Working with Fire
written and photographed by FERN DONOVAN
The glass blowing community in Eugene, Oregon, is perhaps one of the most dedicated in the country, considered by some as the “Mecca for glass artists” over the last few decades. The medium, in which a torch is used to melt glass, was popularized locally by Bob Snodgrass, known as “the godfather of glass.” Snodgrass is credited with the creation of coloring-changing borosilicate glass, a type of glass that has since revolutionized the industry.
Eugene is home to several glass-blowing studios, including one at the University of Oregon. Here, a student who works at the University of Oregon’s Craft Center spends his free time in his home studio where he likes to teach his friends how to blow glass.
Several different glass rod colors are carefully sorted in tubes. The glass rods, known as borosilicate glass, come in hundreds of color combinations. Next to the glass rods is a propane tank used to fuel the torches.
Different works in progress poke out from a glass jar. In the middle is a domed implosion, which is created by utilizing gravity to encase color inside a shape.
A Craft Center employee (left) does a marble demonstration for UO junior Liz Yamron. Yamron started learning from a Craft Center employee and is learning to create a mushroom inside the marble. Yamron studies the roundness of her marble outside of the flame. Inside of the marble is a small mushroom. Many beginning glass artists start with marbles, as the repetition of the process helps artists get a feel for wild nature of glass.
Many beginning glass artists start with marbles, as the repetition of the process helps artists get a feel for wild nature of glass.