her work she's got a nice garden she told me at home yep she's got three acres so she's got a real nice garden going she's hoping that those two young fellas that I named earlier are making sure they take care of things while she's gone and a nice detail shot by our AV crew nicely done get to see how she applies each of those separately and quickly with that torch that's special oxygen assisted torch nice hot flame they're about 3,000 degrees heats that little small amount of glass quickly so she's able to place those on there so a good chance to see how some of this is done Jen created one of these a little bit earlier we'll get to see her do this one probably another one make these things happen put those together and then I'm sure there's going to be a considerably larger piece that she'll work on as well now one of the things about the glass is that as these pieces get larger the radiant heat becomes more and more significant so that nice fine work that she's doing a little bit later with a bigger piece she's going to be even more quick to take care of those steps because that heat coming off the glass is going to get real intense for anyone who may not know this glass made from sand right that's the main ingredient all glass all glass is made from sand add extra ingredients because not all glass is equal right there's soda lime glass that we use there's that Pyrex glass that we're so familiar with it's a different kind of glass sand is the main ingredient but they use boron to make it have that characteristic that you can take it from the fridge and put it in the oven and take it from the oven and put it in the fridge there's lead crystal lots of us like to look at the nice shiny sparkly lead crystal things that are made a matter of fact we've got a very excellent exhibition of lead crystal here at the Museum set up in an effort to celebrate the hundred and fifty one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Corning Glass Works being here in Corning New York there's another special kind of glass when you melt just sand it's called fused silica what do we got okay why don't the tools create thermal shock when they come in contact with the glass now glass has some unusual properties part of it has to do with the thickness of the glass okay it's mass and when you have a good amount of mass the glass is going to retain its heat so that when you touch it with the metal tools it's not going to be so significant now making really fine goblets things like that a glass blower will ensure that the tools he's using they have a little bit of heat in them already okay he knows that he doesn't want to sim was something cold if he's using a pair of jacks he's gonna make sure those jacks have a little bit of heat on them so that when he touches that material that's even hotter he can stretch it manipulate it change it that kind of thing but it has to do with the heat and the mass of the glass that's why those tools are used to allow us to make things happen and not just make the glass break there are times we will make the glass break with those metal tools and we'll use a cold tool for just that purpose or even a little bit of water sometimes now sometimes the metal tools will get so hot they like to stick they start to stick to the glass so it'll feel like resistance it'll feel like almost like a break or something and to be able to alleviate that will use beeswax as a lubricant all of those things really quite traditional so more than 2000 years here we go there's that first lobe nicely done put on this pre heated metal paddle and then it'll go into our garage it'll go into a holding furnace that holding furnace is going to be able to keep the glass at a hot safe temperature what would that temperature be it's a little over a thousand degrees in the garage thousand 25 degrees a hot enough temperature so that the glass won't crack and break but it's also not so hot that the glass would start to lose its shape change its form a good holding temperature in our garage Jen collected another gather of glass whenever we take the glass out of the furnace we call that making a gather she went over to that furnace in the corner there where the green glass is collected some more material as she confers with George George Kennard there's gonna be a true collaboration here a little bit later on in the project Jen's gonna make these different parts that she wants and then George is gonna create this nice big flowerpot okay and then with that flowerpot they'll be able to put those pieces together and create this cactus now we're talking there's some glass another gather back to the furnace collect that material Jen's using a pipe cooler oftentimes when we make these subsequent gathers the pipe stays in there a little bit longer it'll start to accumulate some heat oftentimes people will ask us how come the pipes don't get hot well a good glass blower knows that you want to heat the glass and not the pipe but there's times when it's unavoidable when you're trying to make those big gathers and so to help we have a little pipe cooler and that metal box there it's full of water and it allows us to use a little foot pump the foot pump draws the water up into that trough and it cools that pipe while we're working with it yeah here's another question from the internet thank you all you internet errs is that the right term internet earth the question was why is the workbench so far from that reheat furnace alright a number of different reasons number one we're not in a production mode if you were in a production mode you'd want to save every step that you could and so you'd be much closer loop's hmm you'd be much closer number two when you open the doors on that furnace it gets hot it gets hot glassblower likes to be comfortable just like anybody else when you're working you know as comfortable as possible and so to remove it a little bit it's still a short distance not so bad and of course we have this rolling yoke and as the parts get larger and larger that rolling yoke will come further and further away from that furnace a third reason is that being here in the amphitheater we want you to be able to enjoy what's taking place you want to be more than a witness okay you want to get a good look at what's happening the a/v guys have become really good had given us some really nice pictures but if that bench was right by the furnace well that AV guy would probably have to be wearing a bulletproof suit so he didn't get cooked you know he didn't get cooked while he was trying to get a picture so it's not real far from the furnace it's really a good comfortable compromise so that we get to enjoy what's happening with the videos and the glassblowers still have a good proximity to the furnace but thanks for that question so creating another one of these lobes this time Jen decided to use these giant paddles there we go they're flatter the first time she had those little ones they're like four inches square these are quite a bit larger but same purpose same purpose they work real nice give that a really nice squeeze and it accomplishes that same task rasmus doing the heats Jen gets to be here at the bench she'll use those jacks create that score line or jack line so that when she's ready she can make that little tap to break that free yes sir yeah