Project 007: Glassblowing

For Project 007 we asked you to document a traditional craft. Helen Lee sent us some pictures of the delicate art of glassblowing and the tools involved. She writes:

“…hot glass is like honey. Imagine gathering up a blob of honey on the end of a stick and managing to control its shape to the point where you can make a vessel. My favorite way of thinking about the craft is based on a definition of the medium as a state of matter. In some texts, glass is defined not as a material, but a state of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and the glassy state. I get the feeling that this nomenclature has fallen out of favor in the scientific community, but I still like to utilize this definition because it speaks to the practice of learning how to use one’s body to work with the material as it behaves in the field of gravity. I am less interested in the success of a particular piece and more interested in the collective practice/muscle memory/knowledge of my body learning how to interact with this state of matter, much the way we know how to inhale air, dive into a pool of water, etc…

My tools might be my most prized possessions. When I moved to California early in ‘07, I drove across the country with some clothes, my laptop, and my toolbox. (and my boyfriend.)”

There’s video of her here and pictures below.