Black Craftspeople Digital Archive

Home page of the Black Craftspeople Digital Archive, featuring a historical illustration of Black craftspeople assembling wagon wheels

The Black Craftspeople Digital Archive is a space centralizing knowledge, articles, and artifacts of Black craftspeople in the United States. From 1619 to beyond, Black craftspeople, both free and enslaved, worked to produce the valued architecture, handcrafts, and decorative arts of the American South. The archive is categorized by trade/discipline, including glazers.

LINK TO RESOURCE

Resource submitted by Ben Orozco

Flame Affinity Group Meeting Notes: Flame Business Practices Toolkit

GEEX Flame Affinity Group
Flame Business Practices Toolkit
February 19, 2024 7:00PM EST
Facilitated by Amy Lemaire and Madeline Rile Smith, with Special Guest Wes Heart

Business Practices Toolkit (GOOGLE DOC)

Notes compiled by Amy Lemaire and Madeline Rile Smith
Each bullet point represents a comment by a participant. 
Entries in quotes are copied directly from the chat.

  • Learn to do the task before you delegate it to someone else.
  • Always keep learning, never be afraid to ask for help, and never take no as an answer. 
  • As much as you can, get paid to practice.
  • Be patient with yourself, because it is very difficult to learn flameworking. It takes many years, and being patient with yourself is important.
  • Hours give you powers. Stick with it. 
  • If you want to be good at what you do, you have to spend the time to do it. Lots and lots of time.  
  • In terms of starting a business, product making is only one of the many skills that you will need to hone. So make sure that you leave time to improve at all of the other skills you’re going to need. 
  • It’s all about your community for strength and support – Approach the studio and life with a sense of generosity – who can you help, what can you give? And then that will come right back to you. 
  • Try to branch out and do things alone, like talking to people at conferences, going to studio visits alone to make strong connections and get out of your comfort zone. 
  • The glass community is small. If there’s someone that you want to get to know, reach out to them. When you reach out, do it professionally and show that you are serious about what you do.
  • When you ask someone for advice, follow through. Be polite, and understanding. 

What’s the going rate for skilled and unskilled labor in the flameworking industry? Does it range regionally? What are the rates in the midwest? West coast? Rural vs. urban? 

  • NYC and regional – Unskilled labor (meaning I will have to do a little teaching) $25, skilled (already know how to do the task) starts at $35+
  • Philadelphia – same 
  • Philadelphia – $20/hr cash just out of undergrad (9 yrs ago), special rate for a friend
  • Rural VA – some studios in urban areas, and a few private studios, and solo artists. It’s a really small community.
  • Cities are pretty expensive.

Links:

  • For me, the decision to work with assistants depends on how quickly something can be made, difficulty, and cost of materials. 
  • I hire assistants to do things that I don’t like to do, are not good at, or that I don’t have the equipment for. 
  • Hiring assistants to make prep. Examples: coil potting color, make tubing, pulling points, make some basic shapes, color match a color. 
  • When I am working with an assistant, I can be doing something else at the same time, and then that shortens the turnaround time for the project.
  • Pay assistants per piece, or per project (1099, independent contractor) or by the hour (W2, employee)
  • Independent contractor you hire to do a job and then they bring it back to you when it’s finished. Pay per job. 
  • Employees are paid per hour, employer sets the hours. If working in their own studio, artists need insurance to cover employees. 
  • Consider how to build your business in a way that you are able to support the ethical treatment of your employees. 
  • A group studio can be a convenient place to work, because you are both coming to the studio independently, as an autonomous renters and can hire each other’s labor as independent contractors. 
  • When hiring someone, it’s important to remember that you are becoming a boss, and you pay yourself last. You ALWAYS pay your people first. 
  • If you take care of your people, they will take care of you.
  • Wage calculator helpful to know about and use as a benchmark to shoot for if you’re not already there. 
  • Ultimately, what we’re trying to do when we talk about labor is to arrive at a point where labor is appreciated and valued, and also our employees and ourselves can make a living wage that’s fair. As the economy shifts, that point shifts also.
  • Good photos are everything when selling!!
  • Find the right platform for you. Consider complexity/simplicity of site and interface, consider updating your website yourself if you want to change it often.(ex: Shopify, Big Cartel – $25/month for up to 500 items) 
  • Find a site that is the least expensive to run and is functional for your business specifically. Learn to take photos of your work as best you can with the time you have. 
  • Take your time. Start with a few items and change it as you need to. It takes a lot of energy and time to learn to use the software, and you have to tweak it to suit your brand and your goals. Is there an appropriate price range for products selling on an ecommerce platform versus some other platform like a gallery or in person like a brick and mortar type of store? Is there a threshold?
  • My site started as a place to play, and little by little it became more of a business. I wanted to make pieces that were more affordable and accessible for a broader audience to have that experience of something that they loved. 
  • $100 and below is an accessible price point for online. 
  • Markup for wholesale products went up recently from 2x to 2.8x markup, which affects the production of lower price point products, like earrings.  
  • There is a minimum threshold for products that make it sustainable to produce. 
  • Choosing the right platform is important because you can make more of a profit if you can do many of the jobs yourself – marketing, photos, updating the website.
  • Little steps will get you there, you have to start somewhere. If you can get paid where you are to make work, and you are supported, start. 
  • Be careful not to over-edit any photo. (If your piece is flawed, then your piece is flawed.)
  • Typically you will need multiple photos of the same piece, so that a buyer could get a virtual experience of the piece before they purchase it. 
  • Your clients know that your work is handmade, be honest with your buyers, ex: disclose irregularities, etc). 
  • I have used Etsy since 2009, and had pretty good sales. The tags and SEO are important. Fees are high, around 8%, which adds up especially on the low end items. It really made sense for repeatable items. I stopped using it because I was tired of some online platform being a middleman. 
  • My favorite place to sell is at farmers’ markets, table sales, in person art events and demos. 
  • With online platforms, if lots of people want custom designs, it can add up to hours and hours of emails and communication. 
  • Big Cartel will collect sales tax and send it in for you.
  • Third party shipping apps (Stamps.com, Pirate Ship) have deep discounts for USPS and UPS. 
  • Charge for shipping. The box, cardboard, cards, and packing material is expensive!
  • 50/50%. Some nice galleries take 60/40 artist/gallery. 
  • I think social media is becoming professionalized. It’s a production. I think it’s likely that it will become increasingly professional, especially with video production.
  • I used to have a great handle on the algorithm, now I never know
  • When I do a good reel and get to ride the algorithm, I sell a ton of stuff. 
  • Hiring someone who is fresh with social media as a professional may become necessary. 
  • When a post gets tons of views, you can end up getting a lot of feedback that you don’t want. 
  • The algorithm (response of lack of) can affect your self confidence as an artist in terms of what goes viral and what does not do well. 
  • Artists and makers are feeling more pressure to make content or process content as a piece is being made for marketing purposes. Social media can be a fantastic way to reach more audiences and be a good way to share the process, but can also be labor and time intensive and makes the process of art making a lot longer. 
  • The Sham-wow did not sell itself – that’s where marketing comes in. 
  • QVC and infomercials use video for marketing and are also content themselves. They are also famous for the remixes and parodies of the video. 
  • “You are also educating your audience with your content.”, “Yes. Edu-tainment.”
  • Reminder that we are living in an age of novelty almost more than ever because it is swipe by swipe. Every swipe has to be something new.

Is anyone using Artificial Intelligence to streamline functions?

