Possibility that flows and bubbles in the fire.

[mrissa]

I remember being a tiny kid and being fascinated with glassblowing. My parents and grands did "normal American" vacations like Disneyland and Mt. Rushmore (I had to stop and think and edit that to make it actually normal, honestly), but we also did all kinds of total nerd vacations that were, frankly, way better. And this had results like me sitting in the back seat of a Buick cutting out paper doll replicas of Colonial American fashions when I was 5 (I still love that dark green overdress) and watching glassblowing demonstrations and going, "Oooh...I want to do that." I don't know how old I was when I fixated on the glassblowing. I definitely remember being pretty thoroughly caught by 8 or 9, but it might well have been before that.

And when I was 8 or 9, my dad told me not to worry--and it might still have been true at the time, and it was certainly true when my dad was in college--that when I got to college and took chem courses, I would automatically get taught glassblowing, at least the lab basics, and then I could figure out if I liked it and wanted to do the art part more as a hobby. It would be part of the lab sequence pretty early on, so I wouldn't even have to be a chem major, I'd just have to take some chem classes, which was a pretty safe assumption, we agreed. This course description was true for him. By the time I got to college, it was not at all true. Not only was it not early in the lab sequence, it wasn't available at all. Not to senior majors. Not to anybody. No glassblowing. Nor was my college atypical in this.

Fie, I said, but I had a lot going on, so I kept yearning silently and petting glass when it was not socially unacceptable to do so. And then I got out of college and still had a lot going on.

And then when we were no longer graduate students and maybe started to get ourselves together and could start to think of it, the vertigo struck. And I said all sorts of other words than fie. Because: hot molten glass, vertigo, what could possibly go wrong with that? So I thought, yah, I had better get this vertigo thing under control before I think about even looking for where I might start doing a beginner class in this glassblowing thing! Because really! I mean! What kind of a fool! Etc.! And so I didn't even talk about it much really. Because again: really! I mean! What kind of a fool! Etc.! The other night I was out for coffee with a friend who was talking about someone doing something implausible, and I blurted out, "Yes, and I'm going to dance with the Ballet Russe," and it felt about like that. After the Ballet Russe I'll take up glassblowing.

Except I actually wanted the glassblowing. Not as a career. Just, y'know. People are allowed to have hobbies. (Seriously, fellow writers! Sometimes this comes as news to us because writing starts kind of like that for a lot of people with day jobs and then is so not like that. But hobbies. People are.)

Fast forward to the present. Where: this vertigo thing. Is it under control? Ha ha ha, she laughed hollowly, like fun it is. ("Ohhhh," say several of you sadly, who were hoping that this was that triumphant post. No. It is not that triumphant post. It is a different triumphant post.)

Except...I don't really like that mode where there's a thing you want and you just sit and want it. I don't like that mode at all. So I was looking online. And there are these people up in the city. And they do this thing, where for not very many of my American dollars, I can go do a session with a master glassblowing type artist person, one-on-one, and this person can have my limitations explained and will be there and can answer my ten million questions. So I can be there and feel the feels and smell the smells. And see what I can do safely and what I can't do safely. And then ask the ten million more questions I didn't know to ask before I was smelling the smells. And we can see if there's a way for me to make it safe to take it farther than this one-on-one session, either with more sessions or with classes.

And.

Then I brought this up on the phone with my best-aunt. (I have a lot of great-aunts. Some of them are really quite good. This one is the greatest-aunt. Therefore she is my best-aunt.) She also loves glass. It's the Smålander in her maybe. Anyway. I knew she would understand and be excited for me, so I called to tell her. And it turns out she knows these people at this glass studio that do this thing I am doing. And she says they sometimes have done classes for people with mobility disabilities. And maybe they will be doing a class like that in the future, or maybe they will just know enough from past classes to be able to adjust stuff for me and be able to tell me what to do and how to do it so that I can do the actual learning, not just the single one-on-one hand-holding session and be safe.

So at least once. And maybe several times. But definitely at least once. Molten glass and me. Without everything having to be fixed with the vertigo. Without everything having to be okay. Just--this thing that I want. I get to actually do it. It isn't the Ballet Russe, it's actually paid for and it's just down to calling and getting it on the actual calendar, right next to friends' birthdays and dentist appointments. Because it's a real thing.

I am kind of overwhelmed about this. I am really pretty excited. I had gotten pretty used to the concept of no. And yes is a pretty big door to open, even though I'm not planning to rearrange my life around spending hours every week in the glass studio. Something is so much more than nothing. Yes is so much more than no.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Comments

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

That sounds so incredibly cool and exciting!

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Oo! good luck.

[fmsv.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm so glad you'll be able to do this.

[cathshaffer.livejournal.com]

We learned how to pull pipettes (I'm not sure the correct term for it) in chemistry in college, but it was already an obsolete skill at the time, and I never got the knack of it. I wonder if there was more glassblowing than that that your father learned.

I think you can do this. You can sit in a chair, and I think probably the worst that can happen is you drop your project and have to start over. The glass cools pretty quickly, so you'll likely not start a fire. There is potential for burns, but I think having a safe direction to hurl the glass might be all you need. I look forward to hearing how it goes!

