GEEX Flame Affinity Group
Flameworking in Institutions
Oct 28, 2021 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.
- Self-taught
- Books and magazines
- Open access workshops locally
- Hot head torch kit
- Fabricating for other artists and designers
- Classes through a high school
- Apprentice/ work for local glassblower
- Making beads
- Learning from being around other flameworkers
- Learning from teaching & working collaboratively
- Student in a university glass program
- Resources from the Rakow Library
- Bartering – production work for studio access/classes
- Work at studio for access/classes
- Watching You tube videos
- The Bead Project
- Doing production beadworking/flameworking
- Learned from a pipemaker
- Flame bench in the garage
- Saw flameworking demo at RIT in high school
- Salem Community College – associates degree flameworking
- Learning on the job – scientific glassblowing
- Flameworking in the summer during breaks from school
- Always had instruction
- Apprentice with scientific glassworker, developed lifelong mentorship relationships
- Started teaching right away
- Started in the hotshop
- Contemporary Lampworking book by Bandu Dunham
- Glass book by John Burton
- Made pipes on the side (of furnace work)
- Bead classes at a non-profit art center
- Supplementary workshops
- Production work – “get paid to practice”
- “Apprenticeship with Bob Snodgrass”
- “At a local craft center”
- Within a university glass department
- Supplementary workshops at open access facilities
- Apprenticeships and internships with flameworkers
- Outreach programs
- Within a jewelry design program
- In the context of entrepreneurship
- Within the context of painting/ mixed media
- Setting up a torch at home to practice
- Scientific glassblowing
- Related to engineering – rapid prototyping and fabrication
- Professional mentorship
- Scientific shop at a university
- STEM programming
- Scientific – lean on the fact that scientific glass working is a viable path (STEM)
- engineering (R & D, silicon valley, scientific glassblowing)
- In a Sculpture and Design program
- No formal flameworking classes
- Limited or no access to equipment
- Facilities – “a torch in the corner” scenario in colleges
- Flameworking discouraged in institutions (within context of furnace glass)
- “Impossible” to get into glass classes at university
- Hard to vet info found on the internet (you tube) for quality
- Have to come up with funding for classes (grants, scholarships)
- Available resources have toxic or “bro-ey” overtones
- Experiencing queerphobia in community space
- Distinction between furnace glassworking/ torchworking can lead to hierarchy/division
- Only had access to soda-lime glass, no borosilicate
- Hierarchy where one mode of working is pitted against the other
- Having to spend a lot of time convincing people in institutions of the value and potential of flameworking
- Perceived stigma of pipemaking
- Flameworking is not regarded as a medium that is relevant in contemporary art or contemporary glass (stigma in the glass community and in the art community)
- “Within larger art contexts, most people don’t know enough about glass to care which processes are used”
- There isn’t much exposure to high school students (so folx can get a jumpstart on learning handskills)
- Lack of opportunities available for flameworking – scholarships, grants, open calls for exhibit)
- Lack of professional development in the arts (re: making money off our artwork/skills)
- Being an artist is considered taboo, not economically viable
- “Making money off your skills in art is still considered dirty and it is stunting the growth of our development as artists and the growth of our community.”
- Opportunities available to Students coming out of glass programs and also their Peers in adjacent programs (ceramics, jewelry) are often low-wage, hard labor jobs often in glorified factory settings, even with an MFA
- Attitudes that making marketable work is selling out.
- Little to no skills are taught for how to make a functional or sellable object. Students focused on making conceptual work, so do not develop marketable skills and are often not even viable as an assistants in some situations.
- Institutions are not set up to support long term access (‘overstaying one’s welcome”)
- Toxic environments in some of the factories/businesses/institutions exploit and underpay workers.
- Lack of women in the field
- Lack of diversity in the field
- A lot of these glass programs are in places dense with cultural diversity (cities, and rural locations as well), but this is not reflected in the programs.
- Institutions tend to be old school, old boys club and still want things run a certain way (Legacy). But new generation is not feeling those attitudes.