  • I use it for my stories on Instagram to add narrative to my pieces by putting them into settings. 
  • I use narrative to make a framework for a new world. I made an imaginative space where I could just make whatever I want. I kind of made my own playspace that turned into my business. 
  • Using ChatGPT to make images for visual research. 
  • Using ChatGPT as an editing tool during the writing process to run spell and grammar checks and enhance the tone of my writing to apply for art grants, and I landed a bunch. Takes the emotion out of having a friend proofread.
  • “Using AI to stylize your writing style”
  • “As entrepreneurs, we wear so many hats. I like the idea of having a digital assistant to help do tasks faster. Then, I can spend more time in the studio.”
  • “Its a back and forth convo”
  • “I think of AI as a brainstorming tool to speed up making many iterations.”
  • Videos for TikTok needs to be labeled if AI is used. 
  • AI-generated images or videos are not copyrightable right now in this moment because the only things you can copyright are things made by a human. 
  • I’ve tried AI out in a bunch of different scenarios just to see what works for me. My general rule of thumb is: change it. Don’t use it straight out of the test box, change it so that it’s more of a collaborative action, or more like a brainstorming tool.
  • AI is a conversation, not an end result. 
  • Using closed AI systems, there is a limit to what they are trained on/can access, so try some different ones to get different results. 
  • AI is never the end result. It can be a good place to jump off, kind of like a writing prompt
  • Using AI in an imaginary space to converse about your ideas and maybe become inspired to do something
  • Only if you let it. I’m not going to listen to a computer. If you just take the information from it without putting your own work into it, yeah.
  • I don’t have any interest in copying anything, I want to make it my own. I think that’s part of being an artist. 
  • Replication is one thing, but creating something new is another. 
  • Kim Harty’s recent work using images of her own work run through AI to generate images that inspire her sculptures. https://www.kimharty.com/artwork/birthinganatomies
  • AI is remixing your creativity, but you’re not putting your own spin on it.
  • “Start with your local community. They will want to support you!”
  • “Friends and family are always a good support team.”
  • In-person
  • I started selling small flameworked pendants and paperweights when I was first starting out, 17 years ago. I think things are different now though because we didn’t have online sales of instagram or all that. 
  • “If you are selling online, engage with the platform regularly to boost your visibility. (Etsy, IG)”
  • The best thing you could possibly do for yourself is to find your confidence in your own work, regardless of whether it’s perfect or not. You will draw people to your work if you are confident in your work or yourself. If you’re putting out an aura of, “it could be better,”or “please buy it so I can pay my bills,” that’s not what people want. Instead try, “It may not be what I want, but I love it.” Try to be as confident as you can. It is hard for people to engage with you and your work if you are not confident, even if you are hurting. 
  • Confidence is a skill you have to grow and you do that when you’re figuring out how to be confident on the torch itself. Flameworking can be scary at first.
  • You set the example for how you want to be treated. So if you come in and you take your work seriously and you are not apologetic for how weird or unconventional or not to the tastes of others you might be perceived as, you’re true to yourself. And people who get you will find you and love you. 
  • You will find your audience when you are fully yourself. 
  • It is not the easiest path, necessarily, but you’ll be saving time in the long run from not needing to spend time figuring out who you are after you’ve been lying to yourself trying to please others. 
  • When you’re trying to figure out how to price your work, what do you want to get paid per hour? What are your costs? Not just for your materials, but the overhead of your rent, utilities, and if  you have insurance, if you need to take transportation to get there- there are all these little considerations that add up for a cost. So you should expect that you deserve to get paid $50 or $60 an hour and practice your craft so that you can make it more efficiently. Then figure out: who is your audience, where are your markets? Are you going to be selling only retail or also wholesale, so that you have to cut all your prices in half again? Are you selling through a gallery and you can’t undercut them? These are all considerations you have to figure out for yourself. 
  • Think about what kind of life you would like to have? If you want to live a starving artist life, you will. You are your own best supporter. It is not selfish, it is self-interested. You are interested in taking care of  yourself, you are interested in taking care of your family, and your loved ones.
  • We are doing this because we have something to offer, and we are here to support our families with it.
  • I’m a couple decades in, but when I started flameworking, I started selling at the local bead store, and local art events with my friends, any place where I could get a table to vend. You just learn. You learn what shows are good, which venues are good.
  • As soon as I could sell it, I would sell it. 
  • Sell what you’re comfortable selling. 
  • “As long as they have hot seals!”
  • “(Imperfection is) evidence of the hand!”
  • “There is a market for everyone”
    Sell things that are not dangerous, like cracks, but are whole and nice and don’t be so hard on yourself. Even things that have a small flaw, not a dangerous one like a sharp part, but something that has like a wrong color here or a time little scuff mark – people will often see that as more special because it is handmade. 
  • There’s a market for everyone, and I do sell seconds on occasion, so maybe they can afford those. 
  • Sell what you can, when you can, but be honest and confident with your client. 
  • People aren’t necessarily shopping for something with perfection, if so, they would be getting something that wasn’t handmade. 
  • We have such a high standard for ourselves in the business world and the art world. Nothing large starts large. It has to start small. You put in the effort day by day, little by little. 
  • The thing that really shows success is when you can fail over and over again and still get back up. That is success. It is not a constant uphill climb. 
  • Little successes lead to big successes. 
  • Sometimes it costs you $400 to get into a show and you only sell $100 worth of stuff.
  • Even if you don’t sell anything and it’s a terrible vending session, you can always learn something. At the beginning of the career, that’s the most important, right?
  • Pay attention to the feedback you’re getting from your customers and get used to being ok with your customers not being able to buy your work for whatever reason.
  • There was a time in my early career where I was selling at the bead store, selling individual beads, and then I eventually outgrew that market, and I knew that because my clients would give me feedback. So pay attention to what people are saying whether they’re buying or not. 
  • That feedback is going to tell you if you’re in the right place. You might be in the wrong market. So just keep trying until something sticks. 
  • Try not to take things personally. Even though it’s your artwork, it’s not that the client is insulting your work, it’s that you’re trying to sell in the wrong venue. 
  • I’ve noticed that people starting out are trying to make work that is fast and sellable, making fast art quickly that sometimes replicates other peoples’ work or becomes a generic production item. This can be very damaging to make only work that is not from your soul because you’ll burn out. 
  • There is a point where (generic design production work) will ruin your ability to make your own artwork. You have to learn to start to shift towards making things that come from your own brain. I make a range of production items at different price points so there will be something there for everyone. I try to find a balance. 
  • “I’m not sure how to respond to that, because I wish you could too.”
  • I try to bring a varied price range so that people can afford my work. Some of the work will take me a week to make, and I cannot afford to personally make it at a lower price. 
  • Another way to respond is to say “I wish you could too, but there are some other ways that you can support me. You can share my website, you can tell your friends.”
  • There are a lot of ways to interact that don’t involve spending money that are still supportive to the artist. 
  • I have had a lot of success bartering at farmers’ markets.
  • The farmers’ markets in my area also have a handmade craft section, and seem to always be pretty busy! I’m in Brooklyn, NY. Product prices range from $50 – $200
  • “Over about 5 years I built my IG to 34K and then this past year it jumped to 82K because of a few viral posts.”
  • “So altogether about 6 years of @blobblob posts.”
  • “It has taken so much time and work.”
  • Yes, but riding the wave of novelty is not – you have to ride the wave while at the same time find something stable. For example, stability can come from lower end products that are constantly promoted.
  • Maybe as a component in a more diversified financial plan
  • Glass as a “passion business” meaning you’ll just barely break even when it’s all said and done. 
  • Legitimacy within the glass world and in the world of business comes from setting yourself up as a legitimate company. It’s difficult to do that without a business education. 
  • What is needed in order to do that sort of business that is transferable, that can grow beyond one person? We make money by using our hands. That’s not scalable. 
  • Can a glassblowing business and life as an artist be scaled enough to support a family, have kids, a mortgage, transfer the business, get investors, etc.?
  • The whole idea of being an entrepreneur is finding a spot in the market that you think needs to be populated and populating that space. So it has to do with your vision. And if you have vision and ability and a kind of a unique perspective, I do believe that you can design a company, or a situation for yourself that is scalable as long as you can pivot. Pivoting is an important skill.
  • Geographic location matters –  I worked for many artists in NYC as assistants and learned how studios were run. Those opportunities may be more scarce in rural areas. 
  • If you have a successful body of work or product line, the lifespan of it in the market is probably around 5 years. After that, plan for R&D and the cycle can start over again with new work. 
  • You need to stay flexible and weird, and let yourself make things that are strange and new to you. 
  • Nobody becomes famous or popular or infamous by doing the normal thing, right? So when you’re making artwork, if you’re not making things strange, shocking, new, intense, then you aren’t going to get the views, the fame, the money, or whatever you are looking for. You have to be weird. 
  • Fully embrace those oddities within yourself to make the leaps that you need to make to get out of your comfort zone. 
  • Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. 
  • Look for inspiration outside of other glass artists. 
  • It’s important for you to figure out what you are passionate about in life. 
  • The sum of your personal interests is your artistic voice. 
  • Have the confidence to go to another venue and be the only glass person in the room because then you are the novelty. 
  • You’ll see people selling crappy work who may have a million followers. They have built a following, and it’s marketing, right? It’s not the most beautiful work, but they’ve built some kind of platform to sell their work. 
  • Glass shops get requests for things they don’t want to make, and you can ask them to send the clients to you as a referral. If you’re just starting out you can contact shops and ask for their referrals to be sent to you. 
  • Being a part of a designer community, you sell your designs. Put some time aside for research and development and come up with something that is uniquely yours. 
  • All journeys are really fascinating and interesting to hear about. 
  • If you are not moving at a pace that outpaces people trying to copy your work, then you are not moving fast enough. 
  • Competition can make you stay fresh
  • Making new stuff constantly will keep people confused and intrigued.

BACK TO TOP

LINK TO RESOURCE: MEETING NOTES (GOOGLE DOC)
LINK TO RESOURCE: TOOLKIT (GOOGLE DOC)

Last updated: 4/16/24

54 Perspectives: Advice to Young Artists from Working Artists

A preview of Stephanie Syjuco's 54 Perspectives booklet, featuring a bright pink cover, and a preview of the interior

Stephanie Syjuco, Artist and Educator at UC-Berkeley, made a small advice booklet for her undergraduate art students to prepare them for the world beyond school. The free, downloadable booklet contains 54 pieces of advice from various artists, curators, and creatives who responded to her prompt for advice and words of wisdom.

LINK TO RESOURCE (.PDF)

Resource submitted by Ben Orozco

The 3D Additivist Cookbook

Cited in Britt Ransom’s GEEX Talks lecture, the 3D Addtivist Cookbook provides an open-source resource for thinking through the potentials of 3D fabrication techniques and larger topics in technology and society.

Preview of the 3D Additivist Cookbook, featuring the cover with a mass of 3D printed objects joined together, and a bright yellow page from within the cookbook.

The 3D Additivist Cookbook, devised and edited by Morehshin Allahyari & Daniel Rourke, is a free compendium of imaginative, provocative works from over 100 world-leading artists, activists and theorists. The 3D Additivist Cookbook contains 3D .obj and .stl files, critical and fictional texts, templates, recipes, (im)practical designs and methodologies for living in this most contradictory of times.

LINK TO RESOURCE

Resource submitted by Ben Orozco

Sensor-Controlled Relay Power Strip

This is an Instructable to walk you through how to make a sensor-controlled relay power strip using an IR sensor.

Diagram outlining various parts of a sensor-controlled power relay attached to a plasma unit. On the right is an example of a plasma sculpture that is illuminated by the process.

“I am an instructor who teaches Plasma Design in the Scientific Glass Technologies program at Salem Community College. One of the challenges has been finding a reliable and affordable transformer to run small plasma displays. Unfortunately, there are not many products on the market, so I decided to make a device which can be used with any transformer to initiate and control the length of time a bulb is turned on. It works great for student displays, especially with Tech22’s L7020 transformer.

I use this device in my own plasma work, and find it handy to use in exhibitions. The device is designed to minimize the risk of injury or the glass being damaged, uses less power, and extends the life of the transformer. By waving their hand in front of the sensor, viewers can initiate the illumination of a plasma bulb without touching the device itself, retaining the interactive quality that is unique to plasma displays. The timer can be set to customize the output for many different situation, including animating the plasma display.

Although this device was designed for use with plasma displays, the output can be any device that plugs into a standard plug on the power strip. It could be used for many other purposes, including art installations.”

  • Limits the amount of time transformer is on, keeping plasma display from overheating and extending the life of the transformer
  • Optimizes use of plasma in exhibition or installation, so that plasma display is only activated by the presence of the viewer and remains off the rest of the time, making for minimal maintenance by the gallery staff, and adding an extra layer of safety, and conserving energy.
  • Optimizes off-the-shelf transformers (such as Tech22’s L7020) to light high-pressure plasma designs for short durations of time without overheating.
  • Provides ability to animate multiple plasma displays by changing the code on the microcontroller.
  • Introduces students to electronics, using sensors and microcontrollers, and coding, by building this device.

This Instructable was designed for use in the Plasma Design course at Salem Community College as part of the Scientific Glass Technology program and was supported in part by a Teaching Artist Cohort Grant from the Center For Craft in 2023. Many thanks to those who supported, tested, and facilitated the development of this project.

In the spirit of giving back to the community, This Instructable is protected by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 © 2024 by Amy Lemaire) International license, through which it is my intent to keep this information accessible and free for educators. 

This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator. It allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for noncommercial purposes only. If others modify or adapt the material, they must license the modified material under identical terms.

LINK TO RESOURCE

Resource submitted by Amy Lemaire

GEEX Educator Affinity Group Meeting Notes: Glass Education in the Past, Present and Future

Small breakout groups of educators discussing different topics in glass education
A whiteboard listing discussion topics regarding the past, present, and future of glass education
Past: Go back and see what histories might have been overlooked
Group selfie of the GEEX Educator meetup

GEEX Educator Affinity Group
Glass Education in the Past, Present and Future
October 6, 2023 4PM CDT

Planning by Emily Leach and Ben Orozco
Facilitated by Helen Lee and Ben Orozco
Notes compiled by Ben Orozco

During the Glass Madison Educational Gathering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (10/6-10/7/2023), GEEX hosted an in-person gathering with educators representing schools attending Glass Madison, as well as GEEX Subscribers and Facilitators. 

This meeting provided an opportunity to take a pulse check of the field of Glass Education, from the past, present, and future. Below are some notes and soundbites representing the three breakout groups and their discussion points.

What histories have we been teaching in our classes? How do we expand, update, or change the curriculum?

  • Reflecting on American Studio Glass (ASG)… how relevant is it to teach now?
    • ASG provides perspective and departure points in teaching glass history
    • Reflecting on ASG, students are more timid now, glass is in a much different era than what it was then
    • Feeling torn in about ASG and if the history is relevant or not
      • The history feels isolated in regards to who has/had access. Who was excluded from these narratives?
      • Men “ran the women off” and left visible gaps in the history
      • Reflecting on the historical context of the GI bill and who did/didn’t receive support to have a funding mechanism to move into academia.
      • Comparing historical craft/art/design figures like Ani and Josef Albers, who was allowed to teach?
    • There was a pioneering aspect to early studio glass: What can you make up on your own?
  • Global and Holistic Histories
    • Including perspectives outside of the European glass 
    • Mark Hursty’s UNC Asheville Arts 310, New Media Department: History of Glass Elective Class taught in 16 weeks
    • Exploitation of labor: Addressing this issue both past and present.
    • Living histories: Inviting practicing artists to speak to their lived experience in the field; collecting oral narratives.
  • Institutional Structure: the way glass is positioned in an institution can change/affect the way is glass is taught
    • New frameworks to explore:
      • Glass: Art & Technology
        • Glass used in people’s bodies to heal them
        • 3D Printing, and glass as the first 3D printer
        • How is it delivered/developed?
      • The Vitreous Age: Glass in the context of digital culture
Takeaways
  • We need to teach history in glass curriculum, especially global and holistic histories.
    • Focus on what histories of glass have been overlooked
  • Glass can be taught as an extension of digital technology or in a context of digital culture
  • American Studio Glass history can function as a departure point for the conversation, leading to broader or underlooked narratives

What challenges are you facing in your classes? How are you finding solutions to those challenges? What’s working for you as an educator?

