MY LIFE AND MY FLAME – a lampworking journey through inspiration

Ian Pearson

Introduction

This is the first part of an article originally intended to be published in the for the Glass Society’s publication Glass Matters and I wanted to share to perhaps a larger audience!

Scientific glassblowing is an endangered craft as recognised by the Heritage Craft Association when they publish an update of their “Red List” in 2019 which listed 212 crafts. What this means is that although there are at the moment enough scientific glassblowers to pass on their skills to the next generation, there are serious concerns about an on-going viability. So where has it all gone wrong if indeed it has? I believe I can shine a light upon the subject through my personal experiences over the last fifty years as a lampworker. Essentially that is what scientific glassblowing is all about, lampworking. The manipulation of glass tubing and rod in an open flame. Machinery such as lathes do play an important part, but the skills remain very much hands on and perhaps there lies the challenge.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the connection between artistic and scientific lampworking and emphasise the importance of the latter. i.e., scientific glassblowing techniques exist to support artistic lamp work or is it the other way around? The subject of lamp working which is also known as flame working is larger than I envisaged before composing this article and I have had to leave out many details including artists names and work due to limited space. It maybe that in the future I will be able to offer an updated and expanded version.

Readers of “Glass Matters” should be familiar with the term of lampworking and its place in the World of glass art but less known is the profession of the scientific glassblower. Examples of lamp work being featured appeared in Glass Matters No 5 with the story of the “Gold State Coach”. Also, in Issue No 4 the lamp work artists Caroline Weidman is featured. There have of course been several references to glass animals notably Bimini. What really struck me though was the photograph on the back cover of Issue 10 which ironically was replicated on the front of the Contemporary Glass’s Journal titled “Glass Network. The glass item in question was a representation of the Coronavirus by Luke Jerram. As Editor of the Journal of the British Society of Scientific Glassblowers I too have included Luke’s work in the January issue of this year 2021. Thankfully, Luke acknowledged the work played by scientific glassblowers in his realisation of his ideas. Several scientific glassblowers have managed to create a fair representation of the Coronavirus, each acting independently of each other and so could not be influenced by others. I include myself in this regard and have interestingly (to me anyway) sold many virus baubles as I call them to the medical profession.

This article should not be seen as a history of lampworking but more a series of my personal memories linked to some influential lampworkers and their activities If a reader wishes to learn more about the subject of lampworking, then I can do no better than recommend several books, notably: Contemporary Lampworking Volumes One, Two and Three by Bandhu Scott Dunham ISBN 0965897214. In addition, I whole heartedly recommend Lampworking, Glass items up to the 19th Century by Sandro Zecchin ISBN 9788890428548.This latter title is also Volume One in a trio of lampworking books which are the most comprehensive publications on the subject. Volumes Two and Three have been compiled by Cesare Toffolo. ISBN 9788890428555/62

Warming up

My Uncle called me a Scientific Glassblower Improver for that’s what people were known as when starting out in the career as a scientific glassblower. I had no idea as I was fresh out of school at seventeen years old. My Uncle was Ted Skey who owned Scientific Glassware Specialists in Thornton Heath, Surrey. He was my Dad’s Brother-in-Law and one family gathering asked me why I hadn’t wanted a summer holiday job with him. I suppose I was focused on a newspaper round or helping the milkman. It was easy to agree to my Uncle’s invitation and went along with his request. From my memory this appeared to be cleaning the floor whilst watching his staff make test tubes. It all seemed extremely dangerous and all very weird. At the time I had no interest in glass. I was more interested in getting on with the people that worked for my Uncle. One was John Marlow who eventually worked at Smith Kline Beecham overseeing their glass department. Another, John Cowley worked for Queen Elizabeth University whilst a third lampworker, Gary Clayton ended up as my Brother-in-Law. Gary learnt his skills of glass working at Waddon Training Centre in South London.

The business of Scientific Glassware Specialists revolved around the mass production of products for Griffin and George Ltd who supplied many schools and other educational establishments. Ted spent many years at Gallenkamps who worked in a similar fashion. I remember not being aware of the importance of stress relieving glass and thought that not using an annealing oven unimportant. The fact that we didn’t have one seemed irrelevant to me. My Uncle conjured up all sorts of devices that allowed his workers to produce as much as possible in the shortest time. Hence, we annealed using a Bunsen burner set under tubes that revolved at set speeds using old motors from laboratory stirrers.

The atmosphere of scientific glass businesses at that time was extremely competitive and Ted would set up hardboard screens when visitors appeared in the workshop, so all our secrets were never exposed. I remember representation from a comp[any called Dixons did pop in from time to time. Up went the screens a few minutes before they arrived and were dismantled immediately after they left. Of course, everyone knew everything but the style of teaching just half the job to someone left a funny taste in my mouth.

It was a revelation then to speak to another scientific glassblower from a completely different environment. Every Christmas my Uncle would always take his staff to the Science Museum in London to hear a lecture by Jim Frost who was the scientific glassblower at Reading University. I can vividly remember his demonstration of using an unannealed glass milk bottle to hammer a nail in a piece of wood. Then when he dropped a grain of sand into the bottle the glass shattered all over the front row of the audience. Great laughs all round and made me realise just how fragile glass can be but also opened my eyes to the possibilities of the material. Jim was a member of the Society of Glass Technology as was my Uncle. I learnt this connection when in my Uncles office and saw piles of magazines with green covers which were of course the Journal of the SGT.

My awakening of the artistic streak of lampworking came to me when volunteering to help with a glass demonstration at a local school and here I was shown how to make glass fish using coloured glass rod. I had always used clear glass so using colour really was distracting and interesting at the same time. The glass came from Plowden and Thompson and one colour was yellow which I learnt years later was radioactive since it contained Uranium. I learnt this enlightening fact when working for the Atomic Energy Authority at its facility on the North Coast of Scotland at Dounreay.

To be continued………..