- Institutions don’t acknowledge these changes in the (art) world which is gravitating away from physical tangible things. Cryptocurrencies, NFT;s and digital art and changing the conversion, and the glass collector market.
- GAS is largely white (though they are working on changing this)
- ASGS used to have the “men’s tour” – glassblowing and the “women’s tour”- shopping
- Not a lot of institutional resources to do outreach.
- In university programs – mostly women in classes. In flameworking community college program – only a few women in the classes.
- Instructors at universities may not feel comfortable teaching flameworking
- Students have to weed through info on online platforms like instagram and you tube to find usable material. (ex: #lampworking on instagram)
- Some of the opportunities available to students (jobs, etc. ) are known toxic environments.
- Didymium glass is very expensive (for safety glasses) so not everyone can have safety glasses for large demos.
- What can we do to help people have access who don’t know about institutions or think that existing institutions aren’t for them?
- Should we focus on fixing the institutions as they are or start making something new?
- Letters of recommendation, professional images of work, and submission and application processes are direct barriers to accessing institutions who do not have the resources.
- Gatekeeping in the education system – our job as educators is to teach people skills they can use, not to decide who gets to learn.
- “A big challenge that I see in accessing flameworking in institutions is having issues in accessing the institutions.”
- “Not necessarily a challenge, but a lot of students want to learn pipemaking. I see why it’s taboo, but learning pipemaking only expands knowledge on vessel making in general”
- “Lack of access to resources is a massive issue in UK. There is little opportunity to learn even as a vocational course in this country. The postgraduate programme i’m on has no full time tutors who use torches”
- “the prejudice that hot glass workers have against flameworking carries over in institutions, in my experience I was the only person in my glass program with any significant flame working experience. I once had a professor tell me to stoop flameworking and focus on hot glass.”
- “Money is a very important topic! What to do after school is a conversation that I did not hear enough about while I was in school. “
- Business practices for flameworkers!
- “Entrepreneurship on how to create a glass business needs to be a class and how to professionally market yourself for high paying jobs in glass as well”
- “general business classes are not always very helpful to students looking to start their own glass/art business”
- “The problem is can school find real successful entrepreneurs, you need to know marketing, product design and etc. The class would almost have to bring in a different teacher every other week or something”
- “Some university programs strongly discourage students making production while in school “
- “Try not to limit yourself” is a great saying, but there are people out there who have real limits. Like being able to sustain a practice is a real limit that people have to consider, which is where I think a lot of these production/business questions are getting at.”
- “And it is a shame that the sort of diversity outreach work we need falls on the shoulders of BIPOC most times”
- “I think a lot of it comes down to a lack of exposure into these communities. So many people just simply don’t know about flameworking”
- ““Letters of recommendation” are probably one of the biggest barriers to entry”
- “The most difficult part of flameworking to improvise (that I’ve run into) is the safety part. I haven’t found a good alternative to the didi glasses to protect from sodium flare.”
- Making new online spaces from the ground up which are inclusive and supportive (ex: facebook groups)
- “I end up teaching my fellow undergrads how to work with the torch”
- Insist on bringing torches and flameworking bench into the hotshop
- Lead by example by flameworking in the hotshop and cross-pollinating
- Consider all modes of glass working (flameworking, furnacework, etc. ) to be equal and valid.
- Getting more recognition and visibility within institutions
- Being an advocate for the value and potential of flameworking in institutions
- Exposure to younger people could be beneficial to the community as a whole – high school and younger, also so the time they enter college program, they have some skills to build on
- Educate the community on how to make a living with flameworking (jobs in the sciences – scientific glassblowing, R & D, tech, etc, and also entrepreneurship (pipemaking, etc. )
- Create more opportunities for scholarships, open calls for exhibitions, and classes offered for glass and flameworking
- Bring back apprenticeships
- Bring in post docs, MFA all together in one class to encourage cross-pollination between the arts and sciences.
- Create classes with more diversity to encourage cross-pollination (sciences, arts, engineering, etc. )
- More university and institutional programming for flameworking (open access)
- Try to collaborate with Scientific glassblowers in institutions.