  • Challenges:
    • Too little structure in a nonprofit glass learning spaces
      • Some students respond to less structure better or worse
    • Teaching glass techniques you may not specialize in as an adjunct or graduate student
    • Teaching glass as a person speaking English as a second language, or with a material/technical vocabulary you may not be comfortable/familiar with
  • What’s working well:
    • A shifting philosophy away from a “sole genius” educator, towards more collaborative learning in the classroom
      • Embracing a culture of difference and the educator and students having different skills to bring to the table, ie being co-learners
    • Doing the best with what you have
      • Being honest and real with yourself and your students on your limitations/where you need help as an educator
    • Trusting students to do more than they can do
      • Students often coming into glass from a place of fear, prioritizing building a sense of trust can help in the classroom and studio

What trends are you noticing? What challenges or opportunities do you see on the horizon?

  • It’s hard to talk about glass as a monolith, as each academic/educational program can be different
  • The economy of academia feels broken
    • There is very little space for students to focus, especially in teaching spaces that are not art schools
    • A sense of declining program enrollment
    • Schools are putting out more students than there are teaching positions for
  • Could goals as instructors be better served in a different type of structure from what is being done now? Or is it important to preserve these programs as they are?
  • Educators in the group are witnessing shifting ecosystems with generational turnover and declining program enrollment
  • What are the expectations of students moving forward?
    • Schools are putting out more students than there are teaching positions for
    • How can students see themselves continuing to engage with glass after school?
  • What is the educator’s primary teaching responsibility moving forward?
    • To be resourceful?
    • To have a career?
    • To making artwork?
    • To being practical/utilitarian?
    • To service?
    • To skill/technique/craft?
    • To helping people move through ideas?
    • To teaching how to ask questions + be curious?

LINK TO RESOURCE (GOOGLE DOC)

Last updated: 11/10/23

Flame Affinity Group Meeting Notes: Teacher Roll Call

GEEX Flame Affinity Group
Teacher Roll Call
October 16, 2023 7PM EDT
Facilitated by Amy Lemaire and Madeline Rile Smith

Each bullet point represents a comment by a participant. 
Entries in quotes are copied directly from the chat.

  • I’m teaching at University of Massachusetts, and also Penland, Pilchuck, Pittsburgh Glass Center and UrbanGlass. I started teaching before I could get paid, and they saved my paycheck until I turned 15. So I’ve seen a lot of changes happen in the glass world, and that’s been really exciting.
  • I teach Plasma Design at Salem Community College. I also teach around the country, various flameworking related workshops. I’ve been teaching for about 20 years. 
  • I teach at Pittsburgh Glass Center, Pilchuck, and UrbanGlass. I also teach on the internet. The focus is primarily plasma. 
  • I teach at Salem Community College.
  • I teach at RIT, flameworking and kilncasting.
  • I am not currently teaching, currently in grad school at RISD, but I’ve taught lampworking at UrbanGlass and Snow Farm.
  • I’m a technician, not necessarily a flameworking educator, but I’ve been working with the University of Washington Glass program. 
  • I started teaching earlier this year, out of Bay Area Glass Institute, they have a really cool program that is kind of developing. I’ve taught there twice, beginner classes. 
  • I’m not currently teaching anywhere, but just got out of grad school at VCU so I was recently teaching. 
  • I teach at Sheridan College, it’s my seventh year. I started teaching in 1999. 
  • Crowdsourcing is great way to get in contact with your students before the class even starts so they can have a say in what you’re teaching. 
  • Using the results of online polling, we ended up deciding on a kiln class (for plasma, instead of a hot shop based class). Seeing everyone else lean in that direction helped solidify that I wanted to build that class out. 
  • Balancing meeting the expectations of your students, but also trying to bring your resources to the table too. 
  • Instagram poll for crowdsourcing, and also put a poll on facebook, where it can stand a bit longer. You can also put a longer standing poll in your posts. I find it easier to grab people’s attention on facebook or Instagram than through email sometimes.  
  • New model, where you’re in direct communication with your audience.
  • I tell people they can video anything at any time. It’s an open book, and just go for it. If they want to share it, they can, I’m okay with that. 
  • Video is helpful because when I teach at the university, I have them for such a short time, and they can practice forever, right? But if  I’m doing something else while they’re practicing, then they can refer to their video. 
  • I feel comfortable with small snippets of video for the internet. I don’t want anyone to put the entire workshop online. I think short videos are more in line with people’s attention span for the internet. 
  • For my college courses, we record all the demos and we have an archive that students can access for the semester asynchronously. 
  • The one thing I make sure is that whoever is videotaping is focusing on me, and I’m the main focus, and anyone else that’s in the frame is ok with being filmed. 
  • We have people pool their videos and images, so that everyone has access to it – because some people have a better angle than others.
  • If the workshop or an entire demo was entirely online, I personally don’t feel worried about that. Part of the reason people come to those workshops is to be able to have easier access to that conversation.
  • I teach at Salem Community College, and we have a camera for the instructor bench mounted in a bird’s eye view over the torch, which is an incredible angle that no one but you ever gets to see. 
  • I always tell students to come around and stand over my shoulder, it’s ok. But they are really afraid to. It’s hard to get people to come closer. Maybe it’s a post-COVID thing.
    The camera is hooked up to the “Jumbotron”, a big TV screen, and people can watch that. Demos are recorded and uploaded to our institutional Canvas platform.  I also film on my phone with a DidyClip (neodymium filter), making videos that I put on YouTube as well. 
  • Any student who missed anything can review the video.personally,  I’m an avid notetaker, but I can’t always watch and take notes at the same time. 
  • If you put anything online, make sure I look good!
  • The video aspect just adds another dimension to teaching. It’s another hat that we now wear as teachers. 
  • The whole online thing  has changed the way classes have evolved. Now my students can just take video of my demos and have that. It’s really nice. 
  • I require my students to take notes, but I find that I don’t know if it’s this generation of students, they just stare at you blankly and they don’t take notes. 
  • I started breaking down making each step of a demo that I’m doing  and putting it on a little board so they have each step to follow and that seemed to help. 
  • I have a larger group with different skill levels. I’ve been bringing in related objects that are in process, and I’ll pass them around while I’m demoing during the slow parts when we’re just watching the glass melt, to keep the students engaged.
  • I love doing a little show and tell during demos. Whether or not I feel like they need to  see it up close, it also  gets them involved in some way. 
  • (Note Taking) is a hit or miss for different groups. Some students are just amazing notetakers, and I don’t even have to ask them to. And then with some, I feel like I’m pulling teeth to get them to even bring a sketchbook. 
  • Sometimes I will draw diagrams on the board if they’re simple to replicate. I think that’s very generous and a wonderful thing for a teacher to do. But it takes a lot of time before class to prepare for that.
  • Before a demo I might ask, How would you do this? And we go around the class and speculate on what steps you would take to make it, just to get them talking and interacting with each other. 
  • Tell jokes throughout the whole demo. Sometimes people miss the whole demo because they’re listening to the jokes. But you know, just lighten it up and get interaction between people. Somehow get vocabulary going. 
  • Not everybody takes notes, and I don’t make them take notes if they don’t want to. They don’t want to sketch, they don’t sketch. People learn in different ways.
  • Sometimes I provide handouts if there’s something I really want them to have a reference for.
  • I like leading with an example and then finding ways to shift a mindset. There’s people with different learning methods. 
  • I had a diverse group of people with different languages. I made sure everyone can access my lectures and slideshows before I actually do the lecture and the slideshow. And then I will work with them to see where they’re at, because maybe some people may need to have a text translator. Or they have to hear it again, they can’t just look at their writing. 
  • The major note-taking that happens in the Plasma class was often during the super exciting part, when you’re filling with gasses and lighting it up. Harry (Schwarzrock) had this great sense of how to get students to take notes there, and that’s what allows you to repeat what steps are happening in the process. 
  • I’m working with a few people to find out “What would a notebook look like? How would you organize your notes if you’re going to do that same process again?” It can be challenging to figure that out. 
  • I think most of the drawing happens when you ask a student what they want to make and they draw it so I can help them break it down. And I’ll have them draw each step of the way. Then they can work through it. 
  • Sometimes you just can’t force them to take notes and that’s on them at some point. 
  • “Last summer I taught a workshop at PGC and one of my students took such neat and comprehensive notes, I asked her if I could scan her sketchbook and share it with future students! She said yes! Now I don’t have to make them myself”
  • We have an active flameworking class right now, and a visitor here, Patricia Davidson, who just did a demo for KCJ Szwedinski who is currently teaching. 
  • We have 14 stations, each outfitted with either a little torch or a national torch.
  • We have a screen right next to the instructor’s station. 
  • The gas is plumbed down the center. Each table has its own set of regulators and shut-off valves. 
  • We’ve got a couple different annealers and a sandblaster in here. 

What do different structures for studio accessibility look like? How much access do you give outside of class? What do you feel is necessary for people to accomplish the goals of your curriculum in order to work outside of class?