when we're rolling the glass on the table that's the question when rolling a glass on the table is that more than just shaping the glass it is more it's not really for tempering but it's to cool the glass as well we're cooling and shaping the glass at the same time often times when we use this metal table there will be a lot more decorative purpose in mind and we can use the resistance from that table to cause the glass to twist or to fold how whatever it is what we're looking to achieve but yep the metal table our marver by name always a handy thing to have in every glass studio originally we're talking even four thousand years ago at the beginning of glassmaking marble was used as a marvel you know they didn't have metallurgy they didn't figure that out yet those kinds of things and they use big slabs of marble and through the years although the material changed they wanted to keep that vocabulary similar and so it's become a marver by name and what we do there the verb is also to marver okay yep now in a verb all the same yes young lady yeah why do we use the wooden paddles you know these panels that Jen has been using they're made of cork they look like wood but they're made of cork now the wooden tools they draw a lot less heat out of the glass often when we're using a certain tool it's because of how we want to draw the temperature out of the glass every time we touch the glass we know that we're making it cooler than it would be if it was just cooling in the air wood tools take the heat out of the glass very slowly metal tools take the heat out of the glass even faster and we also have some graphite tools and graphite takes the heat out of the glass the fastest yeah but it's also soft against the surface of the glass if we're to use metal tools it would leave little marks chill marks or sometimes even little striations but with the wooden tools and the cork they're very soft against that surface and they don't leave any marks so we get lots more little dots added on there lots more of those little spines a question why do we need furnaces for glass you know to melt glass we have to get to 2,000 and 100 degrees okay we can only do that with a furnace we haven't figured out how to get the Sun to be that hot just yet okay yep we want to use a furnace that way we can control it we keep it inside that big metal box it's 2,000 degrees in there but out here it's pretty comfortable this evening okay what is the largest piece of glass that Jenna's ever sculpted you know what we're talking with Jenna earlier this evening as she was getting things prepared I'm gonna wait until she gets it yeah oh she knows it okay okay so Jen has been here before at the hot glass show and she's made some ferns and she said the largest species ever made is like a 25 inch fern there we go that's the answer very nice that's a pretty good sized piece of glass 25 and 45 bits there we go yep 45 little leaves on there to make yep yes sir why does it crack you know that I'm not exactly sure what you're asking me yes yeah why does it do that okay okay the question is why does the glass crack if it gets too cold too quickly glass is not quite like metal okay when metal gets to a certain temperature it goes from a solid to a liquid okay glass doesn't do that glass is scientifically amorphous solid that means that it doesn't really have a melting point it just gets softer and softer and softer and softer and glass doesn't have a matrix it doesn't have a molecular matrix okay and so as it cools it doesn't line up like metals do okay as they get to a certain temperature it all lines up to their matrix and then they're solid again well glass doesn't have that matrix and so if it cools too quickly the interior is still hotter than the exterior the and I'm not talking about in a vessel form but the thickness of the glass itself okay and the interior is going to be cooling at a different rate than the exterior and that kind of thing causes stress and that stress is what makes the glass crack good question I'm not a scientist but that's the best I understand it so Jen adding more blows as those lobes get larger she adding more and more of those little dots I bet there's more than 45 on that thing yeah you're gonna be hundreds tonight that's right I'm gonna be hundreds yep so Jen made these little glass rods see these are the rods that she's using this is the color that she's using to create all those little spines those little spikes and this is colored glass this is a beige color called beige we don't make the colored glass here we don't do much at all with the raw material okay we're able to buy this stuff from manufacturers who do a really good job and real consistent and so it's much much better for us as glass artists that we buy this and then we can spend our time creating this menagerie yeah all right adding all those little parts making a lobe number two I see George's initiating a bubble here George got a blowpipe the next one I got you okay George is getting things set up for the next lobe I guess they called lobes do you know what I mean oh okay well good a pen clatter a clatter a pad okay great that's it there we go learning a little bit about cactus tonight yes give me a moment I'm gonna come outside we'll do that there's a bit of noise there's a bit of noise that takes place there at the studio you know the furnaces they have there hum because there's the burners and things happen in there and be an old guy the noise you know you hear the noise but you can't hear people talk it's I mean that I don't know it's part of getting old I guess right uh-huh yep yep our fan in the audience asked does Jen accept commissions I know she has galleries and she puts her work in galleries and it's available for sale indeed but does she accept commissions I don't know yep we'll give her a moment she's conversing there with Rasmussen but yep we'll get a chance here looks like she's close to having that one complete they'll probably bring that metal paddle back out when she's ready and they'll tap that off yep so okay they're gonna do one more flash before that one's ready she wants to make sure that she's got a nicely homogenized temperature okay before she breaks that free so that when they put it into that garage it'll sit there nicely we don't have to worry about it yes yeah the glass looks red doesn't an orange something it doesn't look green but it's green yeah the heat it's the amount of temperature okay just like you know we've been watching the last few weeks on TV the volcano there in Hawaii and that lava comes out and it's all glowing and orange but when it cools is black okay the same thing is taking place the material is just so hot it has that orange color but because we know the material because we know how that's all been put together it'll be green it and it's a transparent green you see through it yep yes how is the glass green is glass usually clear you know a lot of people for lots and lots of years worked real hard to figure out how to make glass clear glasses got naturally a kind of a fuzziness to it okay but they figured out how to make it green I mean clear and they called it crystal okay now to make it green before they melt it they add iron oxide they had iron oxide to the glass when it's still sand when it's still lime okay when it's