Old Schoolers List - Looking for hands who have turned glass for decades.

[HWCGlass]

Old Schoolers List - Looking for hands who have turned glass for decades.

So after reading some recent posts, I have started thinking that I need to reevaluate the number of decade and multidecade boro bead makers who I would guess are out there in the world; I think I have underestimated.

I would like to make a list of 'very experienced' mostly boro flameworkers / mostly boro bead makers.

I know from my own experience that it took me ten years to understand that I didn't know shit, but at the same time the decade mark was very powerful too; it meant something important even if it was just another beginning marker along the path.

Post the number of decades of experience you have in lampworking.

Less than one, not so cool.
One, you're just a newbie.
Two, welcome to the fellowship of flameworkers.
Three, you are now your own glass master.
Four, you have forgotten more lampworking knowledge then most will ever know.
Five or more, your lampworking prowess is sufficiently advanced as to appear as magic; you are the definition of glass master.

As of spring 2010:

HWCGlass ----- Harold Williams Cooney ----- 1999, one decade
fyrsmith ----- Don ----- 1987, two decades
Kalera ----- Kalera ----- 1992, almost two decades
patienthIF-Designs ----- Candice ----- 1977, three decades
glassactcc ----- glassactcc ---- 1998, one decade
Jamn! ----- Heidi ----- 1998, one decade
chayes ----- Chris ----- 2000, one decade
grrlartist ----- grrlartist ----- 1993, almost two decades
gemsinbloom ----- gemsinbloom ----- 1998, one decade
IF-Designs -----IF-Designs ----- 2000, one decade
szglassy ----- szglassy -----1993, almost two decades
Firebrand Beads ----- Jenny ----- 1991, almost two decades
Mr. Smiley ----- Brent Graber ----- 2000, one decade
Bunyip ----- Chris ----- 2000, one decade
midniteburner ----- Sara ----- 2000, one decade
wisco lala ----- wisco lala ----- 2000, one decade
pjmarchwinds ----- pjmarchwinds ----- 1999, one decade
Jami ----- Jami ----- 2000, one decade
lluviabrito ----- lluviabrito ----- 1995, one decade
oldschooltofu ----- oldschooltofu ----- 1998, one decade

[HWCGlass]

Harold Williams Cooney

Stared lampworking January 1999; so that gives me a lowly 1.1 decades.

Just a newbie.

[fyrsmith]

In the early 1970's I was a potter and owned a crafts gallery and stoneware pottery teaching studio. I had lots of extra room that I rented out to other craftspeople to teach classes. In 1974 Ellen Goese, a student of John Burton, taught a few classes there. I have been working boro ever since, but I consider the workshop I took at Pilchuck in 1987 the real beginning of my serious affair with boro. So that's a little over two decades.
-Don-

-Don-

[fyrsmith]

double post

[Kalera]

I started flameworking in 1992 with soft glass; boro maybe about ten years ago? I don't remember anymore.

[wickedglass]

I've posted my longevity in glass before somewhere, but I won't now.
Your system is fatally flawed, Harold, because you can't measure learning and ability by the amount of years someone has been working with glass. It's not Dungeons and Dragons .
For example, some people do one thing all their lives, improve that one particular thing, but in the end it's just that one thing, can you call them a master of glass, no way, that person is the master of making that one thing. Can you call the man who still makes horrid blobs after 60 years a master ... no way, because there's no understanding of anything. Can you call the kid who's been making glass for 4 years and come out with amazing new stuff that's jawdroppingly astounding a master? Probably ... some people are naturals.
A lot of people don't understand that it's a state of mind and a way of life ... and I refuse to be boxed.
Suffice it to say that I'm not that kid and neither am I the guy who's been doing crap for 60 years.

[patienthand]

I started working full time in glass in 1977. I think I am also in agreement with Wicked glass, I fall somewhere in the middle of the curve as far as talent goes. I have some things I have sort of perfected because it was bread and butter work, and other things I am just now exploring. whats important is, I am having fun and sharing.

Candice

[glassactcc]

Going on 12 years for me.

[HWCGlass]

Originally Posted by wickedglass

Your system is fatally flawed, Harold, because you can't measure learning and ability by the amount of years someone has been working with glass.

You are, of course, absolutely correct.

To make woven pianos, loop stitch islands with palm tree or bears with sparkly balloons in hand from a mall booth for twenty years takes heart. A lot of heart. And to me that means something.

To work for twenty years at thirty cents an hour, six days a week in a Chinese factory on copper mandrels with no ventilation, with no vocational future and with no visible end or contextual purpose to the work being done, to me, would mean that a person would have a deep understanding of the material in a shade of light far beyond my comprehension. I believe people let themselves undervalue the impressiveness of a factory worker's skill and stallwardness to protect there own definitions of independence, success and mastery. To live life with glass, to pay - even at a slave's wages - the cost of love and kinship through the process of lampworking to me is impressive.

The dude who has been working boro tube for twenty years only to find that his work is less impressive in skill, concept and quality than those who are new to the game; he knows. He can see. He understands that the world has passed his mastery by. And yet, he still pays the rent on his shop, fills his tanks, drinks his coffee and gets to work every day. And to me, this is impressive. It shows love. Love for self and for glass. It means a lot to me.

What is a master? Is it a person's combined skill as tallied against the skills of all others? Me personally, I don't see it that way.

I see glass as a bucking bronco. If you can hold on, you're the man.

