“Using techniques perfected in Venice 500 years ago, I enjoy applying these skills to modern glass design. All of my work begins from the raw ingredients, silica, soda and lime, melted at 2500 degrees into a hot, gooey liquid we know as glass. With a steel blowpipe I am able to gather the hot glass on the tip and blow a bubble into it. As my assistant blows into the pipe, I sit at a bench and use steel hand tools to manipulate the bubble of glass into a desired shape. A punty (solid steel rod) with a small gather of glass on the tip is then stuck on the bottom of the vessel, and the piece is cracked off the blowpipe. Once transferred, the top of the piece is finished and tapped off into an annealing oven to be cooled slowly.”
