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

Glassworks’
Juicy Lucy,
the Blowin’ Hot
Rod, at a public
demonstration
(photo courtesy
of Glassworks)
G L A S H A U S
The International Magazine
of Studio Glass
generous as to lend the Hot Glass Roadshow
to GAS as a demonstration venue.
CmoG’s UltraLight Hotshop is a modular
group of highly portable units that can be
arranged to meet the needs of individual
venues or events. The set-up requires
minimal utility support and can include
a flameworking unit. Both set-ups were
uniquely conceived of and designed by
the Corning Museum of Glass. For further
technical information, please click here.
But that’s not all when it comes to
CMoG, who also sponsors the GlassLab,
a unique mobile glass shop concept that
brings molten glass and the skills to work
with it to a workshop of designers who
possess the skills to design it. CMoG’s
inspired and talented road crew has
taken GlassLab to such design venues
as the Design Miami/Art Basel Miami
and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design
Museum. Workshops have also been
held at Vitra Design Museum during Art
Basel in Weil Am Rhein, Germany, and at
Domaine de Boisbuchet in Lessac, France.
At workshops with such titles as “Earth,
Glass, and Fire” and “Liquid Fusion,” a
live audience is provided a rare glimpse of
the collaborative process that often takes
place between designers and gaffers.
Hot glass studios have even been
set up on watercraft. Take Chris Taylor’s
rowboat for example. In 2009, Chris
paddled the one-man, pond-going vessel
out into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of
Providence, RI, to work on top-secret glassmaking
approaches in private, working out
of a small furnace fired by a venturi burner.
The furnace was designed with an annealing
oven on top of it that was heated by
the furnace exhaust. The furnace was
installed on a gimble so that as the boat
rocked with the waves, the furnace would
remain relatively stable. Taylor realized
that if the craft overturned, he was likely
to experience a sensationally hot steam/
bubble bath. For this reason and because
of the aforementioned secret nature of the
voyage, he chose to leave the annealing
oven – it made the dingy too top heavy
– on the shore. Other watercraft include
the barge in the canal at GAS’ 2002
Amsterdam conference and Celebrity
Cruises’ Solstice Class ships, whose CMoG
hot studios’ objective is to keep valued
cruise guests buying drinks at sea. Turns
out glassblowing can do that for a crowd!
My idea of putting a studio on a
spaceship was shut down recently when
the US government cut spending on the
space program. Such is life in these hard
economic times.
Here’s a tip from Scott Benefield,
should you decide to build a mobile
hotshop for yourself or your organization:
“Ask Mitchell about the time they were
dragging [Hell on Wheels] to Baton Rouge
on the highway and they saw a trail of
streaming fiber insulation from the crown
in the rear view mirror... ” Mobile hotshops
might not be for everyone.
Image Gallery
To see more mobile
glass studios,
click here.
German/ English, 4 issues p.a. 42 Euros
Dr. Wolfgang Schmölders
Glashaus-Verlag, Stadtgarten 4
D-47798 Krefeld (Germany)
Email: glashaus-verlag@t-online.de
Web: www.glasshouse.de
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