[PA-NJ Glassblowers] Pyromaniac or Artist, New Glassblowing Club for Swarthmore students

[Tony Patti]

The "Pyromaniac or Artist" phrase in the title of this article and Google
alert caught my eye.

 

http://daily.swarthmore.edu/2016/09/22/38180/

 



Pyromaniac or Artist, 


New Glassblowing Club 


for Swarthmore students


 <http://daily.swarthmore.edu/2016/09/22/38180/>  September 22, 2016
<http://daily.swarthmore.edu/author/itang1/> Irene Tang
<http://daily.swarthmore.edu/2016/09/22/38180/#respond>  0 Comment
<http://daily.swarthmore.edu/tag/clubs/> clubs,
<http://daily.swarthmore.edu/tag/glass/> glass,
<http://daily.swarthmore.edu/tag/glassblowing/> glassblowing

 

The new glassblowing club started this year at Swarthmore will give students
the chance to experiment with the art of glassblowing.

 

A week ago, Charlie Kazer '17 and Haley Gerardi '17 hosted an interest
meeting for anyone who wanted to participate in glass-making events. To
their surprise, over 40 Swatties came to learn about the art and listen to
what the club had in mind for the year.

 

For their next meeting, Kazer and Gerardi have planned a simulation
activity. The club will melt sugar into a syrupy, taffy-like state and then
manipulate it into different shapes. This method, called "sugar-pulling," is
a big part of the candy-making industry. It's very similar to glass-making
because both glass and sugar, when heated and liquefied, are pliable enough
to be stretched and molded. Once the mold of sugar or glass cools, it
retains its shape. In this next meeting, Kazer and Gerardi will also be
going over basic glassblowing tools and terminology in preparation for
working with real glass.

 

Glassblowing involves rotating a hollow steel rod in a hot furnace-gathering
molten glass at the tip of the pipe. To make an air bubble opening in the
glass, the craftsman blows into the cool end of the rod. They then keep
spinning the rod in the furnace to gather more glass before shaping it into
its final form, such as a vase or cup or art piece. The most important rule
of glassblowing is to keep the glass spinning at all times.

Kazer thought that glassblowing would be a fresh addition to Swarthmore's
selection of activities. "The club was just kind of an idea that I had over
the summer-I know that the school doesn't have any facilities or tools to do
glassblowing on-site, and I thought it would be something fun and
interesting to learn how to do," Kazer wrote in an email.

 

Currently, Kazer and Gerardi are working on getting the club chartered by
the Student Government Organization (SGO). They are looking to receive
funding so that the club can take glass-blowing lessons outside of
Swarthmore. They hope that people who are interested won't have to pay out
of pocket, or  will be at least partially subsidized by the school. If
everything works out with SGO and the Student Budget Committee, the club
will be able to start attending official lessons and begin crafting within
the next month.

 

"I'm crossing my fingers that this will take off, though we need cooperation
from SBC, and also patience as we try to get the group on its feet," Kazer
wrote.

The next glassblowing meeting is this Sunday, September 25th, in Kohlberg
228 at 7:00PM.

 

 

Enjoy,


Tony Patti
  
 <http://www.glassblower.info> www.glassblower.info
  
 <mailto:gaffer at glassblower.info> gaffer at glassblower.info

 <http://www.glassblower.info/qr-code.html> QR Code for Tony Patti -
www.glassblower.info

 

 

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