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Pilchuck Glass School, May 2003

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Author: eZ publish admin

Publishing date: 19.04.2004 14:46

In May of 2003 I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Pilchuck Glass School’s Summer Program. I applied for session one (May 24 – June 10) under the guidance of Jiří Harcuba, a renowned glass engraver and scholar from the Czech Republic – a man with a real zest for life.
Boy, what an experience…

The campus is located on a 54-acre stretch of land in the midst of a large tree farm. From the lodge one has a spectacular view over Puget Sound, if the weather permits. The lodge is the focal point where everyone gathers for meals and slide show presentations. Every evening a teacher or artist in residence showed their work with discussions and explanations. This kind of stuff you won’t learn from just reading a book.

(From left to right) Blowing hot shop, Casting hot shop, Cold shop

Cold shop view from Casting hot shop

All the studios are built out of wood, so no smoking was permitted inside as this presents a fire hazard. Ironically the hot shops are inside wooden buildings, or rather under wooden roofs, as all the sides open up for ventilation.

Jiří Harcuba giving a demonstration

Dormitory

Johnathon Schmuck (TA) demonstrating roll-up technique

There are two hot shops, one for blowing and the other for casting. I spent most of my time in the well-equipped cold shop. Other studios for lamp and kiln work are up the hill. An interesting project we did was printing from engraved glass plates. A printing shop for this purpose was by the lodge.

The dormitory is at the top of the hill, which is quite a climb. I guess this keeps you working longer down by the studios and you only go up when the work is done. We had some fun filed evenings up there after work… (probably irritated the s..t out of the people wanting to sleep).

Sleep was a commodity in any case. We were able to work in the studios till late and this kept us busy to labour on our projects. Some of the blowing sessions were still going well after one in the morning.
Our class was able to use the casting shop on some occasions to produce blanks for engraving. In the engraving class Jiří showed us how to approach various techniques for making marks on the glass, ranging from the engraving lathe to the diamond saw. There are so many possibilities…

This was the time of my life. I met so many really interesting people who all share the same fascination for glass. I hope to see them soon again.

Class photo: (Top left) Christian Chotkowski, Tim Wagner, Johnathon Schmuck (TA); (Centre left) Marshall Hyde (TA), Jaqueline Cooley (TA), Jiří Harcuba (Faculty), Helen Tegeler, Lothar Böttcher, Isabel De Obaldia, Gus Moore (Print shop coordinator); (Bottom) Alice Rogan-Nelson, April Surgent, Mel Douglas, Ben Wright, Chris Drew.

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