still potash they add iron oxide and then they melt it and because they put that in there that different material in there when it gets melted boom it's green if they would do it with manganese boom it would be purple okay if they do it with cobalt if they do it with copper maybe you know copper boom it comes out that nice pale blue color okay so it's part of the mystery of glass but people been dealing with it for four thousand years and so they know that these things are going to happen when they do that yes if they melt two different colors together yeah you know glass isn't like paint and it's not like crayons okay so that when you mix them together they don't just change into a different color but depending on how you want to layer glass you can layer the different colors okay and make different different kinds of hues a different color happen but if you layered blue over red you wouldn't necessarily get purple okay you'd be better off trying to get manganese to add into that recipe to make purple glass okay yeah it it's not quite it's not like paints it's not like the color wheel right yep okay George is helping out here I'm gonna create this next what was it called a clad Oh a clad oh okay I take your word for it yep that's fine so there we go got another one doing the squeeze with those cork paddles so we get to do these great little occasions where we get a glass artist to come in and do a feature these different evenings and it's always a treat to see how other folks like to work with the material make it happen because we have these different ways of looking at the glass and there's not necessarily just one way to make it happen Jen would you have a moment a lady asked do you accept commissions do you commit do Commission work there we go she does some commissioned work yep uh-huh right okay yep and I also know that she has a really nice feature in the recent glass art magazine so if you see a glass art magazine you probably get lots of her information along with a real nice feature article about her and her work and so forth and so on yep glass art magazine another question okay yep why do we use cork for the cork panels number one is they're soft I mentioned that earlier but even though they burn they burn rather slowly okay that cork is really pretty dense and real soft and a set of cork paddles can last a long long time as long as you don't mistreat them now there's another group of thought and it has to do with how it smells some glass blowers really like the smell of burning cork and some glass blowers hate the smell of burning cork so that's another part of it and it depends on what what group you're in there yeah you could use wood but the wood it'd be a little bit stiffer when they made those first couple of heats you know when it was still round that glass was really hot and if you squeezed it with the wood you could very easily put little lines in it little striations and it would be tricky if you use metal you would definitely put striations in it and if you use like the metal table and laid it down and then flipped it over and laid it down you would get what we refer to as chill marks the glass would get little shrivels in it and then you'd have to reheat it really well to get that to be smooth again and so Jen knows from her own experiences you take those cork paddles and you give it a couple of squeezes hey you know let's move on yep that works out real nice yeah thanks to all those internet folks we like to answer folks questions so yep we're more than happy to do that so applying more of those nice little spikes that torch about 3000 degrees a quick little heat and it melts that really thin rod because it's so nice and thin you know it doesn't have a lot of mass quick temperature boom makes it nice and soft makes that application and then they're on their permanent okay that's one of those features make sure that the glass is hot and it's on there permanently working together if I remember reading that article correctly Jen began glassblowing here at the studio she's taking classes there now she teaches classes there but she's taking some classes there oh yeah okay and then yep okay okay ah all right so graduate of Alfred University not far from here yep and a BFA from there 27 years of experience yep Jen violet yep I remember in the article she's been to Pilchuck and to haystack and and lino Tagliapietra right Dante Marioni Billy Morris Karen will and brink yep that's a pretty good crew to be involved with so I don't know if you noticed but it looks to me like each of these lobes is getting a little bit bigger uh-huh right getting a little bit bigger she likes to feature fruits and vegetables into her work yeah she does a lot of work with powders as well been seeing her work with the glass out of the furnace and these glass rods but her very special work she uses powders glass powders to be able to duplicate the real colors that she sees when she looks at the different plants fruits vegetables now all of those different types of colorings that powder the rods oftentimes we'll use frit here at the hot glass show it's all the same material just ground into a finer of a finer kind of a powder finer grit itself to be able to work with the glass that powder often like flour needs a very special little boost a powder booth so that it draws as a vacuuming kind of a draw and it takes care of any loose dust that might get away a big part of the studio glass movement has to do with different colleges and universities having glass as part of their art department and although traditionally glass has always been a very male-dominated kind of an endeavor with the advent of the studio glass movement at least 50% of the people who are in those courses are young women women well represented in the glass arts anymore well represented so it looks like we've got lots and lots of little spikes on this piece those of you who are close by you can kind of notice that the very end of that piece is redder than it is right there at that neckline that Rasmus is you holding the torch on and so there's a difference in temperature there that view inside the furnace meant that special special view that you only get to see with the Corning Museum of Glass the fact that there's a camera mounted behind the furnace that's what's happening there it's not in the furnace it's behind the furnace which means that there's a hole in the back now that hole to protect the camera is covered by a very special piece of glass called fused silica fused silica is the silica sand melted all by itself the temperature for that is close to 3,600 degrees so Jen's got this one ready you see that a quick little tap after a little cooling chill with the sheers Heather gonna take it over to the garage and they'll load that in there with the others all right back to the green furnace collect some more glass making a gather making that gather with that Greenglass and you see that first gather pipes not so hot she got a nice amount of glass there but the pipes not so hot but she'll make that next gather and it'll be a bit larger but there's a good chance that the pipe will will certainly warm up with that second gather and then she may use that pipe cooler the team conferring there Jen and George Kennard talking about how they're gonna move on how different