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One day I walked into the shops of the glass-blowers
And asked: O makers of the cup, have you perhaps a glass
Shaped like a heart?
They laughed and said: You wander in vain.
O Mir, each cup you see, round or oval, every glass
Was once a heart that we melted on the fire and blew
Into a cup.Thats all you see here, there is no glass.
~ Mir Sanjay
Red Earth and Pouring Rain
~ Vikram Chandra
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BIO
It all started one day in Wilmington, NC. I was there celebrating with my wife down in the historic quarter during the Azalea festival. One of the venders there, whose name (sadly) I never did find out, was lampworking. One of the items he had on display was a glass eye of such breathtaking clarity and realism that it, quite literally, changed my world forever. When we arrived home I spent many long hours hunched over the computer researching the many sites on the web pertaining to lampworking. After much deliberation (and not having found much in the way of local resources for help) I purchased my first torch. Somewhere in the next month I actually managed to put together all the myriad pieces need to actually light it as well as the glass to use. It was a terrifying moment, a beautiful moment, etched into my mind as I first turned on the oxygen and propane. As I held a lighter beneath the gleaming nozzle of my torch... Well, several years later, I no longer work on the torch much. It was a stepping stone on my way to bigger, brighter things. While lampworking holds a corner of my heart, traditional glass blowing (furnace work, sometimes called off-hand blowing) has consumed my heart, spirit, and mind. I dream of glass. I dream in glass. I have spent much of the past couple years at the Visual Arts Center in historic downtown Portsmouth, Va under the tutelage of master Glass blower, glass genius, glass artist, and teacher in the truest sense of the word, Ed Francis. With his help, his ability to answer any question about anything even vaguely related to blowing glass and his example as an artist and teacher, I have been able to grow exponetially in what I love most in life (second only to my beautiful, loving, and very understanding wife!). Make no mistake about it, glass is magic, and I am happily, blissfully, even gleefully under its enchantment in a lifelong love affair. Love and Light, Jonathan
