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.
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