things are going to come in to play how they're gonna put it together so with that Jack line now Jenna's created that constriction in the glass that means it's not likely she's gonna gather over that so she's gonna make a small one of these and back to the small paddles back to the small cork paddles getting our tools ready and she'll be able to proceed with this one like the others so in the history of glass making you know almost 4,000 years old the first 2,000 years people only made pretty much these kinds of things lots of solid things whenever they would make a vessel they would make some kind of a mold they would make a resist material that they knew that they could destroy after they had the piece completed they would make the resistant material perhaps on a piece of wire something like that and they would fill it up depending on how they wanted the interior of that piece to be and then they would collect glass out of a furnace and coil it around that resistant material they knew how to make colors some of the oldest pieces in the collection have wonderful colored glass lines in them and that meant that they were able to drape those lines around or make a thread with the glass but then when the glass had been shaped completed and then cooled they would go back in with a tool and be able to scrape out the interior part because it was made so that it would basically crumble after it was cooled and they would clear that out the advent of glassblowing that came about in the early roman time about 2,000 years ago and one of the reasons that we generally refer to working with the material as glassblowing is because that advent of the bubble inside the material that figuring that out that collecting the material on the end of a hollow rod and being able to introduce air into it it's so revolutionized working with glass that we just refer to it as glassblowing yeah it's still the number one revolutionary technique with the material you know even though the advent of machines and probably 98% of the glass that's in our lives is done by machine it's the whole idea that if you put the bubble inside you can make all kinds of things happen really quickly as opposed to having to do that casting process that I was talking about just a little earlier so Jen adding some more of those little spikes those little sharp fronts so there's a little bit of activity over there on the right-hand side I see George has got some colorful glass bars connected to a solid rod he's heating those up he's heating them and shaping them hether heating up a blowpipe of some pretty substantial size if you're paying real close attention you may notice that different sized irons and different sized blow pipes have been employed to make the different parts so far well when you're making a bigger piece of glass you like to have a bigger pipe to work with a lot of it has to do with the strength that you'll need to hold the weight but along with that comes the ability or the torque that you need to turn it and a bigger pipe makes it easier for your hand to turn that pipe and so that's a big part of how you choose the kind of tool that you want yeah George heating up that colorful glass bar over there now you probably didn't get to see it but I saw George picked those up there were two bars of glass two round bars of glass ingots that were preheated in that garage and George picked them both up side by side now he's melted them together it looks like one now but he's melted them together because they needed a good quantity of that color glass because I think what they're gonna work on with that is they're gonna start to create that flower pot yeah and it's a dark grey color all right I see Jen working on that jac line that constriction Erasmus has the metal paddle I'd say it's a good indication of getting ready to be able to detach this from that pipe Rasmus will have it on that metal paddle and they'll put that into the garage by touching that neck line that Jack line with a cold tool setting up a nice little thermal Klein so that that tap allows it to break free we have 400 people watching on Facebook and YouTube how about that yeah hey thanks for that we appreciate your company we have maybe 50 of us here in the theater so thanks for the support we're liking it all right George has got a blowpipe Heather's got that colorful glass that George was working on George has probably got a little a little amount of glass there he's cooling it shaping it with that wooden scoop with our block we'll get to see him put a breath of air into that pipe there we go and he's going to create a bubble now the bubble is most easily done by adding air into that pipe and that letting the heat from the glass cause that air to expand when that air expands it creates pressure that pressure pushes a nice little bubble up inside the multi-material because that inside of that glass is still molten now Heather's going to heat up the glass color for George and they're gonna do what we refer to as a color drop to be able to colorize this piece George wants to get the color on nice and early and so on that small bubble he's got they'll place that concentrated glass color and then he'll be able to shape it and stretch it over the outside of that bubble so that when they collect more material and they inflate that bubble further and further that colorful glass will stretch right along with it and of course anyone who sees it after the fact they'll think wow isn't that beautiful gray glass that they used and they'll think that whole big flowerpot was gray glass but because you were here to see it and folks in internet land the same thing they'll know that it's really a very small amount like if I were to tell you in in ounces and pounds he's probably got six ounces of glass but if he makes two or three gathers he's gonna have eight or ten pounds of glass okay but that gray because it's on the very inside it's gonna stretch with that bubble and wherever the bubble goes that's where that color will be all right Jen working on another this is the final okay this is this is the littlest one no it's not rasmus's now we're gonna keep making these or there we go alright gonna make another one they're gonna look great how many we've got total I didn't I lost count seven yeah there we go okay yep we're gonna get they may not all get on she said we're gonna get five or six on there but she's gonna have an extra one just in case you know Murphy's Law yep have an extra yeah so this one is a good example of why they use the cork paddles that glass was really nice and hot you can see a droop way down and she squeezed it you know it doesn't have any marks on it but it certainly changed the shape nice and smooth so George was working diligently over there did you see that he he made that colorful glass into kind of a sombrero almost it got nice and hot because it was extended over the diameter of that bubble and then he used that marver the metal table over there to squeeze that glass come down all the way around the edge of that bubble so he's got it on there really nice and uniform but it's entirely covered these metal barbers that we have made of that steel it's a great heatsink for the glass George Ben marvering over there on the small one here for a while but if you went over there you could still