GUYS, IF YOU'RE READING THIS, GO AWAY, IT'S NOT FINISHED, I'M JUST SO AFRAID OF LOSING IT, I HAVE TO POST IT.
I'm back, bitches!
Lol, jk. I mean, I was never gone, I've just been "blogging" on Instagram and sometimes on Facebook, too. Basically, I want to make a post about my lampworking class I took in Corning, but keep thinking about communicating it through photos and captions, so, of course it will go to Instagram, but captioning on Instagram kind of sucks, and I am also not looking forward to a 20 picture carrousel! 🤢 So. First, I will make this blog post, and then I will adapt it to one or more posts on Instagram, so that it is there also (bc let's be honest, that's where most people are, it becomes somewhat of a resumé, and I want the content on my feed)..... anyway we'll see how that turns out and also how I end up editing this very text: feeling cute, might delete later.
And don’t get me started on Blogger, I just read some 17 year old blog posts and they’re almost embarrassing.
I started lampworking in 2010. Really? Do we need to go that far back? I mean, no, but, how else do I introduce Kristina Logan?
Before I realized I was going to start lampworking (lmao, just hear me out) I went down a rabbit hole (now I know those are called hyperfixations, and hi! I’ve recently been diagnosed with ADHD, it’s fun to try to write the thoughts in my head) and I watched hours of YouTube videos, and discovered Lampwork Etc, the forum where almost all of the lampworking questions I’ve ever had have been answered. I’m still on there occasionally. At some point, back then, I heard about an artist called Kristina Logan who was an expert at making beads with dots. Then in 2016 I was in Murano taking a class with Davide Penso, and I remember he said “you need more control and you like dots, you should take a class with the Dot Queen” and I knew who he was talking about. Two years later I opened my Instagram account and I remember at some point I followed Kristina Logan.
Ever since, every time she posts about a class I think “oh how amazing would that be” … for years. Finally last year she posted about her January class and I noticed the dates and one of them was on my birthday, and I swooned. I looked at the class information and realized actually it wasn’t prohibitively expensive… and it was on my birthday. Days passed, and she posted about what she was knitting, and I was like –FINE, I MUST MEET THIS WOMAN.
This post is not just about her class, but the whole experience of visiting Corning for the first time. Let's go!
The weather was going to be a whole thing, and The Studio at The Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG) started emailing us weeks in advance, to get us all to be in contact with each other for carpooling, since a snowstorm was predicted. As time grew nearer I realized it was a real issue, and would have to make my drive into town immediately after my midnight MIA-SYR flight in order to beat the snow. It was scary but I made it!
The view from my hotel room. If you know me, you know I'm not into sunrises.
And yes, I was very interested in all of the tracks I got to see on the snow.
My first day in Corning was a snow day, which was actually really cool, because we spent all day getting to know each other.
Chadwick and Gwendolyn (not pictured) were in an incredible Weston Lambert class where they would make sculptures joining rocks and glass through coldworking,
Vicky and Shira (also not pictured) were in Jim Scheller's slumping class where they cut glass sheets into smaller tile, and later would arrange the tile in different combinations to melt into beautiful designs,
Trish and Charles were in Ross Delano's hotshop class making sculptural blown glass with one of the most interesting and fun teachers,
and Linda, Mary Ellen, and I, were in the beadmaking class with Kristina Logan.
On Monday, the program began.
I honestly wish I had taken more and better photos of the general space and time there, but also I will never forget this place. It was incredible. And also, I think I'll return.
They prepared a welcome presentation and there were about 50 of us there, and they explained The Studio, and told us "visitors should always watch the classes safely from the classroom windows" "but you are not visitors, you are students". So we got to experience ALL of The Studio, and I think having bonded on Sunday made it really cool because we all welcomed each other into our classrooms and showed each other what we were learning and making and it was honestly a dream I didn't even know I had. Like being back in the art building in college, but as an adultier adult, and every class is glass. I, need to go back. 10 times a year. Can I maybe move to Corning? Oh, my goodness.
*I'm actually going to post my photos as chronologically as possible, so you'll see those photos I took of miscellaneous artwork in the building, as well as photos of my friends classrooms, kind of randomly sprinkled throughout.
This is what my work station looked like on my first day, lol.
And OH so close to an itty bitty flame. I love this idea because I can certainly achieve an itty bitty flame at home.
Over the course of the week, we would watch, in awe, how she got into the tiniest spaces and most challenging angles, and make miniature dots without the use of stringer, just super pointy regular glass rods.
*These "rotten fruit" are glass. They were in a display case right next to the cafeteria where we had lunch every day, and there were so many incredible things in that display case but I can't lie, I would always look at these peppers bc I can almost feel their disgusting texture just by looking at them. Thank you Suzuki Sayaka, whoever you are.
As we were in class, these things were just happening outside.
I took a video of this hallway later, which was right outside our class and connects with all of the hotshops, so that they can conveniently come here to "pull cane", and I cannot begin to tell you how delicious that wood burning smell is. You know cane as murrini, if you've EVER read my blog.
Fool proof summary: it begins as a blob that you create kind of like how a sushi is built, and then you heat it and stretch and when you cut it up you can see the image created inside. Or just click the link. Or just keep reading...
But the following is back to the beadmaking class!
I cannot even with this sweet woman's face. I love her so much.
She taught us the "raking" technique to turn the dots into hearts. This was one of the most amazing things to me, because I thought I knew how to do it, and I did, but
1) I was doing it with the wrong tool, and
2) I had no idea that I could actually be in control. This is always one of the biggest lessons for me whenever I meet a professional artist—as opposed to me, a savage.