- Coming together to discuss inequities and challenges instead of dealing with it individually
- Pooling our resources
- Find a community college near you or be willing to travel to a community college for access/instruction
- Educate students about viable and lucrative career paths in engineering, R&D, scientific glassblowing
- Reach out to companies (silicon valley, engineering, etc. ) to create opportunities to gain experience/training for students while still in school through collaborative programming (internships, jobs, apprenticeship, professional mentorship)
- Schools – improve marketing for professional opportunities in glass (engineering, etc.)
- Schools could collaborate with tech companies, production companies to create opportunities for students
- Prep students for professional interviews so they can get professional glass jobs in tech/engineering
- Lead by example – Hire somebody and pay them well (so they can go out and do the same thing)
- Open up more discussion about professional development in schools
- Normalize being an artist who supports themselves with their art.
- Normalize production work and fabrication as a viable way to sustain an income in the arts
- Teach students more marketable skills – project management, handskills, teamwork, professional communication, budgeting)
- Teach students to become self employed to support themselves (and normalize supplementing self-employment with other work)
- Teach people to set up an independent torch setup (low cost/overhead)
- Use the internet to connect with a market – the internet is vast! Harness the power of social media to connect with an audience.
- Create diversity outreach programs to connect POC in local communities. – you can make a career in glass.
- Bring more FREE opportunities for women and BIPOC folx
- Get a group of artists engineers, makers, together and start showing some other models for what glassworking looks like – maybe online platforms like tic tok
- Create new models and collaborations that contextualize glass in the context of cryptocurrencies, digital art, NFT’s –
- address the changes that are really effecting the next generation and acknowledge a movement away from tangible/physical objects.
- Create new spaces for the new generation – both digital and physical institutions.
- Develop a “Kahn Academy of Glassworking”, instructional videos, maybe use a Patreon page to fund it.
- Create programming with business programming geared towards creatives. (ex: program in Boston where students 12-14 yr. had business class in morning, alternated between flame and furnace work in pm and had a gallery to sell work in as part of the program.)
- Continue building the community when we start to pull people in (through outreach programs, etc. )
- Make resources available to teachers to make it easier for people to teach flameworking.
- Showing examples of artists work to show many different ways to flamework – maybe in an open source online gallery scenario that could be searchable.
- What is the most basic (inexpensive and simple) systems that can be set up for flameworking and what can be done with that? (Ex. stringers and an alcohol candle, hothead torch, etc. – creativity comes from limitations)
- Provide longevity within institutions to support glassmakers. (who do not have access to resources)
- Vet opportunities for students that are safe and not toxic work environments.
- Get a diddyclip or didymium filter for your camera and a television and present the demos for the public on a screen so that everyone can safely watch.
- Compiling high quality educational videos that are vetted for teaching.
- Put videos out of instructional demos (even in the context of a business, or product making) – process videos will help your business.
- Do away with letters of recommendation – direct barrier for scholarships, access to institutions for POC
- Rethink application and submission processes for accessing institutions to remove the barriers for POC – maybe set up a table in the community and register people at in person events. POC might not have extra time/leisure time so meet people where they feel comfortable – make it easy and remove the barriers for entry.
- Build a new system that’s not based off the western (white, privileged) way of doing things from the ground up.
- “Could GEEX be a viable platform to experiment with making new systems?”
- “Have your Art Dept. come to your glassblowing area to try things out. “
- “I think schools that teach glass processes have a responsibility to introduce flameworking as it is the most accesible way to continue glassworking after students graduate and keep their hands on glass”
- “The glass world needs to lean more into science and engineering”
- “A new age glass center might be a good idea to create, these older school center are stuck in their ways.”
- “I think a place like Salem and other organizations could create a youtube channel together”
- “I like the idea of creating something new. I also feel like the existing institutions have a lot of baggage to overcome and wonder if it would actually be easier to start something new rather than fix what’s there.”