sit down on that table if you wanted to you know it's nice and strong and draw the heat out of the glass but it's still cool enough that it certainly wouldn't hurt you wouldn't disturb you yeah this glass process see that Jen over there conferring with George a few little details about let's make it happen this way and so that it's her vision to bring it all together so getting a few more of these nice little spikes a little bit of heat so that the glass has that good safe temperature and then she she has it brought over so that she can eyeball where she wants to put all those little all those little spikes we can see George using a very special tool there a rake George is raking the surface of the glass yes what what gasps do we use for the flame the furnace the furnaces are heated with natural gas and forced there but here there is a propane flame there yep and then of course it's assisted the hot torch has oxygen assist so it gets real hot yeah yeah why was George raking in the glass you know oftentimes for lots of different reasons there could be little bubbles that appear on the surface of the glass sometimes it has to do with how the glass has been melting sometimes it has to do with how many different people were in there making gathers and so to ensure that he gets a real nice clean gather he takes that metal rake we call it or it gets a flat piece of steel connected to that long iron and then you push it along the surface and at any of those little bubbles it pushes them to the back because you like to gather from the front and then you can put your blowpipe in there collect that glass and not have to worry about having extra bubbles yep sometimes they become a bit of a nuisance sometimes you have to go in there and dig them out digging a bubble out of the glass is a fun little a fun little exercise uh-huh fun little exercise takes take some good finesse a well experienced glass blower yep you use a pair of tweezers and some cutting shears dig it out go in there and grab that little bubble and pull it on there yeah fun little exercise all right I see George she's inflating that glass a little bit so it's just some glassblowing going on here yeah and those of us who are close we can see that bubble increasing inside in size in George's gather and he's being very observant as to how he sets up the glass he's giving himself a reservoir of clear glass at the bottom you see that you can see the difference in that color he's giving himself a reservoir so that he knows he'll be able to have enough material to create the size of a piece that he wants now he's cooling that off because he's gonna go back into the furnace collect some more glass looks like Jen's pretty close to having this last little fella ready to go here there you go a little tap breaks it free from the pipe Rasmus I'll take it over there to the garage and store it in there with the others Jorge got the rake he's gonna grow through that process again he wants to ensure he doesn't get any of them little bubbles in there yes yeah when a little bit earlier we saw Jorge with a wisp room and he was sweeping on the glass when you first pick up things out of the different parts out of the garage sometimes there's a little bit of debris in there you know there been lots of different kinds of bricks and there's bricks that are make that thing and there could be little different kinds of debris sitting in there on these ceramic shelves that are in there and when you bring that glass out of there whatever it is you've been storing in there it might have just a little something undesirable on there you take that corn broom right you don't want to use a plastic of any kind right get good old corn broom whispering there you go there's a gather of glass for you nicely done George goes directly over to the pipe cooler and with his foot we don't get to see it but he's a foot pedal operated and the forces of water to come up into that trough and it cools that pipe you give it a wipe with the towel and now with this wooden block yeah that's a piece of wood right soaked in water 24 hours a day the wooden block allows George to shape that gather he wants to cool that outside surface because he knows the inside is starting to get real hot right that new gather at 2,000 degrees gonna cause that interior to start to heat up but that's what he wants he wants the interior now to get hot and malleable again so that he can inflate the glass he can start changing the shape he can move with that material we saw him cooling it off over there at that bench remember he was blowing the air on it to cool it off so that it would have the strength it would have the integrity to be able to handle the weight and the temperature of that new gather if he went in there with that interior bubble to hot well he may not have been able to come out of the furnace it would lose its integrity wouldn't have the strength he want to pull it out of there and it would collapse so you play one off against the other you know you make it cool so that you can have that support and then you're looking forward to it heating up again becoming malleable so you can start doing the shaping the different glassblowing process that you want to do and he's also moving the glass he's moving where that reservoir material is going to be by using the block and now one of the most traditional of glassblowers tools is that newspaper that's soaked newspaper wet newspaper glassblower knows that whenever you touch the glass you're cooling it and George watching that bubble expand in there he knows where he wants to cool the glass because when glass is molten wants to behave like a liquid and move according to the path of least resistance and so where that path of least resistance is is going to be the hottest right and so if he wants it to blow up if he wants that bubble to expand near the blowpipe he won't touch that area he'll touch the area that's furthest from the blowpipe and cool it so that it moves much more slowly than the area right near the blowpipe using the jacks starting that constriction that jack line squeezing that constriction into the glass just off the end of the blowpipe that'll be that break off point we need to have it you know glass is stronger than steel now when glass fails it fails catastrophic ly but it's stronger than steel and so if you didn't have that jack line in there that neckline or scoreline if you didn't have it there it would be next impossible to break and when it broke you'd have no control over where it would break having that neckline in there just like that line in a KitKat bar you know you give it a little tweak and it's gonna come break down that line the same the same principle so that neckline becomes real important we'll get to see lots of inflation considering the size of that gatherer we'll get to see lots of inflation taking place here see so George now heating that a proportion of her that upper neckline area because he knows that as they go into the reheat furnace the end farthest from the point goes inside the deepest that's where that reheat furnace is the hottest he's looking to balance out the heat to work in his benefit now for those of you who are wondering about that camera right look at the very tip of that bubble you see that little dark spot that's the window