How to make a (fun) blown glass saguaro

Artist Dale Chuhily made Seattle a famous center for art using glass in all its variations and in the process he also attracted other glass artists from around the world and around the U.S. to that chilly Pacific Northwest City. Among the artists who came west was Danny White.

Unlike Chuhily’s massive glass ceiling installations in casinos or intricate chandeliers hanging over canals in Venice, White’s glass art is created to be viewed at eye level. It is whimsical, sometimes humorous, sometimes cartoon like — and doesn’t always look like glass. Yes, all three figures at the top of this post are blown glass — even the one in the center that appears to partially be unfired clay.

For his demonstration of the art of blowing glass as a visiting artist at the Sonoran Glass School here in Tucson, White started with a design sketched on the concrete floor. Then, after discussion of the details of the glass cactus he planned, he and six other local glass artists began to shape and color the molten glass. The face indicated in the chalk drawing is a characteristic of almost all his work.

He began by creating a oblong shape from the molten glass. It looked brilliant orange when he took it from the furnace glory hole and began to roll it on the stainless table right in front of where I was seated in the front row of the audience. I could feel the heat and it was uncomfortable even at a distance of about 5 feet. Then back into the heat it went for with the addition of color and for more shaping.

After shaping, adding color and even more shaping the “flower pot” needed some indication that there was “dirt” for the saguaro to grow in. At this point the reddish orange glob had begun to look like a flower pot with dark color and markings on it. Then White jumped up on the table and pressed the top of the pot into tiny shards of glass. Voila–glass “dirt’!

And the whole thing went back into the heat again and again. Meanwhile the other artists working with him began creating the body and arms of the saguaro in a second, and larger, glory hole.

At this point I have to thank glass artist Diane Taylor who works in Tubac for explaining to me the technical terms for the processes, equipment and materials being used. And there is a technical term for the tiny bits of glass, which unfortunately, I have forgotten.

It was definitely a group effort, as you can see. First, the body of the glass saguaro was attached to the glass pot. That is what is going on in the photo above. And it was reheated. Next came attaching and curving the two cactus’ arms.

One commentator told the audience that the process can go wrong at any stage and that keeping an even temperature while assembling the various parts is vitally important. She said that a few weeks ago one work failed while being assembled and had been simply set aside. About 30 minutes later it exploded because it cooled too fast, sending glass shards across the floor.

Soooo…those of us still there — it was 7 p.m. at this point–got a quick look at the finished work before it was removed from the pipe and hustled into a kiln where the cool-down process, called anealling, would take 24 hours. Then the art work will be really finished.

(Oh, what looks like a little appendage on the left side of the cactus is really part of an artwork on the air duct at the top of the room.)

Thank you to Danny White and the other artists for showing us how it is done. And thank you Sonoran Glass School for hosting this demonstration.

Sonoran Glass School offers classes in glass art for people of all ages and skills. (Zero previous experience is okay.) Glass blowing is spectacular and for the brave. They also offer glass fusing classes and torch classes. You can get more information here.

As a little extra: while I was waiting for the demonstration to begin I went into the garden behind and took a couple of photos. One is a glass sunbust that would look great on a garden wall. The other is a gigantic kaleidoscope with a fused glass plate to see through the viewer. I am pretty sure it is for sale, too.