- “Maybe every few weeks someone create some piece of art and science and Salem post to there youtube”
- “more women in the field”
- “I was hoping to create a direct alternative to Torch Talk on Facebook with the Rainbow Flameworkers Coalition. I am afraid of retaliation from them if I name it as a direct foil to that group”
- “More resources for BIPOC flameworkers, or environments for diverse flameworkers
- more cross-pollination across disciplines”
- “How can we create, offer, and expand on free classes for interested students?”
- “online and in person classes, workshop, pop up store event and exhibition “
- “There’s a part of me that thinks one of the basic steps of getting the field more diverse is to get more people started in that field. And I think a part of that is to figure out how to get more people started with the bare minimum about of startup costs.”
- “People of color need to see that it’s possible to make money off of glass”
- “What about creating a mobile studio and going to underserved areas and doing demos?
- The other question is, how can we provide free lessons in glass, while still paying the teacher for their work and experience”
- “visiting predominantly BIPOC highschools in the area?”
- “You could take a few students and host a workshop at several different BIPOC highschools
- This is something that would benefit Tyler School to do too! we’re around so many schools k-12 yet seldom visit the shop”
- “The bare minimum to get started that I found is getting a MAPP gas torch, some stainless steel welding rods, some clay for bead release, and a crock pot full of vermiculite for an annealer. (And some glass, of course)”
- “And when privileged white folks are the ones reaching out it doesn’t always give the right impression”
- “mutual aid”
- YouTube videos (playlists, vetted)
- Workshops at local open access glass facilities
- Books and magazines
- Facebook groups
- Resource Exchange (GEEX) – open source resource lists
- Open access programming (Pilchuck, Penland, Pittsburgh Glass Center, etc. )
- Community College (for cheap access) (Salem Community College)
- TikTok
- GEEX Affinity Group
- Outreach programs like The Bead Project, Glass Roots
- Community college is FREE in NJ for anyone with Gross Adjusted Income of less than 65K/yr
- Supply lists for setting up a basic teaching studio and a solo flameworking setup.
- A collection of videos showing what flameworking looks like in different parts of the world.
- Playlist of Lectures (historical, contextual)
- https://libguides.cmog.org/flameworking
- Playlist of youtube videos circulation in pipemaking community (420 videos)
- https://youtube.com/c/revereglass
- https://artist.callforentry.org/festivals_unique_info.php?ID=9239
- “I took business of art classes at NYFA and at my local arts council. Check out resources in your area. They covered everything from marketing, websites, taxes, law issues, etc. (look beyond glass)”
- “torch talk FB group although the culture is moderately toxic”
- “GAS was my first venture out into the world of glass beyond Southern California”
- “Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Residency – Corning …https://www.cmog.org
- “michigan glass project seems to be doing something right”
- “PGC offers many opportunities to the glass & non glass community. “
- “I put my demos on blackboard for the University of Ma. YouTube for the University of Vermont”
- “I always recommend a hothead torch and beadmaking kit when people are really interested. Could even hand these out”
- “Love the online gallery idea – great for new students, but also to help the public understand the potential of flameworking”
- https://www.didyclips.com/product/didyclip “Or You can make one with a lens from some broken glasses”, “also Aura lenses makes a similar product, also one that screws over a DSLR camera”
- Make more inclusive and supportive community spaces
- High quality vetted videos for teaching (especially beginner)
- Develop a “Kahn Academy of Glassworking”, instructional videos, maybe use a Patreon page to fund it.
- Showing examples of artists work to show many different ways to flamework – maybe in an open source online gallery scenario that could be searchable.
- “Access to maintained torches and equipment better designed for torchworking (Kilns, tools, ect) with my current school specifically.”
- “residencies & idea furnace opportunities for non glass artists. “
- A collection of resources, videos about flameworking. Flameworking demos.
- More videos for absolute beginners – ex. Turning the torch on for the first time
- A list of technical exercises for beginners to practice on the torch
- “More resources for BIPOC flameworkers, or environments for diverse flameworkers”
- “How can we create, offer, and expand on free classes for interested students?”
Last updated: 8/25/22