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I actually did roughly that in, hmmm, I think about fifth grade. Since I needed a constricted nozzle for a vacuum fountain. Probably not as controlled or precise as what one needs for a pipette? Dunno, but at least I melted and bent and pulled and filed and separated glass just a bit.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Wheeee! Excellent!

[adb-jaeger.livejournal.com]

And when I was 8 or 9, my dad told me not to worry--and it might still have been true at the time, and it was certainly true when my dad was in college--that when I got to college and took chem courses, I would automatically get taught glassblowing

AP Chemistry, senior year (1984).

We did glass blowing during the last "lab" of the year.

I hope you enjoy it!

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Massively cool!

Also would anyone know why glass-blowing is obsolete in chemistry classes? Is it just that everything is pre-made?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I think that's about it, yes. There's a lot of available pre-made glass.

[p-j-cleary.livejournal.com]

OMG, glass blowing has always been one of my dreams, as well. There's a studio in Norwood that offers classes (their company is filled with really hot-looking, tattooed young'uns with mowhawks and such, which is extra incentive), but I haven't made the time to go.

When you do this, I think I'm going to be motivated to do it, too. And then we can be glass-blowing LJ buddies!

[aamcnamara.livejournal.com]

Oh, that is so awesome! Someday I hope to learn a bit of glassblowing too--Dale Chihuly exhibit at the MIA at an impressionable age, I think.

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

Oh, excellent! This sounds grand.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

That is awesome.

And having just bought a piano because by god that was something I wanted and had wanted for years and so on, I can sympathize with the impulse that led you to find a way through.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

When I was little, we lived near Cornwall (?) in Canada. They had a glass blowing plant, which we visited several times. It was pretty much assembly-line. I loved it so very much. If you've ever noticed the glass elephant in my curio cabinet, it came from there. They turned them out by the hundreds, each one hand-blown, each one just a little different, but you know, many much the same, as well. I love that elephant, not because of itself, but because of the memories. Watching glass being blown was utterly magical.

I am very glad you get to do this thing. It's a wonder and a mystery, sand turned to glass. Beautiful and weird.

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful! I'm so happy for you and eagerly await your further adventures in glassblowing.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am all verklempt for you; it would be embarrassing if this were not SO UNSPEAKABLY AWESOME.

Yes yes yes yes yes.

[dandelion-diva.livejournal.com]

That is so cool!

I've loved glass blowing and all kinds of glasswork since I was about three. One of my earliest memories is watching a glassworker in Willamsburg, VA. I long to do hands-on. I haven't been able to find a class yet, but one day I will. And it will be glorious. :)

[sillylilly-bird.livejournal.com]

I am so excited for you!! congrats!

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

This is perfectly glorious. You go!

[redbird]

Most excellent!

(I am reminded that I had been going to look into a glassblowing sample class a few years ago, and then I had the whole mess with the gall bladder surgery, and the offer vanished. But maybe someone around here is offering that again.)

[aedifica]

Oh, how nifty! I'm glad you found a way to do that. (Not that I'd known you wanted to, but y'know. Glad you can do a particular thing you've been wanting to do.)

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Oh, how wonderful! I am so excited for you, it's something I would loooooooove. I'm so glad there's a way to make it happen.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Neat! I hope it lives up to expectations.

I occasionally get wistful about torch-sized glass things, and then have to remind myself that really, I just want to make a whole box of glass-headed pins and then I'll probably be done with making things I'd ever actually use.

The year I was fifteen and (through a strange series of coincidences) went to Russia for spring break, my parents & younger brother spent the week touring glass factories along the Appalachians. I think several of them are closed now, but if you're ever in upstate NY for some reason, you should visit the Corning Museum of Glass, because it is quite impressive and Full of Things. (Also worthy from an archaeology perspective; I was there very shortly after I had begun to learn how to catalog bottles, and found some of their collections fascinating and relevant to that, too.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

That's good to know, thanks!

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool.

[kitryan.livejournal.com]

I took two semesters in grad school and a class at Corning. I love(d) it. I'm not very good and I was frustrated by needing 2 people for anything really interesting and having trouble getting that to happen. However, with 2 people, (you + instructor) I don't see why you couldn't primarily work at the bench, sitting most of the time. Also, most of the chemistry type blowing is more flameworking, which deals with smaller stuff, at a table, with a smaller flame and is thus less about hauling large quantities of molten glass around. Maybe there are also flameworking classes- I've been thinking about trying it since there's no conceivable way of (short of some kind of lottery win) having a home glassblowing set up, but a home flameworking set up is actually more on a level with a home darkroom and not completely implausible. Anyway, I used to think glassblowing was awesome and I wanted to try it, and I did and it was, so Woo!
I should see about somewhere near me.

[tewok.livejournal.com]

I am absolutely thrilled for you! That sounds so cool, and I wish you the mostest of luck and fun with it.

I too have long wanted to do glass-blowing, but my fear of irrational fire injuries and my hate of high heat kinda keep me from it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It's weird where I think, "Ohhhh no, that's going to involve fire and risk of injury," and where I think, "Yes but if we could do safety precautions sensibly...." A lot of people think that ordinary 4th of July fireworks are worth it, and I really don't. Whereas this is definitely worth it for me.

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

I love this whole thing.