LAMPWORKING
Lampworking is aform of glasswork where glass of melted and sculpted using a bench mounted torch. My junior year of college, I found myself frustrated without a means for hands-on expression of creativity. Back in high school, my jewelry teacher had mentioned glass bead making using a MAPP gas torch and some colored glass rods. We were never able to make these in class but I carried the idea with me. After some research, I bought a starter kit containing a torch design for MAPP or propane gas, some soft glass (COE 104) rods and a few various tools. With some steel bead mandrels and the torch clamped below the vent of my stove, I taught myself lampworking.
I made hundreds of these beads my junior year of college with most of them ending up as gifts to family and friends.
I love making marbles. The blues and grays come from fuming silver onto the glass and then mixing and twisting it up to create a chaotic pattern.
The beads started out simple and lopsided but I was hooked.
The summer after my junior year, I dove in head first. I bought dual fuel - propane and oxygen mix torch and a medical grade oxygen generator. I built a bench and later a kiln and kiln controller to properly anneal glass. This equipment invaded the kitchen on my tiny apartment. I was ready to start making bigger objects using borosilicate glass; a glass much less susceptible to thermal shock which would make larger solid marbles and pendants much easier to make.
To go with the torch, I also built a kiln to properly anneal my work. I wrote about it HERE.
This is a larger flower made in the same way (about 1” dia.). Inspiration was taken from John Kobuki – a well-known artist known for marbles using the compression/implosion technique.
Now in Seattle, I am able to rent studio space. I have to rent by the hour and bring my own torch and tools but it has afforded me the opportunity to get a bigger torch, watch seminars, and meet other glassblowers.
Fuming these precious metals onto the glass is an entire art on it’s own. Trial and error are the best ways to learn the quantities and chemistry needed. Up until this point I had only used silver to fume onto the glass. The introduction of gold fuming into my work has been the biggest thrill and hurdle. Fuming gold and silver is a delicate dance of flame chemistry and quantity of gold and silver used. Silver fume can bring blues and greys while gold can bring pinks and oranges. Mixing and overlapping can help produce complete rainbow of colors from green to yellow. other factors come into play such as temperature of the glass as the metal is introduced and time the glass has spent in the flame.
Just before Christmas 2015, I saw a demonstration on glass ornament making. I I have since been hooked on studying hollow forms using Simax Scalloped tubing and gold and silver fume.
This leaf only uses gold and silver for colors. It was made using an implosion technique and then sculpted into a leaf about 3” long.
Refraction or reflection and sunlight or artificial light can have drastic effects on what colors can be seen.
I have become drawn to more exaggerated and whimsical shapes. These ornaments are blown with a thinner wall and are between 4-6” tall and 2.5-3.5” in diameter. Represented here is my most recent work!