inside the very back of that furnace that's what that little dark spot is that's the window yep yeah that's the window you can see it if you look straight in there that's the window uh-huh George is gonna reiterate that Jaclyn he wants to make sure that he's got a well-established he knows how important it is and then using that pair of jacks and now with Heather's help she's gonna be the inflation George is gonna have her blow into the blowpipe start to increase the size of that bubble so Jen drawing a picture might as well use the floor a little bit of chalk makes it easy you know she knows that if I draw a picture of the gaffers gonna have a good idea what it is that we're looking for getting a good heat back to the bench use a little bit of gravity let that slump down by letting gravity draw it away from the blowpipe and now yet with Heather's help with that wet newspaper starting to create the shape for this flower pot for that lower portion for the base for our cactus a little bit of help here the wooden paddle to protect George's arm as the glass gets larger I think I mentioned that early on is the glass gets larger there's more radiant heat and that radiant heat can be uncomfortable you know when the ball of glass is 2,000 degrees and so using that paddle to help protect him from that immediate radiant heat and then they used it to quickly flatten the bottom but a nice little flat area creating this flower pot yeah George doing the heats he wants to be real specific as to how and where he gets that temperature now for us watching we look in there and it's like it's all orange that's how does he know when it's ready the glassblower turns the pipe at the slowest rate he can okay and he looks for the motion of the glass as the glass gets hotter it's going to get weaker right it's gonna get softer it'll start to move and the glass blower is watching for that movement and then he knows all right he knows in his mind what the technique he wants to accomplish is he knows okay that's hot enough I can go to the bench and make it happen a little gravity there see that extend it get it to stretch out a little bit and a little fire there make it look exciting get the wooden paddle catches fire yep and turning the pipe with his left hand all the time all that time turning the pipe with his left hand now when you put a tool on that glass it's like putting a brake on but his left hand has to keep turning and you have to keep turning at the correct pace there's a correct amount of revolutions it makes it look nonchalant when we're at the bench because we're rolling back and forth but when the glass is hot you need to turn a little bit faster and as it gets cooler it moves in slower and so you change that speed and it's the experience that comes into play not only to have the strength to turn it and have the torque to turn it but no the speed you know your left hand knows what your right hand needs and it makes it happen whenever we're watching glassblowing you know our eyes are all on the glass we're on the end of that pipe right where's what but that left hand that's the motor that's what's making it happen real important part so George got a nice shape nice little flower pot started there he's going to give it a look-see here gonna check it out and now he's gonna poke a hole in there he's got a very special tungsten rod he's gonna get that tungsten rod really nice and hot and then be able to poke it through the glass see the Erasmus continues to turn continues to rotate the pipe George is getting it hot enough so he can push that through Engineering he's engineering this piece how is this gonna work what else is to come because he needs to know everything beforehand so he can engineer all the different steps why is he poking a hole in there because they're probably gonna cover over the top and if they do that it's gonna be stuck in there right the air that's in there is gonna be stuck and if they heat it and cool it and heat it and cool it that air that's in there it's gonna go right it's going to expand and contract and if the glass is hot the air is gonna push against the glass and it's gonna change the form you know he worked hard to get that for him he wants to keep it poke a little hole in the bottom so that if there gets hot it can come out when the air cools down and gets sucked back in no big deal they keep the temperature safe enough so you don't change the form and it'll be just fine so just like a real flower pot right got that hole in the bottom so that the water can drain out right so you don't drown your plant it's a different function but same hole all right Georgia's got another blowpipe is this gonna be the punty is that what we got coming set the punty yeah okay yep so they like the position they like the form that they've got it's time to transfer that glass off of that blowpipe and George is going to create a special punty he's going to use a blowpipe to make the punty the transfer iron they want to trade it they want to change it but they need to still have a handle right this is going to be the second handle and they're going to attach it to the bottom of the form but George is going to create a very special secondary handle or punty so that he knows when it's time for it to release all will go smoothly Jen and Rasmus in a holding pattern basically keep the glass hot but not so hot that it's going to change the form keep it hot so it doesn't want to crack and break and George is creating what we refer to basically as a ring hunty those of you who are mechanically inclined you know that a tube is stronger than a solid rod okay and basically George is creating a little tube so this punty is going to be nice and strong but he also knows that he'll be able to break it free later in the process not have to worry about it all right here we go George is gonna attach that punty he'll use that pair of jacks to help him pair tweezers wouldn't be long enough wouldn't be big enough using the jacks and he creates it creates a little crease in the very end of that punty that little crease will be handy come the end of the project here but now he's gonna wait he wants that punty to create a little bit of integrity as it cools it's gonna get stronger right the glass cools gets stiffer and gets stronger it's gonna wait for it to be strong enough and then he'll give them the okay they'll cool that neckline that jack line and make sure that they've got it on center it'll ride there nicely and then a little bit of water George using a very special soffietta tool cone connected to the end of a metal tube he was able to blow on that punty a little bit more cooling it off gen cooling that neckline with water making sure that it's the weakest point there we go a little tap breaks it free nicely done how I would give him a hand yep all you folks on the internet too you can give him a hand that was well done they made it look real easy okay out of everyone that I that I've worked with in my 40-plus years who is my favorite person to work with you know I have a special fondness for my first instructor his name is Bill Boysen but you know George Kenner George Kennard is probably my favorite person to work with George is always yep yep George is always at the top craftsman he's always involved he's always ready to make sure that the