TEACH & TRAIN

The follwing video I stumbled upon somewhere. I probably wouldn’t have checked it but for the promotional line Like honey in between your hands.

I am not really into glass blowing. I find most shiny objects too cute and cliché. But I am very much into this video, as I am into everyone who makes a process more than a series of boring steps and passive voice.

I like the quietness of Kiva Ford’s passion.

If you need to give a brief overview of why you do what you do, this is a great example.

And no, it does not start with Adam and Eve and the history of glass blowing. It starts right at the heart of everything alive; it starts with fire and flame.

There is all sorts of different flames that you need to learn when you are working over the torch.

Script:

Handmade Portraits: Glassblowing With Kiva Ford

0:00
There is all sorts of different flames that you need to learn when you are working over the torch.

0:22
A yellow flame is a cooler heat and as you increase the oxygen, the flame turns blue. The temperature is probably a few thousand degrees Fahrenheit.

0:45
It’s really interesting working with glass, as my experience with glass is that it is solid. And then when I was introduced to glass blowing, all of a sudden it is not solid anymore, it’s a liquid and then it almost feels like honey in between your hands.

01:09
For liquids, there isn’t a structural order, but when a liquid freezes it does get a solid crystalline structure and what is so unique about glass is that it never has a crystalline structure, whether it is in its molten state or whether it is in its solid state.

01:34
I’m a proud member of the Scientific Glassblower Society, creating custom scientific glassware for research and discovery chemistry.

We make some pretty wild stuff.

Extractors, reactors, condensors, custom flasks.

It can’t be made by a machine or mass produced.

2:00
Scientific glassblowing has seen some decline over the years because of the way industry changes, the way that chemists run reactions and also the advancement in plastics.

02:14
A few decades ago there were a few thousand people in the Society and now there are under a thousand people. But the scientists still need that one-on-one interaction between the chemist and the glassblower to get the glassware that they need for their research.

2:35

Most days I get home from work and go to my shop and make the artistic glass. I get just as excited about scientific glass as I do about artistic glass. The whole process is beautiful to me.

2:50
The idea of blowing glass was developed I believe in Persia a few thousand years ago and we are still using the same basic principles.

3:09
We work over open flames and manipulate the glass to get the shapes that we want. You can get a very intricate detail, and I really like focussing on the tiny details. 

3:33 One of the things that I get the most enjoyment out of is trying to come up with new ideas, seeing what is possible and what isn’t possible.

3:50
For the animal series that I make there is a really interesting technique involved in getting that animal inside of the glass. I haven’t seen anyone else do anything like it before.

4:10
I grew up on a small farm and as a kid we would walk around and find arrow heads. I used to look at these arrow heads and think about the guy who was making them. Maybe there was one guy who was the best arrowhead maker and people would come from miles away and get arrowheads from this one craftsman.

4:35
I feel like I am connected to that in some way, to just focus on one skill and get good at what you do.