In late 2009 I mentioned to a glass artist that I always wanted to try working with glass. He happened to be a member of the board of Sonoran Glass Arts and asked me to try their furnace glass class. The thought of working with a heavy pipe attached to a heavy piece of molten glass frightened me and I told him so; he then suggested I try a beginning lampworking class. For those who don’t know what lampworking is, don’t feel alone; I didn’t either, at the time.
Lampworking is working with smaller pieces of glass at what is known as a bench burner; a torch. These small pieces of glass, called rods, come in clear and many other different colors. In the first class, I was taught how to work in “soft glass” also known as Moretti/Effetre glass. I won’t go into a long discussion on the scientific principles of glass but I will explain that soft glass uses a lower flame and less heat to melt. This, by the way, is perfect for a beginner.
At the first class I was completely out of my element. When the instructor told us to light the torch, I thought huh? You want me to light that thing? This is the kind of stuff that I left up to my husband to do. Lighting torches, soldering, electrical; those were “man” things. We also wore special glasses made of a mineral that blocks the sodium flare. Without the glasses all that could be seen is a yellow flame. There would be no way to know where and how the glass was being worked. Once I lighted that torch, my perspective changed. Well, only a little at first. When working with soft glass one learns to enter it into the flame very gently at first. Soft glass likes to pop when introduced to the flame too quickly. The shards coming off of it are very hot and fly everywhere. This is not only a danger to oneself but to everyone else in class!
I still have the first beads I made in that first class. They are wonky to say the least but I was not done with glass just yet. In early 2010 I registered for a beginning class in borosilicate glass; this is what is known as hard glass or Pyrex. If I thought lighting a torch in the first class was scary, this one took me over the edge. To heat a big, thick piece of borosilicate (boro), the flame has to be very high. I made it through that class and brought home some very pretty pieces which I still have. At the same time I actually told my husband he would need to give up part of his “man cave” so that I could put in my glass studio. (What a nice guy, he didn’t argue one bit. In fact, he helped me build it!)
Glass has become my art, my excitement, my entertainment, and my meditation. I now turn that torch up high without fear, my beads are now big and round and I make those marbles I so wanted to. I have taken some more classes in glass through Sonoran Glass with some of my favorite glass artists. It was in one class I took with my first instructor later on in which he told me that it’s the hours spent at the torch that make the glass artist. The classes give us technique but it’s the practice that makes it perfect.