project is gonna be just right yeah you know and even if we weren't here and even if George wasn't here making that piece I'd be saying George Kennard he's just a top notch guy no doubt about it I've had the opportunity to work with George in Seattle Washington and in Chicago Illinois and here at C MOG yep Georg Cantor top-notch ooh nice you can see the temperature difference there huh you can see the heat George taking pains to straighten that up in a very special way she's necked that down really narrow because he's gonna tap it off he's gonna break it free gonna break that little bit free and he's not worried about it right because he's got a hole in the bottom he's got a hole in the bottom so he's gonna heat this up really good look at that we got it all right they're gonna add some detail now I'm gonna create some details for the for the flowerpot yeah flatten that top George using the paper cooling that side well Jen helping to flatten that very top there we go a nice heat and be able to create a nice crisp kind of an edge there's a big heat this time so George using the jacks using that nice flat edge from those metal tools to create a nice crisp edge on that flowerpot that was the reason for all that heat is that the craftsman here is that the sighs you made it right there okay nicely done different folks get started working with glass in a number of different ways you know there aren't really too many factory jobs available anymore here especially in the United States a few not many a number of different people can get their beginning working with the glass in a factory way but most of us wind up beginning as art students in college there's more than 40 colleges and universities in the United States that have glass programs in the art department and you can get to learn about that material in that kind of a way there used to be the Steuben factory right here in this very building and a number of them gaffers on the hot glass show team we're gaffers for the Steuben works yeah they got their start working in a factory but most of us colleges and universities these days if you're working in a artistic environment it's certainly a handy Avenue to get started ah here we go extra things going on now very early on I mentioned that Jen likes to use powders to be able to create the different effects that she wants especially for the different fruits and vegetables that she does in her work but she's got powders there for George and that's what he's rolling in he's rolling that hot gather into some glass powders colored glass powder that colored glass powder oh you know the flowerpots they usually got that little extra Ridge right that a little extra rim okay I think George that's what George has he's gonna make a rim he's gonna they're gonna do a lip wrap except it's gonna be giant that's good gonna be really big it's gonna be really big George getting another layer of that color he wants it to be nice and rich looking he'll use that other furnace now to melt that color in very cool George has this very special shape he wants to make that a very special shape so that he knows as he attaches it you'll be able to pull it but it'll come off in a nice even stream yeah he's got the color hot nice and melted in now he's marvering it to create the good shape but also the temperature the temperature is going to be real important here as to how that is going to come off from that iron that he's got to collect it on yep marvering that glass into that kind of a double cone or dreidel almost if you know what a dreidel shape is here we go alright Rasmussen is going to get that bit real hot George going to monitor the temperature and he's going to be the one to be able to lay that on there all right see that we need we need room to make this happen and I'm gonna need extra room there we go all right watch close touch up and pulse and he's able to just establish that diameter and it makes it around and it draws it away nice and quickly very nicely done very nice [Applause] yeah heat that up real nice now to make sure it fuses make sure it sticks permanently to the rest of that flower pot there we go working together create that nice extra lip George monitoring that shape and also that interior service what has become the very top of that flowerpot not very nice very nice all right now they can resume a little more normal positioning there at the bench all right the team working pretty well together here making this happen all right torching the punty keeping it safe temperature can't forget any of those parts - glass needs to be that 900 Fahrenheit so this is one of those situations that you're taught maybe in your second year of glassblowing and you're on a team and they're working with this big piece and they've been at it for a good while and then somebody hands you the blowpipe and says okay keep this hot and then they walk away and then they walk away there is he's back walk away all right got to see what happened the torch decided needed some kind of adjustment all right lots of conferring going on here we got Jen back in the seat she's gonna make sure that that lip wrap is nicely secured all the way around a little extra heat a little fire polishing those kinds of things taking place all right I see George's collect a little bit of glass on the end of a small rod yeah and Jen working on a little bit of detail they're watching how that lip wrap has come together Oh huh okay right okay very good point George very good point now yep George brought it to my attention that the museum closes at 8 o'clock but of course we want you to be able to see and watch all the goings-on so when it comes time to leave you'll have to go out one of the side doors okay I think we'll be able to give you a little better instruction toward the end of the demonstration but yep you won't be able to go back into the museum you don't have to you'll have to come down and go out one of the side doors okay yep we don't want anybody getting trouble with security all right the team working on keeping that flowerpot nice and crisp so George has gotten the big Lobo alright the big part of the cactus so they're getting ready to start to build the cactus here in the flower pot making at the flower pot setup now it becomes real important to get a good safe Heat it's gonna take a few moments when they get it ready and so George gives it a quick little brush just in case looking to make sure there's no debris caught in there and then he'll look to heat that very tip that's the area that they're gonna want to connect that's the area that's gonna come out of that come out of the soil there in the flower pot so Jin's getting prepared George it's got this first Loeb set up he's got a nice amount of heat involved they're gonna make this connection they're gonna bring it together gonna be able to so it's going to be a matter of matching the heat right having that first piece of the cactus Jen is going to be extremely instrumental being able to locate place that heating the tools a little bit because you don't want to touch the glass with anything cold want to heat those tools few hundred degrees for sure for five hundred degrees because the glass is going to be considerably hotter they're watching that punty making sure that it stays that safe temperature all right a little