  • If I’m present, which is whenever the Glass Lab is open, students can come in and work. After their first lesson, they feel pretty confident turning on and off the torch, they each have their own regulators, so nothing’s going to flash back to the other stations, it feels pretty safe. So I just let them work.
  • At the University, I had the science librarians come in, and do a little workshop. Different groups on campus are coming in and renting out the glass shop and I teach them a little bit about glass. You can relate your glass to history, to science, to archaeology, to just so many things. So you can bring those people in.
  • Get as many people into the flame shop as possible, teach as many as you can about safety procedures, and spread the knowledge around.
  • “I like to offer as much studio access outside of class as possible.
  • For beginner students, I usually wait until the first few weeks are over when they have confidence. The buddy system is key!”
  • “We normally require 10 hours per week outside of class. Still trying to figure out the best way to make that possible for our flameworking students.”
  • “A studio monitor is a great standard for an education environment. whether its an academic or public teaching environment it keeps an eye on students of various experiences. This is slightly different compared to a renter of a public studio where someone checks in.
  • The safety may not be the equipment itself, but human error or accidents. Create faster response time with some whose primary is to monitor.”
  • “I would take into consideration any feedback where students would need more time than what is currently being offered.”
  • “I encourage students to always ask each other questions and help one another outside of class (even beginners) because it makes them think critically about the info given in class!”
  • “I have my kids have a group chat together and so they can always find a Buddy.”
  • “Safety posters with basic set up/shut down procedures and leave books in the studio if you can so students can find their own answers”
  • I’m a graduate student and a TA, and I’m twice the age of most of my peers and so I inevitably function as a TA in every class that I’m in, because the visiting artists are my friends and the people in the slideshows.
  • If (students) need to be connected with resources, I can help you build a bridge to all of these artists that you’re learning about or that you should know about. It’s making me realize that I’m so much more qualified to be teaching at this (higher ed) level than I had realized. Because I’ve been in isolation in my studio by myself for 25 years. And to be mirrored by all of the young people around me or not to be mirrored is very fortifying for my sense of self, or helping me understand myself more.
  • I love teaching and I really want to be here. I could teach in the glass department, I could teach in the jewelry department, I could teach in illustration. I don’t know what will happen, but I feel more driven to definitely teach here because my kid just said, “ Oh, I want to go to RISD.” If I’m faculty, they’d get a full ride.
  • My favorite moments (of teaching) is when I can say, “I don’t know.” Because then we can all look at the same thing. It’s important to find a way to have students be able to navigate a problem or navigate learning something. 
  • Some students want a lot of info, and some students just go for it. The students who just go for it and are not afraid to mess it up tend to improve exponentially faster. 
  • I crack jokes, in the beginning of class I always try to have everyone introduce themselves. Just getting comfortable with people in the beginning seems to work.
  • I don’t think I’ve ever not been a student. I learn a lot while I’m teaching. Learning and teaching are always happening simultaneously. They’re exchanging with each other constantly. 
  • “I don’t know if it is about teaching or learning, but about the energy between”
  • “When I teach, I feel like I learn just as much as the students! Teaching is an exchange, and it’s important to make space for the students to teach you too – reciprocation.”
  • Finding ways in the teaching process where failure is going to exist, and to highlight those failures so that they can learn from it.
  • Feedback from my students: when I have failure in a demo, it’s even more valuable to them because they can see how I overcome the failure. You don’t always see that in a master glassblower demo.
  • I used to be scared to mess up on my demos when I was teaching. But now, it’s great that (the students) can see that I mess up and also can see how I fix it.
  • Learning how to fix something is just as important if not more important than learning how to make something. 
  • I teach a lot of classes and can make something quickly, because I’ve done it a thousand times. Students get so frustrated because it’s harder when they do it. 
  • Students: Your goal should be to play around, and not make anything perfect for a few weeks. You have to learn to persevere. 
  • Students suggested bringing in some of my earliest pieces from when I was starting vs. “Don’t show bad early work”.
  • “It’s all about not freaking out.”
  • I’ll blow a beautiful bubble, then mash it up. Then gather the glass and blow another beautiful bubble. Don’t worry, glass is forgiving. You just melt it in, blow it again. Don’t waste the glass, just keep going. 
  • For frustrated students, I have a huge library on glass. So they go into the other room and look through the books for a while and just settle down.
  • I assign technical assignments, making 10 or 20 of something, I found that when there’s multiples it is much harder to focus on the nitty gritty details of one thing. 
  • I think things can get too “precious” with beginning students.
  • With beginners, when they go to the studio in their free time, they might not know what to make, so I assign them multiples. 
  • Make a new one, it’ll be better the second time. 
  • “Quality through quantity!” 
  • These days I’m more focused on 3D modeling with the CNC machining than flameworking, but I think it would be interesting to merge those things together to create some fusions out of it. 
  •  When I teach workshops, I don’t finish my demos. I’ll leave it unfinished because it puts less pressure on the student to try something new. I noticed more people trying the technique when I left the demo unfinished, or messed it up. 
  •  “In class we review all the failures and try to identify what was missed and why it happened and now I find them correcting/reminding each other to say oh remember when we did that and it failed, don’t forget to do”
  • “I love intentionally messing up. Sometimes you have to model intentional failure for students!”
  • At RISD, we did a “factory day” in the hotshop. Each person did one step on the factory line, so one person is continuously doing one part of the process. The final result, if it’s weird, it’s not your fault, it’s everybody’s fault. 
  • Group project exercise as a diffusion of responsibility. So if the end result isn’t perfect,  the responsibility is shared. It’s not about the end result, it’s about the journey, right?
  • Punti ball – you practice a cold seal, then practice puntying the same piece like 10 times, transferring the punti. 
  • I think collaboration can be a great way to mitigate failure, and play to people’s strengths. 
  • The author can be more than one person. Collaboration and fabrication are also worth exploring. 
  • Make a musical instrument that can be played by many people at once.
  • I collaborated with an art therapist. We gave out materials that I knew were difficult to work with – that were beyond the students skill levels. Difficult color. We all had our experiences, then we regrouped after to reflect and express our frustration. That turned into a much deeper conversation about where the frustration around failure was coming from. The art therapist was able to help maintain the teacher-student boundaries as emotion was coming up. 
  • I try to get students to collaborate with somebody else in another class. How can we bring weaving to glass?
  • Through collaboration, hopefully the students will feel more connected as a community throughout the class. 
  • Collaborative projects can be an icebreaker, so students can feel comfortable interacting. They tend to feel more comfortable asking each other for help, making for a safer environment after hours. 
  • In neon, I’ve heard some classes will do group end to end seals of tubing with teams to see who can make the longest sealed tubing. In neon, you’re always shifting leverage points as you work on the glass, so no one feels the same.

What do your students want you to teach?

  • I love teaching beginner and intermediate students. I like to teach the fundamental building blocks of techniques.
  • I love teaching networking because once they understand hot and cold seals, they can make anything, or start to go big, work sculpturally. 
  • I’m really into improvising and pushing the envelope: What can be a blow mold? Can we blow into food? I try to introduce this way of working.
  • Right now my class is into hollow sculpture. All the demo requests have been for animals, figures, sculpting from life. 
  • As a student, I’ve found conflicting views. There are many “right” ways of doing things, take all the info and see what you can do with it. I try to remove a hierarchy of technique so that students don’t think there is just one way of doing things.
  • Hollow networking
  • Sculpting and networking
  • From a drawing, break a sculpture down into various blobs and then teach them to hot seal those blobs together. 
  • Teaching beadmaking, I get requests to demo other people’s beads and Italian technique, which I am able to do, but don’t feel a connection to. I would rather make up some new design. Now, I start with a generative design exercise that we can draw ideas from, in order to limit cultural appropriation and give artists agency over their own designs. Re-evaluating what success could be.
  • When I teach ring seals, everybody makes the same little bubbler. Then I tell them, “OK now take those techniques and make something I’ve never seen before.”
  • I began by asking “what is beautiful to you and why? For me that’s often gradients of color, smooth transitions, but there’s so many different answers. Challenge people to think about what they like and why. 
  • “My students always want me to teach them implosions or heady pendant techniques lol. I always save that demo for the end of the semester as a “reward”; because I know some people would only make pendants all semester if I demo’ed it earlier!”
  • “I also encourage healthy competition, we have a marble rolling contest :)”
  • Scribble with a glass rod, dripping the glass to make a teardrop.
  • Flame chemistry
  • Gathering with one hand
  • I like to walk around and observe every student. When I see them hanging up, I’ll let them do it, then I’ll ask them if they want help. Then sometimes, I’ll take the rod from them and execute that part they were hanging up on and then give it back to them. 
  • I always try to show encouragement. 
  • For advanced techniques, you might need some more information beyond just having fun and playing around. 
  • Get students comfortable with lighting the torch. 
  • Get students comfortable with messing up in front of one another. 
  • “Anatomy of the flame, then compression and expansions, then making something functional with those compression and expansion”
  • “A stir rod with a round sphere on the end..”
  • “Rings – they can be as creative at you want, and lots of skills involved- hot seal, cold seal, bridging, sculpting, color application, sizing, revising…” 
  • “The first thing I focus on is studio ice-breakers with a simple assignment, this helps me understand where people are mentally and technically, and give me insight on how to teach the course.”

If you’re self taught, are you your own teacher in some way?

  • I think being an autodidact, or being self taught, you are your own teacher. I feel like it requires the same type of focus or structure of seeking out information.
  • I’ve been trying to find a balance between having students teach themselves a little bit and giving tons of information. I want them to be able to think critically for themselves, and find that sweet balance where they can get the info they need, but also empower themselves to ask questions, so I’m not creating the questions and answers for them. 
  • We’re all teaching ourselves, even students. We’re gonna be learning from somebody, but also teaching ourselves that that person is teaching us. 
  • “I suppose the interesting position that I find myself in is that I’m looking at the stuff that hasn’t really been explored before, so I end up doing my own R&D and kind of pushing what I learn without there really being an established knowledge base.”
  • I’ve found just being able to keep it short and simple on the demos, but letting them play is what my approach is. It’s a beginner class, so you’re not looking for advanced techniques. I just want them to get comfortable with the glass. 
  • Even though I took traditional flameworking, (when I’m teaching) I’m like, here’s the basics, but also, you might discover something completely new. A lot of my classes are designed around play. 
  • I’m in the process of working on some STEAM proposals, grants for kids of color to do science art camp, with glass and experiments, things like that. 
  • I’m starting to dive more into that world of being able to pass the knowledge on. I feel like there’s a lack in the glass world, OG’s are still holding on to things and still wanting to support them and take their classes, they’re not like, “Hey, let me come through and help support you.”
  • I will be consulting with my first tech company in San Francisco to teach the new employees some simple things about glass. 
  • “I’m really grateful for this conversation and this opportunity because it’s kind of like new horizons for me to explore outside of, making stuff and selling it.”
  • For me, it’s not about teaching glass. It’s just this zone that you get into if you’re a student, or if you’re a teacher, you’re working together in this energy zone that you have. So it could be anything. 
  • I like showing one part of what I want them to learn, but I also don’t want to influence the students creatively to navigate strongly towards what I would personally do. 
  • Sometimes students fly a little too close to the sun, or try something beyond their skill level. Teaching is about keeping the pace and managing expectations. 

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LINK TO RESOURCE (GOOGLE DOC)

Last updated: 11/10/23

Art Law: Copyright for Glass and Neon Artists

An overview of visual art copyright, tailored towards glass and neon artists. This presentation and resource list includes information on how to register a copyright, ideas for how to protect your work online, and what to do if your work has been infringed upon. All information was gathered from and confirmed by a copyright attorney.

A video presentation was paired with this slide deck during a She Bends presentation at UrbanGlass in May 2021.

Resources

Lawyers for the Arts by State
https://law-arts.org/national-vla-directory

Artist Guide to Copyrights by The Creative Independent
https://thecreativeindependent.com/guides/an-artists-guide-to-copyrights/

Copyright Registration
https://www.copyright.gov/registration/

DMCA
https://copyrightalliance.org/faqs/how-to-send-dmca-takedown-notice/

Cases

Satava vs. Lowry
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1169793.html

McGucken v. Newsweek, LLC,
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-york/nysdce/1:2019cv09617/524753/35/

LINK TO RESOURCE (.PDF)

Resource submitted by Meryl Pataky of She Bends

Flame Affinity Group Meeting Notes: Equity and Access in Public and Private Spaces

GEEX Flame Affinity Group
Equity and Access in Public and Private Spaces
February 23, 2023 7PM EDT
Facilitated by Amy Lemaire and Madeline Rile Smith

Notes compiled by Amy Lemaire and Madeline Rile Smith.
Entries in quotes are copied directly from the chat.
Each bullet point represents a comment by a participant.  

Do you rent a studio? Rent a space? Work in an institution? What is your workspace like?

