Glass act is hottest at fair

Andrew Edwards

An already warm summer afternoon was even hotter around the furnaces

Charlie Keeling and Rob Cluff used to show fairgoers the tricks of

the blown-glass trade. Heat radiated around Keeling’s booth as

spectators watched Cluff craft a bulb of liquid glass into a vase.

“The hottest you get is right when you’re going to open the

furnace and 2,100 degrees come right at you,” Cluff said.

The demonstration started at about 1 p.m., with only a small

gathering watching the process from the beginning. The audience grew

as people walking past the Orange County Fair Crafters Village

stopped to see Cluff shape the glass. After about 40 minutes, the

project was ready to cool off.

Keeling narrated the process as Cluff showed off the

European-offhand glass-blowing technique. Artisans using that method

use a long blowpipe to shape their crafts.

When the glass is removed from the furnace, it has the consistency

of honey, Keeling told the crowd. Cluff began the process by rolling

the molten glass on a steel plate. Periodically, he would heat the

glass by plunging it into a furnace. When he needed more liquid

glass, he collected material from another furnace.

Once Cluff had enough glass to work with, it was time to work on

the color. He rolled the heated material in a pile of frit, which is

colored, granulated bits of glass that, in this case, will give the

vase an amber hue. For more embellishment, he rolled the glass in

larger pieces of purple and red glass, called murrhine glass. .

In the finished project, the murrhine glass will be embedded in

the vase, Cluff said. The purple and red colors will be surrounded by

a clear barrier and will look like eyeballs in the amber glass.

When the colors were ready, Cluff exhaled into his blowpipe to

inflate the molten mixture. He shaped the vase by rolling the

material on metal. At times, he would use his free hand to hold the

material, using only a wet newspaper to protect his skin from the

glass. Smoke rose from the paper as he worked.

After the amorphous liquid glass was transformed into a vase

shape, Cluff put his project in an annealing oven, which is used to

make sure the vase’s cooling process is stable. Cooling can take nine

to 12 hours, Keeling said.

Cluff said he has worked as a glass blower off and on for 16

years. Learning the basics requires a couple years of practice.

Becoming proficient involves “a lot of broken things, burns and

broken tools.”

One of the younger fairgoers, 5-year-old Heather Romano of

Temecula, was convinced Keeling and Cluff were at the top of their

game after viewing the demonstration.

After Cluff finished shaping, she ran to the booth and told them,

“You know what? You’re experts.”

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be

reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at andrew.edwards@latimes.com.