GLASSBLOWERS IN A MUSEUM, GLASS SHIPS IN BOTTLES!
To be able to conduct a glassblowing demonstration on my birthday was indeed a joy to behold. Obviously not really to hold if the joy was as hot as the glass I was working in the flame! I wasn’t in my normal space as instead of a small pokey workshop I was demonstrating to schools and members of the public at the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine. And more than that I was not alone but accompanied by my glassy pal Robert who is at moment the one Chair of the British Society of Scientific Glassblowers. We were doing a double act to promote scientific glass working. The craft is under threat with so little funding available for training which results in fast diminishing numbers of scientific glassblowers not on in UK but across the World. This wouldn’t be so bad but the demand for scientific glassware is and I believe will always present.
The demonstrations were planned (although those watched may have had other views!!!!!) to compliment an exhibition called “Ships in Bottles” by Ayako Tani. This exhibition demonstrated the cross over skills of the scientific glassblower and the artistic craft of making glass ships and then as if by magic sealing them inside a glass bottle. Ayako had 150 bottles form her own personal collection on display. When I asked her where she kept them when not showing them off, she replied in boxes in her bedroom! Wow some huge bedroom me thinks! Talking of showing off brings me back to Robert and our demonstrations. We did rehearse (honest guv) but I believe in making it up as you go along and so we did. Using a noisy burner meant there was no alternative other for one of us to describe what the other was making. I may have confused Robert when I started making a hollow glass pumpkin then turning it into a Christmas ornament which of course was very scientific.
A table littered with examples of scientific glassware was positioned in front of us which had the added advantage of not only showing visitors what this type of glass looks like but acting as a barrier when the audience wanted to storm our stage. One highlight was heating up some glass tubing and running with it to stretch as far as possible to illustrate the creation of glass fibre. Robert volunteered to do the running whilst I remained close to the heat. Our longest run involved Robert running so fast he reached the emergency exit door and oh how I wished it was open as I am sure he would have “belted” across the car park. All this with a trail of molten glass behind him!
The school parties we performed to seem to enjoy it. Even more so when we asked their teachers to have a go themselves. Robert showed just how easy it is to bend a glass tube at right angles. To be honest I was impressed everyone knew what a right angle was!
Private view of exhibition took place on Saturday evening. Can’t be a preview as show had been open for two days but sure seemed like a preview with wine and cheddars!!!! Not forgetting speeches and all dressed in their finery and then Robert and I were asked to demo. Hot glass and big flames combined with me in my best tee shirt, fancy jacket and smooth fashionable soft shoes was not the ideal uniform for working but hey ho a glassblower has to do what a glassblower must do and that’s to show off our skills which we did in abundance.
As far as the exhibition goes then it was fab and a must see event for all glassy people. I heard a rumour that once finished which is in January then it will travel(float?) to Stourbridge but not until next August in readiness for the International Festival of glass. All credit to Ayako for arranging it all. Interesting that a freelance journalist was talking to us on the first day of our demos and asked me what I thought of the showcases where drawers from Mayflower glass are exhibited. These drawers contained hundreds of glass galleons in readiness to be sealed in bottles. The Mayflower factory sadly defunct and an empty ruin for years seemed to be like a graveyard of skills. I was reminded of a similar company called Fantasy Gifts that also made ships in bottles and exhibited at a BSSG Symposium in 1997. The company even advertised in the BSSG Journal promoting Kimble tubing and rod. The scientific glass connection to ships in bottles could not be more obvious than that. It was a shock to me to see the moulds that were used to make the hulls of the glass galleons and to teach one was made every four seconds.
One odd thing about the exhibition was seeing a somewhat primitive piece of engineering in the shape of mechanical rollers and associated jigs invented to speed up the production of glass ships in bottle manufacture. In a room of glass beauty, it almost seems crass to also include this metal beast of an obstacle. Yet it also brought home to me where the sad saga of the history of making glass ships in bottles all went wrong. Nothing wrong about the display from Paul Le Pinnet MBE of his scientific glass pieces and such a diverse range that even included pregnant pigs. A man after my own heart I confess.
Acting like a security guard at reception was a glass model made by Terri Adams of Oxford University. This depicted a very fierce creature from the sea. A photo of Terri creating this monster fish was published in the BSSG Journal in July 2020. This work fitted into the theme of the Museum very well as it was the Scottish Maritime Museum. I was lucky not to get into deep water as my contribution was a glass bent light house which I like to think also added a sense of reality to proceedings!
Exhibition at the Scottish Maritime Museum, The Linthouse, Irvine Harbourside, KA12 8BT
For current opening times contact Scottish Maritime Museum
Exhibition open now to Sunday 9 January 2022
A brilliant assessment of the whole event Ian , a man of words I have no doubt in that. Your friend Paul