  • Multiple workspaces:
    • I maintain two workspaces: one is private, and one is community oriented
    • Make monotonous work in the institutional space so it’s easy to interact with others while working, and when I don’t want to be interrupted I work in my private studio.
    • Private flameshop at home, and working out of the places I teach
    • My private studio is limited in firepower, so when I need larger equipment and assistance, I move the project to the school I teach at (Salem Community College)
    • Work at several universities, in group studio spaces, where there are constant interruptions, so it’s nice to also have a home studio when I need quiet time
    • Home garage studio, rent time in a friend’s shop for lathe and cold shop access
  • Private studios:
    • Private, rented, flameworking studio in a building full of flameworkers and I also work as a tech at an institution (Tyler), where there are a lot of interruptions in the workflow
    • Historic studio space — there are limitations of alteration to convert to a flame shop
      • Shipping container — running a kiln off a generator and solar power
      • Bay Area Glass Institute (BAGI)
      • Portable flameworking setup on wheels used for on-site public demos
    • Early on I had a studio in parent’s basement, and now I have a nice studio in my home
    • Turned an old greenhouse into a hotshop
    • Built a flameworking studio in a school bus 
    • Moved to a rural location and set up a flameshop in the basement, which was not ideal, so moved to a better space with a studio in a separate studio
    • We do production work in the mornings, which is team oriented, and in the evenings everyone has a chance to work independently and do their own thing
    • There are no schools or institutions nearby to work at so we built our own shop
    • In a rural location, closest rentable studio is 3 hours away, built a home studio in the garage over a couple of years
    • Home studio with 4 torches, rents out studio space and teaches
    • Background is in neon, and also does a little flameworking
      • Have some neon torches set up in a tractor garage on a rural farm, while pursuing other types of making beyond glass
  • Institutional studio:
    • Works at Pittsburgh Glass Center
      • A public studio can be challenging to access some times of the year because it is very busy with multi-week classes, production glassworking
      • Some limitations with ventilation and the way the studio was designed
      • Have done neon demonstrations outside, with some wind covering, and plan to do more of that at home
    • Glassblower, and longtime “institutional leech” — has always had institutional relationships of different types to gain studio access, but it is a hustle working at many institutions at once; have a university position and access to an amazing facility
  • “I like the idea of occasionally renting out time in a private studio as a form of passive income.”

What environment do you prefer to learn in? (For example, traveling to an institution group studio to take an in person class, participating in  a webinar virtually in your home studio and accessing instruction virtually through Twitch/Discord/Zoom)

  • Take classes in the spaces I teach in, and seek out new skills to learn though instructional classes
  • Early on, I attended immersive classes at institutions, and was exposed to many master craftspeople who I got to know in the studio, and also outside the studio. 
  • Started off as an apprentice, traveling and sleeping on friends couches, and living on a budget to have access to the masters. Now, I appreciate peace and space in the studio on a set schedule, and I appreciate the organization of having my own space.
  • Teaching or assisting with teaching allows me to absorb intimate knowledge and gives access to many different perspectives. 
  • I have a meandering path with learning, started with a BFA in ceramics, and then started flameworking, when there were not a lot of classes available at the time, so collaborating and learning from other artists has been a big part of the educational process and to be able to travel and work that way is still my preference. 
  • I think if you take a class with someone you are more likely to emulate what you saw, while if you collaborate with another artist you learn but are able to internalize the lesson and put your own spin on it right away and make a piece that survives. 
  • “My favorite way to learn is applying for scholarships at craft schools each summer with varying success.”
  • “I was initially drawn to flameworking for its individuality and being able to gain a style independently — over time I have come to realize how important it is to have community and external influences on my work”
  • “I like learning something new. Working on another degree. I like learning from older people with 20 more years in their field”
  • “You can learn more about the larger history and culture of flameworking by traveling to other studios and meeting new people”
  • “I learn from the students while I have the opportunity to experiment with new techniques. (while teaching or assisting)”
  • Traveling, learning in new environments and cultures:
    • Like to combine travel and learning; prefer to travel to a studio to take a class
    • I like to travel around the world and take a class in a different culture
    • I love meeting new people in a group setting, and then going back to my private studio to practice what I have learned
    • Taking workshops wherever I could get a scholarship (at institutions like PGC, Corning, Pilchuck) many years in a row, consistently. Scholarships make classes accessible, especially to students on a budget.
    • I like going to a new shop to get out of my comfort zone and meet new people. 
    • Traveling to be with a group of people to learn helps me quite a lot, and I also value one on one mentorship. 
    • I like to take classes at Penland, because the studio space and food are amazing
    • “I travel to take classes based on a subject matter and teacher I want to learn from. I’m not choosy about the facility. Even if it is crappy I’m only there briefly anyway.”

How do you assess the safety of a space, and what does a safe space look like to you, socially, emotionally, and physically?

  • Set-up, architecture, and design for safety:
    • Feeling physically safe in a shared space is important – bench setup, ventilation, proper flooring
    • Good ventilation
    • Important for institutions to model best safety practices (i.e. ventilation), especially since institutions are often the first experience students have with a flameworking studio
    • Modeling best practices at public events, like Glass Vegas and Flame-Offs, that often don’t have any ventilation and are also often the first exposure folx have to flameworking
    • In an institution, attention to details, like having basic first aid supplies available, such as bandaids
  • Awareness, attentiveness and caution:
    • “A sense of organization and care is important for the space to feel safe and welcoming. In public spaces, I feel cared for when technicians or staff check in on renters.”
    • “I saw a CGI video demonstrating how a propane tank can explode or become a rocket and shoot through the ceiling while starting flameworking! A good visual to remember to keep the propane tanks outside at the end of the day.”
    • “Fear in the right doses sharpens your vigilance.”
    • “If I can find it there’s a good video of a stringer removal from someone’s eye…”
  • Communication, attitude and codes of conduct:
    • I prefer not to be around people drinking alcohol in the studio, or cigarette smoke in the workspace, and excessive fuming (heavy metals on glass) without proper ventilation
    • Attitude in a group space, and keeping emotions in check in a public setting, especially when glass breaks
    • Being respectful of personal boundary issues in a group space: being respectful of my time, and of my work (not ripping off my designs)
    • Maintaining good communication in a group space, and if there is dispute, handling it professionally, and promptly so the situation does not escalate
    • My studio is very queer, and I’m hoping to keep it that way. Many studios nearby are female dominated. The institutions keep respect for gender identity and misogyny in check, but in personal studios the situation can vary.
    • Some studios in the 1970s were really unsafe. Having clear rules and a union are helpful when working in the universities to keep things in check.
    • Respect for different cultural traditions in a group space
    • Being around microaggression and aggression in a white dominated space is challenging. Being tokenized and forced to adapt culturally in a white dominated studio space
    • Being considerate of how people are actually feeling in a space instead of making them adapt to what’s going on
  • Concerns in private flameworking studios:
    • In a private flameworking studio, safety can be unchecked. Ex: piles of broken glass around the lathe and hoses, neighbors setting off the sprinklers/fire alarm, people having guns in a nearby studio space
    • In private shops, it can be harder to push back against unsafe situations  
    • In private shops, whose responsibility is it to be the safety police?
    • Limiting how long I let people come and work in our home studio is helpful in keeping a safe atmosphere, physically and emotionally
  • Additional comments:
    • “Great point to reconsider the ‘this was grandfathered in…’ mentality”
    • “I feel like I’ve had to figure out how to deal with the things that go on in the studios I’ve worked in because for me, it’s kind of the price of access.I end up having to figure out what I can and cannot deal with and just manage that on my own. This sometimes ends up being that I don’t work in that studio or that equipment.”
    • “I guess what makes me feel unsafe is when you can tell safety is not other peoples’ priority.”
  • Salem Community College (public/institutional studio) 
    • Large open space, two 20-seat benches for torches and shared bank of lathes. Easy to move from studio to studio (i.e. can easily roll a lathe) 
  • Madeline’s home studio (private studio)
    • In her backyard, climate controlled, large windows, small footprint, but high ceilings, custom flame shop buildout
  • Building in a little bit of flexibility in studios: incredibly helpful
  • Prioritize sweeping glass off the floor so it doesn’t pop wheelchair tires 
  • Accessibility for different types of abilities in glass: creating an accessible, inclusive environment for all artists to feel comfortable in
  • Raising awareness for different physical abilities in the studio (i.e. accommodating a person using crutches or allowing a person to bring a stool to sit on during long demos) 
  • Ergonomics in glassworking: paying attention to working conditions so you’re not in pain, like using the lathe for larger pieces, or not hunching over which causes back pain 
  • “I have had to go to shade five (filters) because my eyes are too sensitive for lighter shades (of safety glasses).”
  • Hoping it will be a good example of a well built, forward thinking institutional studio
  • Accessible height bench, great ventilation, ongoing opportunities for visiting artists to teach, ongoing search for full time faculty in glass
  • Auto shutoff manifolds for oxygen, propane tanks on scales
  • Studio is ADA compliant, and two of the benches have adjustable height to accommodate wheelchairs and different body types
  • “Great way to create a space for making where being able-bodied is not immediately assumed or expected.”
  • “UW’s shop will have 15 total stations including an instructor bench and 2 ADA accessible workstations each with 4′ spacing.”
  • Add contrast: put something dark (graphite pad) between the flame and the bench
  • Penland offers a movement class, and the movement instructor will come into your class and give advice
  • Using a set of rollers to create a point of reference in the flame can help with depth perception issues, especially when flame is pointed at an angle
    • In a group studio, using rollers can be a way to address depth perception issues or hand shakiness without calling attention to the student
  • Hands/movement:
    • Shaky hands: make a brace for your hands right next to the torch and use a yoke to stabilize the hand
    • What kind of hoses are on your torch? Thick hoses wear out your wrists when working on the lathe
  • Grateful for environments like Flame Affinity Group that prepare me for different abilities that come up when teaching
  • Approaching health topics in a sensitive way tends to make students feel more comfortable and open to disclosing their situation
  • Worked with a person who was deaf in the class who had a sign language interpreter

Pittsburgh Glass Center

Wheaton Arts CGCA Fellowship

Urban Glass

Corning Museum of Glass

Snow Farm

Pilchuck Glass School

Pratt Fine Art Center

Penland School of Craft

“Studio practice tends to be kind of fluid for all of us over time.”

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LINK TO RESOURCE (GOOGLE DOC)

Last updated: 4/4/23

Flame Affinity Group Meeting Notes: The Economics of Flameworking

GEEX Flame Affinity Group
The Economics of Flameworking
November 3, 2022 7PM EDT
Facilitated by Amy Lemaire and Madeline Rile Smith

Notes compiled by Amy Lemaire and Madeline Rile Smith.
Entries in quotes are copied directly from the chat.
Each bullet point represents a comment by a participant.  