extra detail to take care of not enough there's not enough movement and so they need to poke another hole in there remember they poke that hole in there to start with well apparently it's gotten closed up and they're gonna poke another hole in there to relieve the air a little bit so they can get that glass to respond the way they need it to using a torch heating that tungsten rod and then pushing a small hole into the bottom yep establish that good overall heat into the furnace a good soaking flash and now bring that heat back into that top side yeah so some critical moments here here we go that placement yep placement with the tools at a quick little tap there it is there's that first lobe we get to see it yeah sure give him a hand that was that was critical nicely done George not wasting any time he's going in to get the next one those torches look at Heather got torch in each hand all right Georgia scan reading another punty he's going to go click thank you yeah he's gonna go collect another one of these one of these beautiful cactus parts so as Jen gets this part prepared George is gonna collect that next little part yeah very nice Rasmus working diligently doing the heats temperature timing and teamwork yep the three T's all very important well coming together here right now I just just come into the glory hole yep so yours truly gets involved in the process here pair idle hands George says alright get to work okay yep yep got her all right preparing these yeah thank you for that George it was not my mind I know I know I'm ready for a haircut anyway I think when you go you want me to go to the glory hole okay all right all right so preparing the part in the garage that's what I'm looking at and that's where my attention is here and so they get ready to attach that next component I'm hooked okay same MO same oh okay very nice all right and they worked detail what they've got in the flowerpot George preparing to secure another so that the cactus can grow got it alright so the sequence continues as we involve these other parts these other little details they've been sitting in the garage but they need to be heated to a very nice compatible temperature so they can be attached well secured and Jorge of course has this in Han got the sequence we just repeat it looks pretty successful all right George creates the next punty pick up another and as they get added on constructed nicely you ready working the sequence making those adjustments adding those details nicely done big-time teamwork now there's a significant little addition that none of you have seen because zen created some little glass flowers to go on the cactus before hand and so these lobes get attached but then there's also these little glass flowers all important heats you're good to go nice one huh good okay all right I'm still here folks I'm just focusing my attention in a different way here yeah you can see them attaching another one they got nicely done they got that system worked out very nice yeah all at once yeah all right our cactus is growing looking good yeah there we go looking good okay I've been laid off no no no no no yep lots going on I just have to take a minor role that's what's going on here I just take a minor role I think George has got that few final touches there Rasmus got it under control here making all those heats being very careful with the heats George has four flowers for flowers he's gonna keep them heated special temperature so that they're easily attached the first one and Jen will heat it you want a second door there alright there's that first little flower attached cactus flower all right looks like nods okay he's gonna flash all right timing bringing them together flower number two George back to the garage that's good safe temperature that nice little nest they've been hanging out in all right looking good small details making the adjustments all right there's the nod they're ready for the next one George delivering those nice little heated flowers Jen will pick that spot place it down there that'll full of posies indeed but there cactus flowers wonder if moving I think I think Goldie Hawn played in a movie called cactus flower gonna go with three okay three nicely placed little flowers now they look those flowers they look kind of Brown don't they it look kind of muted tomorrow they're gonna be bright red they're bright red flowers they're bright red flowers now the cooling process for this is going to be very very tricky because of all that thick glass each of those lobes each of those parts are solid and so they're thick they take a lot of cooling time I wouldn't be surprised if they don't give it 16 hour cooling time yes how much does it weigh looks like it weighs two and a half cactus [Laughter] I don't know how much it weighs we know we're gonna have to enquire with Rasmus or Jen looks like Jen's got a good hold of it you know and she's the brave one they're going up against that furnace with those short pants on it's hot up there the radiant heat coming out of that furnace as well there we go nicely done Rasmus with the fireman's suit the protective gloves yep Kevlar gloves he's got the hood on as well they'll make sure the punty is hot enough so they can break it free and then this piece is gonna go into the cooling oven it'll probably sit for 16 hours I wouldn't be surprised I wouldn't be surprised they're gonna give it extra cooling time because it's got so many thick parts and a bunch of those thick parts are connected to each other yep Jen violet nicely done very special piece tomorrow as those pieces all cool get down to room temperature then we'll get to see those true colors we'll get to see that vibrant green we'll get to see that really nice dark gray color for the flower pot and those little flowers they're gonna be bright red bright red you're noticing that they're being very careful as to how they set that down don't want any extra bumps or thumps as they put it on the yoke or they put it on that bench you're gonna do several of those flash sheets look to get a nice uniform overall temperature the bottom part most concerned right the top areas go deep into the furnace they get plenty of heat with that bottom part it's at the very opening of that door that temperature although it looks all orange in there temperature at that door is probably 500 degrees difference than six to eight inches inside that's a big difference extra heat from the torch for that bottom for that punty make sure the glass isn't too cold here we go last flash George said last flash all right George has the piece he's got the punty jen has affair a pair of shears straight shears Rasmus in the fire uniform back to the bench another good heat at the bottom we can see those glowing colors at the very tips to those cactus George gonna chill that punty the tap breaks it free very nicely done into the cooling oven into that annealing oven gonna get a chance to sit there ladies and gentlemen miss Jen violet miss Jen violet Dan nicely done nicely done George Kennard rasmus Heather Frederick all in the team [Music] you

Channel: Corning Museum of Glass

Views: 1,677,504

Keywords: Corning Museum of Glass, glass, glassmaking, glassblowing

Id: Y99tiY5tRKI

Length: 149min 58sec (8998 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 24 2018