GASNews October/ November 2011 Volume 22 ... - Glass Art Society

Tech Issues
Mobile Glass Studios
By Eddie Bernard
The history of mobile glass studios dates
back to the beginning of the Studio Glass
Movement. Listening to Fritz Dreisbach
or Marvin Lipofsky talk about the early
days, it seems there has always been
a high level of excitement among glass
craftspeople to share the experience.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that a demonstration
is traditionally followed by a
healthy round of applause.
Location, location, location — the old
real-estate joke’s punch line holds true
for glass too. Renaissance fairs, music
festivals, parties, parks and schools
are venues where artists can use their
exhibitionist traits to earn a fee, to sell
work, and to educate. Let’s not forget that
the terms “vagabond” and “glass artist”
share etymological roots.
Some of the earliest mobile studios
were built on existing trailers. Often the
units had only one axle, but, as seen
in the 1582 Turkish painting Parade of
the Guild of the Glassblowers, at least
one early unit was built on six axles (one
per wheel). Bill Boysen, who started the
graduate glass program at Southern
Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) in
1966, is often credited with building
the first mobile glassblowing studio in
the US. Completed in 1970, Boysen’s
Aunt Gladys (named to acknowledge the
need for a rich aunt in order to work with
glass) was funded by a research grant to
help him expose more people to artistic
glassblowing. Aunt Gladys is in its second
incarnation now, having been completely
built anew by Boysen soon after Ché
Rhodes became head of the SIUC glass
program. The small, enclosed, double-axle
trailer houses a 60-lb furnace, a glory hole
and two annealing ovens. It is powered
by electricity and propane. Those of you
who have attended a handful of GAS
conferences will agree Aunt Gladys has
been a staple venue, traditionally hosting
14
student demonstrations. Rumor (a rumor
I hereby set in motion) has it that Aunt
Gladys has been nominated for GAS’ two
most prestigious awards, the Lifetime
Achievement Award and the Honorary
Lifetime Membership Award.
Marvin Lipofsky provided me with
several examples of mobile studios from
the 1970s, including Brian Lonsway’s
1972 Toledo, OH, trailer with rims that
matched his 1932 Chevy. Steve Beasely
built his furnace inside a covered trailer
and dragged it around the Seattle area
in the early ’70s. Bill Brunner’s Duo Glide
mobile shop was used in 1976 at The
Great California Glass Symposium, which
was held in conjunction with the American
Craft Council show at the Fort Mason
Center in San Francisco. Demonstrators at
that symposium included Ann Morhauser,
Bill Brunner and Marvin Lipofsky.
Studio Inferno’s Mitchell Gaudet and
Scott and Bruce Benefield built Hell on
Wheels in 1996 with the help of Althea
Holden and Don Nisonger. Starting with
a Nuway NW13182 single-axle trailer for
a 6’ x 4’ foundation, they added a 3/4”
plywood deck, a 50-lb invested pot beehive
furnace and a 12-inch fiber-lined glory
hole. The trailer was rated to transport
up to 2,000 lbs, and the total cost in
1996 was approximately $2,000. Hell on
Wheels was built and paid for by Studio
Inferno, but it did receive some funding
Turkish mobile unit,
circa 1568, from
Parade of the Guild
of the Glassblowers,
(detail), 1582.
(Photo courtesy of
Marvin Lipofsky)
from the New Orleans Art Council for
several years to travel to schools and
do demonstrations. Demos were always
free of charge. Gaudet explains, “We
reached out to all as a teaching and
demonstrating unit. Most schools had
limited arts programming, so for us to
bring fire and glass to them was a real
treat.” Hell on Wheels was typically pulled
into the stationary studio and fired up
on natural gas to operating temperature,
then hauled to the demonstration site,
where propane was used to fire the venturi
mixer. A small kiln (about the size of a
color oven) ran off a 120V extension cord
and was used for annealing. “Our biggest
impact was demoing at the New Orleans
Jazz and Heritage Festival. It never ceased
to amaze me how many people would
watch our demos in the heat and in lieu
of all the great music there…” Gaudet
recalls. Scott Benefield adds, “That’s
where we discovered its real function – an
advertising tool to promote retail sales
at a craft event. That became its sole
function ever afterward, as we found it
roughly doubled our sales.” The unit was
eventually destroyed by a construction
company where it was stored.
Scott Benefield had a second go at
mobile-studio design when he built a
100-lb freestanding pot furnace in the
back of a horse trailer. For electricity and
fuel, it used two big propane tanks on