  • Jewelry:
    • Jewelry for the contemporary jewelry collector market and people who like large jewelry 
    • Make jewelry, trying to make things I haven’t really seen before, like unusual glass beads and chains
    • Production jewelry, which has a specific audience (ex. production implosion pendants) and contemporary jewelry
    • Make marbles and implosion pendants. Popular as far as jewelry goes, and a great way to get your stuff out there in the world
    • I’ve done beads and bead shows, did jewelry for many years
  • Fabrication/consultation:
    • Consulting for shipping and crating of glass (particularly delicate and flameworked items)
    • Fabrication for other artists (contemporary art world) 
    • Spent a year making chains for Calvin Klein’s runway shows
    • Make prep for other artists who use glass parts in mixed media sculpture 
    • Fabrication for artists. The audience is the contemporary artist, or whoever their audience is, and that’s a bigger part of my income stream
  • Gig work:
    • Pretty common to diversify your income stream
    • Glass adjacent gigs: public speaking, lecturing and teaching as an advocate for flameworking. All paid work. Audience largely institutional. 
    • I’ve been a gig worker for 25 years; lots of different income streams that are all flameworking related or adjacent
  • Pipes:
    • Making pipes to bring in side-money, because renting time in the hot shop was expensive and I didn’t have access.
    • First Fridays in downtown LA, setting up a table and selling pipes.
    • I would do some consignment at pipe shops, and then also I was just hitting people up on the streets and asking hey are you interested in some glass
    • “Making pipes for a side hustle.”
  • I am doing a lot of stuff around flameworking that I guess a lot of people don’t get involved with.
    • Would say my audience is myself, at this point, because I am really just interested in exploring the medium.
    • I do a lot of research and development, material science, trying to figure out and understand glass. I write up some of the stuff that I come up with so that other people can tread and hopefully use as a jumping off point.
    • Flameworking ceramics and glass 
  • Teach glass and other things
  • In grad school for illustration and making dioramas of handmade glass and laser cut textiles that I’m photographing to illustrate children’s books I’ve written 
  • Sculptures and performance art with flameworking. Try to make my work accessible — the audience is the general public. Wanted to foster a wider entry point to glass.
  • Including bits and pieces that are sculpted on the torch to use in my larger sculptures made in the hotshop
  • Reusing glass from the hotshop to then repurpose and potentially making a product line
  • Make work resembling plants, succulents, coral, etc.
  • I worked at REI, and used to make snails with little pins on them and would sell these to my fellow employees at work. 
  • Scientific glassworking:
    • I work in Research and development in Silicon Valley and that really set me up for where I am now- I have a corporate scientific job with Bruce Suba as my mentor doing glass to metal seals. That set me up to now be in a position to just make my own work for fun, to just be an artist. 
    • Scientific glassworking = flameworking for a living. Getting paid to practice your skills that you can then use for your side hustles. 
    • I still have my own (flameworking) business since the 70s, but I also do scientific apparatus and that gives me the ability to do whatever I want. 
  • My husband and I run a glass art studio in British Columbia. It’s about building a community and learning what the community needs from you as a flameworker. Just find your niche within that.
    • My husband did a lot of goblets. We started teaching and building a community who appreciated art. 
    • We moved to a town of about 5000 people, going from doing big art shows to communicating directly with our customers, with walk-in traffic to our shop. Now we are dealing with distributors (pipes) 
    • Many revenue streams: we do scientific repair for local University, we do upcycled glass work from recycled bottles into reusable goods, pipes, that are sold mostly through distributors and the big trade shows.
  • Podcasting:
    • I do a podcast (Taming Lightning) where I talk about neon and plasma. Skill sets are in the hotshop, but I also use flameworking principles to get a better overall seal in the hotshop and find ways I can use that in the flame shop as well.
    • Podcasting and lecturing as a glass adjacent income stream
    • Provide content for a YouTube producer to make a glassblowing YouTube show (Gather Glass with Wildfire) to educate the audience and community. Doesn’t really make money, but increases exposure. Started with a podcast, then a live show, now it’s monthly. Doing an interview with Marble Slinger who has a new movie coming out. Crosspollinate with other artists and producers. 
  • Recently working on a commission for plasma chops, cups were fabricated, and I filled them with gasses. People reach out to me from IG, Facebook, etc.
  • Portable glassblowing studio that we take into the community to demonstrate and share about glassblowing and flameworking and what we do.
  • “Recycled glass production line.” 
  • “Servicing other studios”
  • Started with selling stuff out of my trunk, but I realized that I didn’t want to live this way.
  • Impact of COVID-19:
    • When COVID hit there was a huge drop and supply chain issues, getting flameworking supplies and glass was difficult because color comes from the US so it is hard to be competitive with pricing. 
    • During COVID, we lost the ability to connect with our customers, people were not hanging out and sharing glass, that’s what the cannabis community is all about. 
    • When teaching went online it was an opportunity for students to learn about the history of glass. It really opened my mind up. I had everyone look at the history of painting, and look at the glass in paintings, and tell me how the glass was made.
    • During COVID we had to build out communities, both in person and online. Online we can connect with a global audience.
  • YouTube, TikTok, Livestreaming:
    • More and more folks are monetizing their YouTube channel, or live streaming, doing more income generating activities with social media and connecting with their audiences to sell their work through the internet. 
    • I started making TikTok videos – TikTok reached out to me to make educational videos during the pandemic. So I started making glass-related content for the general public as an audience. It has become a significant source of income for me. 
    • For a while it seemed like IG reels were paying a lot of money (“quit your day job’ money) TikTok tried to compete by paying creators. As a creator, I’m trying to take advantage of the giant companies competing with each other. 
    • Making content generates a significant amount of income, and also keeps your audience engaged, and potentially opportunities to sell your work. 
    • For the long run, I think YouTube has more potential for monetization
    • Live streams can be a good source of income, and people will send you gifts and flowers, products, etc.
  • I’ve been talking about shifting towards online, but I was going in that direction anyways. 
  • I did the UrbanGlass hotline where I talked about plasma, and combined a lecture and demonstration. I find that because of how spread out people are in neon and plasma, I have almost no choice but to reach people through online references. 
  • @surfratglass at a previous meeting shared how he pivoted during the pandemic to find a new audience and ended up monetizing his IG account and creating content that way by live streaming and making videos. 
  • The possibility of making objects to sell, but then also being able to monetize that time you are making by having a live stream. 
  • Most of my work is going through a gallery or through a couple of art fairs that I do locally, but by galleries recently retired. I’m looking to get more things on. My online shop. 
Financing Your Art Practice
  • Having a day job, like teaching or fabrication, takes the economic pressure off my art
  • You really need to do what you love and finance it somehow
  • Saving and planning ahead:
    • Spent over a decade in tech, managed to save up enough to not have to rely on making working in the glass sustainable
    • Interesting stuff not going to be sustainable in the beginning — so maybe finding some way to make the money beforehand
  • Last year, saved up and took on a bunch of work so that this year I could take more creative risks and build a new audience with my own sculpture. I would put that in the research and development category.
  • For production: think of an hourly minimum rate you want to make, then build in the cost of materials.
    • Develop a calculator: consider how much to pay yourself hourly, whether to hire an assistant, think through the steps to complete the project and estimate the time needed to complete the project.
    • If you work at an institution, factor in studio rental.
    • When selling art, look at what other people are doing for pricing info.
    • For fabrication and consulting: Add 20% for overhead, labor, materials (include shipping)
  • For commissions, customs, fabrication, or services:
    • There’s a lot of R&D involved, there’s email communication, documenting and sending pictures of the progress. 
    • Sometimes clients have a fixed budget, like funding or grants from a museum
    • Find someone doing something similar, consider developing a mentorship
    • When fabricating or doing commissions, I am not doing the selling or marketing. When making my own work, I have to accommodate marketing. So I use a higher overhead because I’m wearing more hats as an artist than as a fabricator.
    • Repairs on a piece can be difficult to estimate (time and cost) if there are too many unknown variables, or if I’m asked to do something that is out of my wheelhouse. In those cases, start with a bigger number because project management is involved. 
    • Add in travel and build it into your contract. Include lodging.
    • Also set down some boundaries. I.E. Make sure they have all the parts first before you travel for install so you’re not wasting your time.
  • Value of mentorship:
    • For a service I call “Technical Consultation” where I go service a manifold and organize an institution’s setup. Rusty Russo helped me first establish an hourly rate ($45/hr).
  • Pricing artwork/jewelry and research:
    • For sculpture in the fine art market, there are some price breaks to know about. Small sculptures (under $3000) start here first. Once you’ve sold in that range, try $3000 to $5000, then $5000 to $10,000. Different collectors in each range. Galleries and art fairs use this pricing structure. 
    • Research who your peers/competitors are, and consider what the market will bear. Look at whose work is selling and for what in different venues like galleries and art fairs. A little bit of market research will take you a long way.
    • With contemporary jewelry, knowing your client and their price ranges so that you can make sure you’re marketing to the right client with your price point. 
    • What does the landscape of the market look like that you are trying to enter? Helps to be realistic about your price point (and confident about it, too.) If you’re not getting a good response to the work, it will be easier to troubleshoot because either your prices are out of whack, or it’s the wrong market for you.
    • Donating your work to auctions can be a good research tool to see what people will be willing to pay for a specific piece (can be incredibly valuable info)
    • I saw on an IG story an implosion pendant similar to mine going for double the price that I was selling at and decided to up my prices in my Etsy store. Learning what the market will bear is a valuable insight.
  • Give yourself a buffer (of a few hundred $) if you need to reschedule or redo something
  • I don’t make pieces as a commodity, and don’t want to put that pressure on this specific work. Tricky to price my performance art/sculpture because there are hundreds of hours on a piece. Ex: an object that is used on the body in a performance, that will be exhibited with the video performance — the price becomes a kind of token of the burden. 
  • To survive: I teach, do production and fabrication. These income streams support my personal art practice which takes up an equal amount of time. 
  • Not everybody is your client, and it’s really important to be able to separate yourself from your work, because it can get emotional when for example, with jewelry a client says “I love your work, but it’s way too expensive for me.” Consider the possibility that your prices may be fine, but this may not be your client/audience for the work. 
  • When work sells at auction, contact the buyer because that adds to your audience.
  • The 10% rule: If you have a business, you should always have sales goals. If you meet your yearly goal, then you raise your prices by 10%. When you raise your prices, you can expect to lose 10% of your clients, who are not able to grow with you. But you will still make the same amount of money. This is one way to build your business by elevating the value of your products incrementally based on sales performance. 
  • “This might be from my esoteric position, but if I focus on economics, I find that it constrains what I can do too much. In order to take into account the economics means that I have to focus on a larger/popular audience… and I am not really interested in either consuming or producing things for that. My interests are very niche, and in order to be in that area, I cannot maximize economics. Those things seem to be mutually exclusive”
How do you handle extras/seconds that are nice but aren’t selling?
  • Should we try to employ the bartering system more?
    • Barter the seconds, buy the firsts.
    • “The barter system is alive and well! I supplement my $ income with bartering.”
  • Seconds sales online:
    • Saw another glass artist live on TikTok doing a studio cleanout sale, everything was around $5. Use the chat to buy, artist will ship it to you. 
    • Doing a clean out sale on social media – you don’t know who is watching.
    • Tempted to do online sales and would love to sell to my friends for cheap, but worried about degrading my prices.
  • Ideas and concerns about selling/promotion:
    • Open house in our studio once a year — that’s the only time we put out the seconds. Connecting with people face to face shows dedication if client’s are willing to show up for the seconds sale.
    • Hide and Seek:
      • Hide your seconds in a park and take a picture to post online so someone can find it – stash and dash, geotagging.
      • Doing Hide and Seek and connecting with people online are about building community, and in turn, hopefully those people will buy your work. Also it helps value your product by boosting your visibility in the algorithm and linking and sharing your account with other people. All of these are marketing tools that we now have at our fingertips.
    • Hosting a dinner party and charging an entry fee and everyone can take an object home with them. 
  • I’ll sell it to a friend for cheap, or give it away if it’s the difference between keeping it or throwing it away. 
  • I destroy the seconds because after I’m gone they might become mixed up with the firsts. We don’t have control over what our legacy is. 
  • I’ll cannibalize pieces and reconfigure them into new pieces of jewelry
  • Being a glassworker, and having to deal with storage of first quality work, in addition to seconds. 
  • Electrician working on my house bought a piece from me. I was excited because it was not my regular audience. I also bartered with the HVAC guy and made him a set of elephants.
  • Recycling glass in a vitreograph kiln – making cane for bead makers, vitreograph paintings. All glass is recyclable, people!
  • “Glass collage”
  • “Brooklyn Glass! Hot Glass Cold Beer!”
Digital Income Streams
  • Cameo App:
    • Pay celebrities/personalities for short custom messages.
    • Could it be an educational tool? On-demand educational videos, or tech support. An information sharing opportunity for custom glass videos. 
  • Rights to content:
    • Consider if you are giving exclusive rights to your content or video.
    • Are you letting a big platform repost your videos for free? That allows others to profit from your content if their account is monetized.
    • Consider a Sole Licensing agreement, where you license rights to your content, but still retain rights to use it yourself as well.
    • I can change the content slightly and license it, or just recreate the content. 
  • “Would this be the time to bring up the issue of how the net is pretty much dominated by a handful of companies, and have enormous amounts of influence on what gets seen and not seen? I feel like depending on these platforms to stay sustainable is a risky bet”
  • In college, I learned how to make a business card and a resume. The niches of how to make a living never came up.
    • How do you keep up your social media? If you’re not into that, how do you develop a relationship with galleries?
    • How do you enter into a market?
    • What are the different types of markets?
    • How do you balance the right level of professional persona and also personal persona for the internet? How do you seem like a real person but also cultivate your own brand?
    • Teaching people how to be fluid with technology.
    • How to write a cover letter 
    • “I’m constantly surprised when artists don’t understand some tech standards… file formats, jpg tiff png, along with formatted text documents as MS word docs instead of standards like PDF”
  • Documentation:
    • “I finally started to hire people to document exhibitions and it makes such a huge difference. I attribute those images to getting me additional opportunities. So definitely worth the money in the end.
    • Can you use the barter system to have a friend take pictures for you? Documentation is everything.
  • I think it’s important to think about how we are using energy.
    • There is just so much waste and we need to get a hold of that. Glass is an incredibly recyclable material. Are we using it to its fullest potential?
    • What is the right COE for what you are trying to do? Where are we setting our torches? What torch?
    • What is the lowest temperature you can go to create what you want to make? Ex: murrini could be COE 96 or 104 instead of 33.
  • Personal energy and the economics of personal time.
    • How are you spending your time? Do we have to do everything ourselves, or can we delegate? Recognizing when there is a huge learning curve that could be overcome by bringing in a collaborator, jobbing out a task. (tech, photography, etc.) When to spend the money.
    • You don’t have to do everything yourself, especially as your business grows 
    • Don’t waste your time reinventing the wheel — pay a professional to get it done.
    • Ex: Paying for a good photo of your work can then allow you to access more opportunities, and you are also supporting another artist (photographer)
    • Making things with intent (building things that are useful and thoughtful) as a way of talking about energy management.
Media Training
  • Media training used to be done by PR firms in preparation for publicly representing an art center in the media, especially on live television, and in interviews where you are representing an institution. An extension of public speaking.
    • Handy for podcasting and lecturing
    • Also helpful for more spontaneous events, like receiving an award, where you set the tone and language with your audience.
  • Social media, live streaming, “dos and don’ts” 
  • When asked a question, repeat the question in your answer to provide context
  • Material costs, cost of gas, inflation
  • Flameworking is one of the most economic forms of hot glass working with much less overhead than other forms of hot glass working. 
  • My middle range of sales haven’t been great, but the lesser priced items do well and the higher priced items do well. So, I’m better off spending my time cutting out the mid range and focusing on the top and bottom of the markets. 
  • Starting a flameworking studio at home to offset costs and increase access to hot glass so I can make things in the $45-75 range, and I can sell a lot of those and they don’t take much time to make. Also, I can prep flameworked parts ahead of time to be used on bigger work in the hotshop. 
NFTs and energy usage
  • NFTs as an alternative to print
    • Make glass lenses that I use on my camera to make digital images. Rather than making them into a physical print, I opted to make them into NFTs so they can stay in the digital realm.
    • Making a tool to generate art: I can blow one lens and use that to make an infinite amount of images.
  • Carbon footprint:
    • Rarible platform allows you to list an NTF for sale, but with no blockchain activity until a sales transaction takes place. This way I can minimize the energy usage up front and be more intentional about how energy is used.
    • Joe Lee did some research and calculated that the gas usage for minting one NFT is about equal to firing two ceramic kilns. Translating into glassmaker and ceramic terminology.
  • Projecting NFTs:
    • I like the idea that it doesn’t have a physical format but can exist into the physical world through projection. I’ve been projecting them onto sculptures. 
  • NFTs have not been fruitful for me monetarily, but have been useful in community building. Value in opportunities to generate conversation.
  • Proof of stake and proof of work on the blockchain
    • “tezos is proof of stake, and very low energy”
Is there an investment (i.e. a piece of stock/tool) you’ve made that you regret?
  • Tools:
    • I’ve bought more pairs of grabbers than I will ever need. 
    • At what point are you just collecting tools?
    • A butter knife is gonna give you the same result (as a fancy tool). My favorite tool is my housemate’s butter knife. 
    • Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best.
  • Conferences:
    • At conferences, I always buy the same colors and then never use them. Specifically, it’s a black glass that turns rainbow when you melt it. Apparently I am seduced by this color when shopping in person.
    • India green, it was super cheap at a conference. It is super ugly though. Now that it is out of production is it worth $$
  • I hoard color and tools I’ll never use, just to collect.
  • I think mine would be more like patternmaking. There’s this old type of pattern that neon people use that has fiberglass elements to it. It is noxious, and smells when you use it. Paper and a wire screen is all I need.
  • “I have some lead paint powder”
  • If you are just starting out selling your work, reaching out to your community is a great way to start. People want to support you. Start small and local, branch out from there. 
  • Hustle is like your building community, it’s you connecting with people, and that’s eventually going to be the people who carry you to where you want to be with glass. 
  • “Support your contemporaries too by sharing their work, there are no competitors. When it comes back, they will think of you.”