First, she made the most incredible bead.
She doesn't have a YouTube tutorial for the specific heart bead, but she does raking in this video.
I was already sad that one day had fully elapsed but so grateful and excited for five more days. Pictured: I had studio shoes and outdoor boots, because I couldn't wear airy sneakers in the -15ºC(5ºF) ice, but I also didn't need to be in stiff boots all day. I hadn't put my outer layers back on yet, I stuffed them into this super cute bag my friend Orly gave me for Christmas and kept it in an open locker every day. (They provide locks, and I'm worldly, but the environment felt so safe it felt ridiculous to rent a lock)
The Studio bead kiln, ft. 8 mandrels sticking out on my side, and more than 2x on my kiln-mate Jerell's side.
I guess our class got out before all the other ones because then I got to walk around the building and see EVERYTHING else happening...
*My friend Vicky in the gray sweater, gazing in wonder at Jim Scheller's incredible bowl. Note in the background on the screen: an example of another bowl, seen finished from two angles, and seen on the left flat as the pieces were still being arranged before slumping. In the black container on the table, you can see the little glass chips which are used for this technique, and behind it, a cookie cutter-looking thing to hold them while arranging them. Here is a closer look at the presentation looping on the TV:
I passed the same hallways over and over each day and every time, I'd see something incredible I hadn't seen the previous time I'd passed... and sometimes I'd snap a quick photo to save the memory, and the artist's name. This piece features a lot of "cane" which looks like... candy cane.
Flameworked, class collaboration.
Dan Coyle & Rocko Belloso
Flameworked
Flameworked
This hotshop is adjacent to our classroom. This is Ross Delano's class. You'll see him in the following pictures with a beard and the unicorn tshirt.
I'll link it when she accepts my follow LMAO
And this is my friend Charles flashing his gather into the glory hole.
OH AND YOU KNOW WHAT I LOVED ABOUT THE HOT SHOPS?!??!?! They just had this open flame going at all times, to light their torches with. Easily, whenever they want. In our flameworking classroom, it's a whole song and dance that I'm definitely not bitter about, José, every time we had to light our torches.
These were in the gift shop. don't we love these?!
That's Kristina's necklace on the far right!!! How often do you get to be with the artist in a MUSEUM?! (never)
I actually got pretty tired and didn't take many photos in the museum. And I do believe I crashed from exhaustion that night.
Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, I made some content for my Instagram, which, honestly, just go look at it over there.
During our lunch hour, they made a quick tour of the Rakow Research Library.
When you take a class at The Studio, it includes a one year membership to the museum and library. And the library resources are insane, and they are online, and they are available internationally.
Back in class, Kristina taught us how to encase colors. Finally. I had no idea how to do this, I thought you just melted one color on top of the other and didn't realize the skills and tools necessary to achieve this because of course I got bubbles, weird shapes... wasn't properly controlling the heat of the inside and the outside layers... just. It's crazy the things we don't realize we need taught to us.
In another basic lesson, she had us just practice making the initial wrap. 40 times. No fixing, just make it over and over.
I forgot to take a photo of mine on the mandrels so my new friend Leah let me take a photo of hers.
I didn't take photos of every single demonstration so I am really glad to have these, because spoiler alert, I got to keep this bead! And it is, INCREDIBLE.
And melt.
And you don't have to marver it, you just threaten it with the marver.
Ok sometimes you do.
Our super cool TA helped me figure out striking colors... because my brain just wasn't understanding, cool it, heat it. Sounds simple, but try to get me to understand that. He did. And it was super funny because he took the mandrel I prepared for a stud earring and just made an itty bitty bead on it! So cute lmao. Thank you Jordan. Jordan, is super cool. (those are two separate links, bc I find Etsy links don't last forever)
Here are some photos I took of Jordan, bc I love him. :) I didn't post these to Instagram because I was saving them to put them all together there and do a thing about him but then I still haven't done it. I know I will though. ADHD. Patience.
On Tuesday night, there were the teacher presentations, which were super entertaining.
They are all incredible artists, and getting to meet and learn about incredibly talented and professional artists is just, everything.
They're linked at the top of the blog and I really can't sit here and do links all my life, thanks for your patience.
Oh, and Ross Delano is, a freak. And I'm here for it. I don't know that I will ever take his classes because I don't believe I will do large-scale blown glass, but I can't describe the feeling of being in his presence. Hilarity? Respect? yes...
He's had an incredible hot air balloon life (literally) which includes randomly living in the Amazon, and we spoke in Spanish, and, um, he told me he had a hard time with his last name, and I hadn't even thought of that. Yes hilarity.
Oh and I just realized that is an Instagram screenshot, so I just found it, and you can see this photo here. If that link is broken, he changed his name again, ugh.
Important information.
Weston Lambert's presentation was also super engaging and he's such a pleasant and friendly guy. Just look at his face.
His work explores the juxtaposition of beautiful rocks with manmade glass... Incredible.
Kristina's presentation was of course, as inspiring as being in her class. She talked about growing up in a family of artists, and how her art has evolved over time. I loved these photos showing the work she's done inspired by her travels, and nature.
One of my passions in life, is sitting behind tall people.
Wednesday.
I didn't have a banana for scale, so here is my XS hand next to these giant beads, which are available for sale, with sterling silver coring, for $350. In case anyone wanted to get them for me for my birthday...
This demo was one of my favorite things, because she talks through everything she's thinking as she's making four decorated beads at a time.
