DRAWING ON EXPERIENCE

I like drawing but not as much as making “stuff” using hot glass. That is working glass in open flame. Mind you when I say I like drawing it’s not always with pencils. Sometimes I use felt tip pens, biros, wax crayons and even glass pens. The latter needs more explaining as maybe the impression I give is using a glass pen, quill like and dip it in ink. No, I heat up glass rods or tubes in a flame and have a piece of paper nearby so when the glass is hot I just move the glass quickly on paper, not too slow to burn through the paper and not too fast that no marks are left. It’s fun and make a pleasant change from burning flesh!! I have seen this technique being demonstrating a few times over the years and at times it is received by audiences as new. Well I have been doing this for just over 50 years now and its certainly not very new to me.

I suppose if I was a real artist then I would say that I have to sketch each idea first before I even look at a piece of glass. Truth is I just pick glass and place it in the flame and work out ideas from my head to my hands which get translated to the glass flame. All about movement of hands, gravity and flame density. Far, far easier than drawing. I mean even if anyone can draw, they don’t do they?

I like the idea of drawing something then trying to follow what I have drawing but of course with glass I am working in three dimensional rather than two with drawing. I think the act of drawing is meant to impress people and especially if one does it well then I suppose it should. I have drawn glass items that I have made but found this to be boring and pointless. The important thing is just to create rather than recreate. That’s why I hate tracing or painting by numbers.

I had a customer who arrived in his new Porsche and parked it outside my studio. In he came asking me could I make a model of it in glass. Of course I could do a sculpture but not exactly a model. This was the day before mobile phones so couldn’t take any photos. I pretended to walk around the car drawing and sketching (what the difference is, I have no idea!). He was pleased that I was acting like a real artist and “acting” is key here. When he had gone, I went home to look up pictures of cars like his and just copied generic shapes. OK so he didn’t like the result because I had forgotten to include the dent at the front. This had sentimental value as it happened when his wife was driving the car and this glass so called model was going to be a present for her.

Once or twice, I have drawn on glass but as I use a diamond then this is called engraving although maybe scratching is more accurate. I made a small glass blackboard once and had to draw sums and equations on the board. This worked fine when the glass was clear but became a pin when I had painted the clear glass black!

Drawing can be functional as when drawing around a shape as a template for then blowing a piece of glass to the same shape. The risk is of course is not setting fire to the drawing. However this can be easily remedied by drawing on heat resistant board.

My Dad was a draughtsman and it could be argued that my love for pencils came from him. I did get a good grounding with HB and 2H etc…… It was only when I became a Beaver Scout Leader that I realise what a wonderful choice there is of coloured pencils and to this the added pleasure of sniffing wax crayons had be in high spirits. Using was on glass works fine as sometimes one needs to know where to join a piece to another. Marking the position on the glass and placing it in the flame is useful if the mark can still be seen. It should disappear when a certain temperature is reached. Some colours work better than others but I cannot pass that information on as it’s a trade secret. Much like life itself!