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LINK TO RESOURCE (GOOGLE DOC)

Last updated: 1/4/23

Sonic Level for Glassblowing (Punty Level)

Want a tool for beginners struggling to keep pipes/punties level? Ken Flanagan developed the punty level as a glassblowing teaching aid for Professor Helen Lee at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

A student is holding a glassblowing punty with a pink level sensor attached near the back of the pipe.

This tool emits a tone based on the degree of deviation from the level plane. It is loud enough to hear over the ambient noise in the hot shop. It attaches to a pipe/punty with a 3D-printed clamp that can accept a large range of different pipe/punty diameters. The hinges are printed in place, meaning that there is no assembly once the print is complete (other than the electronics).

To minimize awkwardness for the gaffer, the punty level is quite small and can easily be mounted on the far end of the pipe/punty. It is secured with a rubber band.

For ease of replication, there is a GitHub page for the project (including instructions in the wiki) and a Thingiverse part for the 3D-printed clamp.

LINK TO RESOURCE

Resource submitted by Ken Flanagan

Fluxus Resource List

A list of links to resources about Fluxus including exhibitions, books, press releases, websites, and other documents.

A silhouette of a person in profile breathing out air in front of a Schlieren Mirror. The phenomena captures the turbulence of air surrounding the person.
Tang JW, Nicolle ADG, Pantelic J, Jiang M, Sekhr C, Cheong DKW, et al. (2011) Qualitative Real-Time Schlieren and Shadowgraph Imaging of Human Exhaled Airflows: An Aid to Aerosol Infection Control.

Glass Flux Resource List

A Book of Surrealist Games (.PDF)
Book – Assembled in 1995

Fluxus : selections from the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection (.PDF)
1988 Catalog of Exhibition @ MOMA

Hans Ulrich Obrist Do it: the Compendium (BOOK)
2013 Compendium of Instructions by contemporary artists

Related exhibition website with instructions

Time and Motion Studies  (.PDF)
1953 Report from Glass Technology Conference

Sol Lewitt Drawing Series (.PDF)
Pamphlet – 2006 Exhibition at DIA Beacon, includes wall drawing tites/instructions

Event Scores of Alison Knowles (LINK)

Silence: Lectures and Writing of John Cage (.PDF)
1939 Book 

Work Ethic (BOOK)
Catalog – 1993 exhibition at Baltimore Museum of Art

Great Bear Pamphlets (LINK)
1965-67 Fluxus inspired pamphlets

Erwin Wurm One minute sculptures (LINK)
2017 Artist Website

The Glass Object (LINK)
2018 Participatory project by Celest Wilson documented on Instagram

Merce Cunningham (.PDF)
Article by Jonathan Burrows, includes scores

How To Make A Happening (.PDF)
1966 Lecture by by Allan Kaprow, there are 11 rules of the game

Notes on Choreography by Merce Cunningham (LINK)
Short Essay about translation of notations

Fluxus Scores and Instructions (LINK)
2008 EFlux Announcement; Exhibition in Denmark

Notations by John Cage and Alison Knowles (.PDF)
1965 Book, visible, but behind paywall

The Artist and Writers Cookbook (NEED SOURCE)
1961 Book with scores and instructions by (then) contemporary artists

40 Years of Rule Based Art (.PDF)
2005 Catalog/Press Release for exhibition

Performers Guide to Interludes for a Prepared Piano (LINK)
Instructions to recreate 1949 piece by John Cage

Additional Resources (Links broken or unavailable)

Performance Artist’s Workbook 
2017 Book about teaching Performance Art

Draw it with your eyes closed Website
2012 Book and Website

Grapefruit: A book of Drawings and Instructions by Yoko Ono
1965 Book

The Fluxus Performance Workbook
1960-70 Edited Compilation – published in 2002, scores from 60s and 70s

LINK TO RESOURCE (GOOGLE DOC)

Resource submitted by Kim Harty

Pricing Structure Worksheet

An easy-to-use spreadsheet for artists and designers producing sellable objects, created by artist and maker Heather Kraft. This worksheet provides a breakdown of cost of labor, fees, materials, markup, retail, wholesale, and asking price.

“This worksheet is a truth-teller, so it can be difficult to face. Work is expensive to make. Many artists and designers undervalue their work, according to what the market will pay for. Based on your results, you might decide the work isn’t worth the limited revenue stream. Be honest with yourself — and be kind to yourself.”

To use, visit the resource link below and make a copy or download the Google Sheets document.

LINK TO RESOURCE (GOOGLE SHEETS)

Resource submitted by Emily Leach

Flame Affinity Group Meeting Notes: The Impact of Virtual Communities on the Field of Flameworking

GEEX Flame Affinity Group
The Impact of Virtual Communities on the Field of Flameworking
June 20, 2022 7pm EDT
Facilitated by Amy Lemaire and Madeline Rile Smith

Notes compiled by Amy Lemaire and Madeline Rile Smith.
Entries in quotes are copied directly from the chat.
Each bullet point represents a comment by a participant.  

