ED’S CRACK OCTOBER 2020

This is my last Editorial for the Journal of the British Society of Scientific Glassblowers and gives the impression that I would not be editing again in 2021. Of course, I couldn’t give up so I have produced the January 2021 issue. Good to reflect on one’s mind at any particular time but 2020 was a challenge!

Well it’s finally over. After all this time it’s come to an end, possibly THE end! There’s no denying it and I am fighting extreme resistance in me to accept the truth that it really is gone. Yesterday is indeed no more and there have been loads of yesterdays this year with seemingly few tomorrows. Whether there will be a Journal in 2021 I cannot say today but I might have the answer tomorrow and am so glad you never asked me yesterday. The somewhat sobering thought is that lots of anguish is being felt and wrongly blamed on some kind of virus. Imagine though that bad things will always happen regardless of circumstances. We can certainly blame the pandemic restrictions for the cancelling of this year’s BSSG Symposium but can we blame the same thing for there being no Journal next year?

I detest the often repeated statement that politicians bleat on about saying they are just listening to science. Any scientific glassblower with a few years experience of working with scientists knows how dangerous it can be if you just listen to one profession. We need to listen to artists, nurses, business owners, engineers, vets, and street cleaners to collate relevant information and them make a decision in the comfort that no discipline has been ignored. Maybe I should have added journalists on the list of professions that opinions need to be taken into account. Maybe or maybe not! I have been lucky enough to work with and for some very clever people who have held me spellbound for hours with their passionate delivery of theories and things but for goodness sake I wouldn’t ask them to make me a coffee! We should be paying more attention to experience as we all do that in our daily life. Most of us follow customer reviews of products to help us make a well informed decision. So would anyone in their right mind follow a course of action against a virus based on a one star review?

This issue is not devoted to the Company Jencons but it might appear so as the content is filled with photographs and words telling the story of Jencons (Scientific) Ltd as part of Alan Gall’s history of Pyrex wholesalers. I worked at Jencons for a few years in the late 1970’s when living in Hemel Hempstead. I never realised until now how connect to lampworking Hemel was. My brother-in-law Gary Clayton lived just down the road from me and worked for Ken Tindale, an ex Jencons glassblower who set up a company called Scorglass. Other names come to mind include a Stan and an Eric. Also my memory being so cloudy from blowing too many glass luvbugs (hollow caterpillars filled with coloured water) that I have forgotten surnames of people like Glass by David who owned “Glass by David” working from his Harrow workshop. I am hoping that someone reading this will contact me to fill in any gaps! I do remember Bill Young who specialised in silica work and made some wonderful artwork. His silica model of a motorbike was featured in an advert in the June 1968 issue of the BSSG Journal. More of Bills worked featured on the cover of the Journal. The strange thing is that both Gary and I were members of the BSSG but although we lived less than a mile apart we were assigned different Sections. I was in the Southern Section whilst Gary was a member of the East Anglia Sections. All this seem pretty petty now as we all know there is just one Section active and that’s the Scottish clan!!

I am no stranger to complaining if things don’t seem right when staying at a hotel and my recent experience in Edinburgh proved this still to be true. The flickering light outside my bedroom window surely was a simple electrical problem that could be fixed by just removing the bulb. So I prepared myself to storm down to reception and demand action. As I walked towards the bedroom door a rumble from above deafened me giving me more ammunition to complain as now not only was my sleep being deprived from a faulty light bulb but the people in the room above me had obviously started a trampoline competition. It was only when the rain poured down that it dawned upon me I was witnessing horrendous weather with thunder and lightning. It went on for hours and I had never seen weather like it. The day before I had my photograph taken next to a sculpture in Princess Street Gardens which unfortunately was not in focus so I returned in the morning only to see the whole area cordoned off due to flooding with water over one metre deep!