We are all called upon to measure our own skills against our own lives. There is no signing ceremony with the president, no ticker-tape parade, no joyously hoisted trophy for the title glass master. It is a self proclaimed achievement; one may see themselves as master or see another as master and may only do so in comparison to the skills, achievements and fortitude of their own hearts.

Time is impressive. Even if the results are questionable.

I respect the old schoolers simply because I would like to be one. I place them on a pedestal so that I may have a point to aim at.

People who know glass, know because of time. Time is impressive.

Time is the rarest, most impressive element in any endeavor. The honorable persons who have given this career their all, who are for that reason the real glass masters, are to me lampworking treasures.

But I will admit and will not attempt to denigh, that time is indeed a fatally flawed method by which to measure learning ability, skill or achievement.

[deb tarry]

I see glass as a bucking bronco. If you can hold on, you're the man.
I like this phrase it's worth repeating.

[Mr. Smiley]

I see glass as a wild horse... some times it bucks... some times it lets you ride swiftly, but smoothly... glass is a temperamental creature and it's beauty is not limited to it's physical appearance. If my glass life was "easy" all the time, I'd quit and do something harder. So far, I'm a baby in the grand scheme of things... i have so much to learn... hopefully i work glass on the day i die... be it later today or 50 years from now!

[alb6094]

Originally Posted by HWCGlass

You are, of course, absolutely correct.



I see glass as a bucking bronco. If you can hold on, you're the man.

I'm going to paint this on my bench above my torch.

[Nitadee]

I love this:

I see glass as a bucking bronco. If you can hold on, you're the man.


Can we all steal...er...um....borrow it Harold???

I am just a baby when it comes to glass. Even tho I am now past the half century mark. I have held it in my hands and gazed at it's loveliness all my life.
Glasses, vases, Christmas ornaments, cut glass, all of it!
I will never be a master, but a willing apprentice forever
Nita

[Jamn!]

Originally Posted by Kalera

I started flameworking in 1992 with soft glass; boro maybe about ten years ago? I don't remember anymore.

No kidding!!

I started lampworking before I had my 3rd child... He is 11 now. I think its about 12 or 13 years so but I have no idea. I wasn't on the internet at first. Back in those days you had to sort of figure out how to make a round bead even for yourself unless you were more internet savvy than I was!

I started with a hot head and would stick my beads in a coffee can with vermiculite to cool down. I didn't anneal anything and when I asked for someone to help me get them annealed so I could do something with them, Lenda annealed them for me and sent them back with some of her beads!

[Kalera]

Originally Posted by Jamn!

No kidding!!

I started lampworking before I had my 3rd child... He is 11 now. I think its about 12 or 13 years so but I have no idea. I wasn't on the internet at first. Back in those days you had to sort of figure out how to make a round bead even for yourself unless you were more internet savvy than I was!

I started with a hot head and would stick my beads in a coffee can with vermiculite to cool down. I didn't anneal anything and when I asked for someone to help me get them annealed so I could do something with them, Lenda annealed them for me and sent them back with some of her beads!

Totally!

I remember scouring the internet for hours hoping for some mention of lampworking, and my utter thrill when the Cindy Jenkins book came out. I'd been flailing in the darkness for so long it was like a minor miracle! The best part, for me, was the pictures of work by other glass beadmakers. Wow! It was like a light bulb came on, and instead of an empty room, I found myself standing in a museum full of beauty.

After that, all kinds of things went boom; thanks to the internet I found the ISGB, the local community, Bullseye... and it just keeps getting better!

[Jamn!]

Yes hers was the first book I read too Kalera!

[chayes]

I just hit the 10 year mark behind the torch, I started April 2000.

[Flonche]

Originally Posted by chayes

I just hit the 10 year mark behind the torch, I started April 2000.

Well then, I wonder where you'll be in another 10 year? Seems to me you're already way up there

[Mr. Smiley]

A lot of us started around 2000... I can't wait to see where we are in another 10 years as well.

[HWCGlass]

Okay, I'll ask, "Hay, Smiley, when did ya start lampworking?"

[Frit Diva]

17 years here. Over 90% soft glass.

[gemsinbloom]

At least twelve years.

[IF-Designs]

Ive been making glass and boro beads since around 2000 / 2001 I know I dont post stuff often enough but ive been around cough cough lol.

[wickedglass]

Originally Posted by Mr. Smiley

hopefully i work glass on the day i die... be it later today or 50 years from now!

Careful what you wish for, my father dropped dead at his torch ... but not before turning it off ... he was only 63 ...

[szglassy]

My first glass experience was a class at Urban Glass 1993.
Flamework 101 with Sally Parash and a " beadmaking" weekend w/ Dennis Brining.
Penland summer 1995 w/James Minson.
I've been locked in my studio ever since and lovin' every minnute of it

[Firebrand Beads]

almost 19 years for me, but you're not really counting soft glass, are you?

[Mr. Smiley]

I started just before my daughter was born... and she was born in 2000... it may have been late 1999, but i use 2000 because i really don't know an exact date... i think I was too wrapped up in melting stuff to pay attention to anything else. Not much has changed...

[Bunyip]

I started lampworking in 1999-2000 as well. It's been an on-and-off thing, so while I may have the calendar 1.1 decades, I think realistically it's only about half that.

[Cosmo]

Just remember... it's hours at the torch that count, not years...

I've only been working with glass since 2004, but in that time I've put in more hours than some people I know who have been "working" since the early 90's...

[midniteburner]

Next month makes my 10 year anniversary! Whoo hoo!!!

You know you are an addict when you have to make a bead before your first cup of coffee

Sara