  • Tracking independent flame education from the 90s to now:
  • Flame Affinity Group:
    • Connecting with a larger group of people. Allows us all to gather in a way that might not be very practical in the physical world. It is a different group online then in physical space.
  • On WetCanvas and LampworkEtc.com:
    • Faceless nameless people on a forum, people used online names.
    • Scoured glass-bead.org and glasspipes.org for inspiration. Any bit of info was so precious.
  • On self-selecting information:
    • When learning, can be selective in what you choose to learn. That can be empowering to choose your path (as opposed to being tied to whatever info is available)
    • Information overload – too much readily available & rich info out there now
    • The responsibility of having to “vet” information online.
    • “The fascinating thing about the abundance of information is that we’ve become dependent on things like algorithms to “curate” the flood of content, which is a double edged sword due to the biases the algorithms have, as well as the lack of transparency in the algorithms.”
  • On YouTube:
    • Can find high quality videos of almost any technique – great for autodidacts
  • On Facebook:
    • Facebook Groups for a very technical question from veterans
    • For me, the Facebook groups are a lot like what the forums used to be. A good place to go for troubleshooting, to post a question and get a range of answers.
  • On virtual demonstrations and workshops:
    • Virtual demos – much easier to do from your computer than to travel with your whole setup (and having to worry about event/conference hosts having your equipment set up.)
    • When geographically spread out, we can still connect in a meaningful way. A lot of us travel, our equipment is portable, so it suits the community that we are all able to connect in virtual space.
    • I don’t know a lot of lampworkers locally, thankful that [the opportunity to give a presentation online at a conference] happened during covid, or I probably wouldn’t have tried it otherwise
    • Gave a demo for the ISGB, and was able to do that online, and most of the audience didn’t know my work yet. It was when we were super isolated. 
    • Online workshops that are interactive, and not just a presentation still feel relatively new
    • Keep up with what’s going on with the community without risking getting Covid.
    • Took a history of flameworking class online through the Corning Museum of Glass
    • Discord – used it to take a class by Scotty Mickle
      • class platforms used: a mix between Twitch and Discord, interesting that there’s not one platform to support everything yet – it’s still a mix of multiple platforms.
      • day-long class, taught from his studio, students are in their own spaces, can be comfortable talking with the instructor. Other studios just don’t work in the same way, but the format worked well for flameworking. 
  • On Instagram:
    • Use Instagram a lot, as a research tool, to connect with artists and see what they’re doing right now, more behind the scenes stuff
      • Love the instantaneousness on Instagram: less lag time between content creation and consumption as tech develops 
    • In the context of neon/plasma I started using Instagram in 2016, it was the cherry on top of getting info.
      • I learned fundamentals in person, and then added better techniques and tips. Pick up random tricks on social networks. Now I do peer to peer: ask a question, get advice from people I know.
    • With improved quality of tech in IG, can video chat to troubleshoot in real time, peer to peer, great for community. Live tech support.
    • IG to see what techniques are being developed, how something can be made
    • IG Live – in order to boost engagement to get a better place in the algorithm
      • (ex: @bostondistillery – live Q&A for free on Thursday evenings – useful resource, takes requests)
    • Importance of having an IG presence in order to be visible to the (pipe) community.
  • On LinkedIn:
    • Business to business
    • Good for finding jobs, networking with other professionals
  • TikTok to veg out and for visibility, Instagram for inspiration, Facebook groups for specific info because they are easily searchable, but I’ll be a lurker on Facebook. 
  • On FB, lots of people who are very knowledgeable, also people who don’t have experience socializing with people.
  • I have a different relationship with every platform. 
  • I have the platforms linked together for posting
  • I use different platforms to interact with different audiences. IG for peers, FB to interact with knowledgeable makers and get advice from many different people
  • TikTok vs Instagram – videos on TikTok have a wider reach, but I don’t know anyone on TT. Viewers on IG are people I know, so I care more about their reactions.
  • There are grants to support BIPOC now (after [the uprisings for racial reckoning starting in 2020]). I got a shared announcement on IG. Would not have seen the open call otherwise.
  • Equality situation – you might get feedback, but what’s a comment when you’re trying to pay bills, not a lot of value on IG. 
  • LinkedIn – in a professional world – had a show and connected with other people of color, who can buy expensive art.
    • Wrote a story about a piece in the exhibition, great feedback, and hit the target audience.
    • Used the LinkedIn network, resulted in a sale, successfully targeting black professionals who are making money, making change.
  • LinkedIn – I think the algorithm is a little more equal, value does not depend on likes
  • GEEX is a special and unique space – algorithms are not affecting our content in this space
  • I am dependent on social media as a part of my practice.
    • These platforms are “free” and that’s amazing, but what is exchanged – our clicks, our data, our attention, our information.
    • It would be difficult for me to start over and not use these platforms because I‘ve invested a lot of time in the content
  • “Affordability, internships, mentorship, training as a trade”
  • Virtual mentoring
  • My business does not rely on social media, although I enjoy it, and find it an effective way to keep in touch with friends
  • Because of the age of the people I’m doing business with, I could probably do without social media and still be OK. How big is the role of social media?
  • Teaching a class, and a lot of people know me from social media, brought a new audience to my teaching. This just happened since the pandemic.
  • When the pandemic hit, I made a shift from selling to shops to selling off my own website, and social media has been a big part of that. 
  • Rather than my work being seen in a shop or gallery, my work is seen online. I try to represent myself the best that I can online and in my videos.
  • I’m entering the creator space, and making videos. Now I become the product, when videos attracts enough views they want to pay you to keep making videos of glass.
  • Went from 20K range to 30-40K followers, started getting messages from IG.
    • Set an account up as a business or as a creator and can get monetized status. It starts first with IG Live. I prefer to perform and make a nice video of a product I’d like to sell. @surfratglass
    • What has really helped with boosting that is a combination of TikTok and IG because when something goes viral on TikTok it pushes people to your IG. 
    • You become the product after a little while. 
  • I don’t have a huge IG followers, but I’ve noticed any post or story with my body in it goes to a whole different audience who then want to engage with me. 
  • Having your face in your videos increases your reach.
  • Longer interview style videos don’t get as much of a reach, but when I added food or confusion (ex: ambiguity regarding scale), it attracts a larger audience. Coffee or ice cream, confusion as far as size, what things are for. @surfratglass
  • I feel like “discovery” and “staying in touch” are two very different things.
  • “I use social media mostly for the follow up and the discovery part is something I recently started to experience.”
  • “Word of mouth is super important still”
  • “Great reminder that your target audience might not even be on social media.”
  • “Personal interaction can definitely make more waves than virtual space.”
  • Social media is foremost a tool for visibility
  • “I’m kind of uneasy at how centralized all the platforms are. There’s a lot of influence on the entities that run the platforms that affect the communities, and it’s often done without any awareness for smaller communities like the flameworking community.”
  • “I find that I use platforms out of necessity because so many people are relying on them as a primary source, but I’m anxious to be so dependent on a platform/company that views me more as a product than a customer.”
  • I use social media to raise awareness of flameworking, usually for people who have no idea what glass is or flameworking is
  • My audience is often a non-glass audience, or a beginner studio audience
  • I like the internet because it allows me to see glass through fresh eyes
  • It allows me to stay excited and engaged in the community (through the lens of my viewers)
  • Is it possible to be successful without relying on social media? Has it become an obligation? How do we define success? How can we define success without visibility on social media? Is it worth doing? What are other ways we might define success?
  • Social media has helped accelerate the pipe community. The audience is 18 or 21 years old (let’s hope), but they’re younger and are in a place in life where they don’t have as many bills and are able to buy things, and they are on their phones a lot. 
  • It feels like pipemaking has pushed the boundaries of what social media can do. Capitalized as using the internet for a gathering place and a market place in a way that has given a lot of visibility and also connection which I think makes us stronger. 
  • Success of the flameworking community (visibility) and the timeline of how technology has accelerated seem connected.
  • More ways that people can share their work in the glass community (visibility) 
  • Glassblowers from Blown Away (winners or contestants) have done very well on social media @garmezyglass
  • Flameworking pipemaker situation – at the very beginning I started flameworking with Bob Snodgrass in Eugene, Oregon, in 1994. That’s where flameworking was, for the most part. It was community-centric, in Eugene and also at festivals. Grew to Bellingham WA, and Corvallis, OR. Now there’s a strong presence in Colorado. I think it started in person and then grew.
  • Even before the internet, pipemakers knew of each other, the community was developing in real life
  • Following festivals, there was a whole economy following these touring bands. A lot of glass being sold, and a huge presence of colored glass and then people started showing the glass outside the community. It gave a big bump to the underground community even before the internet. Social media then emerged from that.
  • Boosted visibility through google search engine as a glassblower in Los Angeles (pushing for that boost to feed the algorithm.) Now I’m in a place with a cool physical community with open studios, hangs, etc. 
  • If you put your work online, it encourages friendly competition. They’re not going to be as afraid to respond to it. I have to represent my work to vastly different types of demographics. 
  • Downsides of sharing on social media:
    • Infringement on Intellectual Property:
      • Opens you up to copying — then I have to do my own thing even better 
      • A factory overseas stole the design for one of my pipes — got access to the design through social media
    • Bullying:
      • When a video goes viral, I experience bullying. A lot of mean comments.
      • Impostors, spammers and fake accounts
    • Social media can be a distraction or limit you
    • Clients not all on social media, I have to go to them to find that desired audience
    • Social media does not cover my personality even close – I’m great in person, and I gotta be in the streets.
  • “The field can only be democratized to the extent that the platforms are democratized. I think we need to think about democratizing the platforms/technology in order to further democratize the field.”
  • “Making our own platform?”
  • Getting together with this particular group – what looks to me like a cross section of the flameworking world. This programming is very satisfying. Could we build out more programming to support making work in virtual space? 
  • We don’t have control over the big social media platform, but something like GEEX seems like a safe space with wonderful people. It seems democratized for now.
  • Co-learners have a chance to access a lot of resources
  • As a flameworker, I spent 12 years alone in my studio not talking to anyone — so this is revolutionary. I might see these people once a year, if that, so a virtual community is appealing. 
  • Democratize the platforms in order to democratize the field. GEEX is a startup that we made to function this way. Not all platforms are limited by the algorithms.
  • Could we add more functionality to the programming? How can we build it out? 
    • Discord – a little more unilateral platform. Good place to Push a notification if you’ve posted something online.
    • “LinkedIn is also great because many folx are more likely to moderate themselves in a professional space.”
    • ”Also interesting to throw into this mix the use of glassmaking/glassmakers in promoting sales for other major corps (ex: Cedric Mitchell’s super high profile Nike and Fitbit ads)”
    • “Maybe social media is more useful for maintaining relationships after an in-person or 1-on-1 engagement”
  • “Hard to think of social media as democratizing as its such an influential platform for de-democratization…”
  • Facilitation collaborations to cross pollinate and gain more followers. 
  • How do you integrate technology at the torch? Does this change the nature of torch time?
  • Can you walk through the nuance of using TikTok in the education space? Featuring your students’ products you platform who you’re teaching. How do you reach out to your students to feature their products? 
    • As a teacher, I disclose (about my social media practice) at the beginning of the semester in the education space. Ask about filming in the studio, comfort level – maybe don’t show face, show hands only, video a piece being made in several stages. Ask for consent before sharing. Credit their work, link to school, stages of checking gin at various points. 
    • Student work went viral with 23 million views across the internet. (boosted the student and school’s visibility on IG)
    • This is the landscape we are living in right now. 
  • At school we have an ongoing dialog about Instagram and the value of likes. 
  • Technology in the classroom:
    • Sometimes at school (older generations) require putting the cell phone away. As new people teach, this is a tool that everyone uses, so can we consider how to use social media responsibly (so it is not a distraction)
  • Use social media in a constructive manner
  • Using social media is a professional practice – creating a presence, creating an audience, growing an audience, creating content as a way to bring people into your practice. 
  • For beginner students, social media can be a distraction (selfie at the torch) and also dangerous (safety) how to balance?
  • On marketing/entrepreneurship:
    • Big gap in my education, and was never really taught how to market my work. A lot of people buy consumer direct, and now it’s direct to the artist, it can be a great way to turn someone into a successful artist and keep making money off it. 
    • Business practices class did not cover marketing
    • Professional practice lessons are changing by the year and look different to how they looked maybe 10 years ago
    • Taught Entrepreneurship to artists over the past 20 years, and have only started integrating social media in the past 5 or 6 years
    • Entrepreneurship students use social media to find a specific audience, connect with an audience. Often niche markets (client) who is not easily accessible in physical venues. 
  • I was surprised that my students were able to connect more easily online with their target audience that in person is NYC. The audience can be literally anywhere if you are selling things online. 
  • I think there’s been a shift since the pandemic. Before 2020, in NYC, less so social media, more word of mouth. NYC art community is so small, mostly word of mouth to fill classes. I use social media if the class isn’t filling on its own. I was in the studio every day, and that’s how people found me. 
  • How much do institutions rely on social media?
    • Wider reach geographically and more advanced makers as a result of social media (and I’m at a different school) also depends on what the institution’s goals are with social media.

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Last updated: 8/1/22