5 minute read
DANCING WITH LIQUID GLASS
BY TIFFANY LESTER
A potentially dangerous combination of sand, lime, soda and extremely high heat can actually be quite beautiful as it is the recipe for glass art.
A single image in a book lit the flame that has led to a 30-year career in glass blowing for Cal Breed, co-owner of Orbix Hot Glass in Fort Payne, Alabama. From his very first gather from a furnace, Breed had fallen in love with the ever-fickle art of glass blowing.
"Temperamental is a good way to say it because it has a range that you can shape it and enjoy its plasticity. But there's the space outside of that range where you're toying with allowing it to crack or heat too much, where it wants to go back to a soft form, where if you had details, you might lose. It can burn you. It can be sharp and crack or something you really love might fall off of the rod that you're using and smash on the floor,” said Cal.
But if at first, you don’t succeed, blow, blow again. For Cal, his wife and Orbix co-owner Christy and their team, the temperamentality of the craft is all part of the process.
"It makes it way more epic when you get the piece in the oven, and it is a good one. Having the failures provide a place to learn, but they're also a good balance to the successful ones,” explained Cal.
The dance with liquid glass is as complex as it is beautiful. It starts with an idea. Then there’s the plan and the choreography of gathering liquid glass on either a solid rod or a blow pipe to inflate, the application of color, if needed, and then the shaping of the molten glass with centrifugal force and gravity. Those doing the dance include the gaffer, who is the main glass blower, then a first, second and third assistant.
It’s called the hot shop for a reason. They keep the molten glass at around 2050 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat can be felt throughout the hot shop thanks to the glory holes in the furnace.
But Cal and his team bask in the glow of molten glass. They enjoy sculpting sand and flame into beautiful crystal creations.
“The joy of exploring the material and sharing that joy with the public is so fun because there's lots of curious people, especially for young people. To see their eyes as they watch us transform the molten material into something is magical. It's just unlike any other thing,” Cal added.
"My favorite part of working in the blown glass world is when we have large pieces that Cal has designed, and he needs a large team of people to make it when the team is anywhere from four to seven people. That whole choreography in the finishing of a large piece is one of the most exciting times,” said Christy Breed.
With a location bordering Little River Canyon National Preserve and with a strong agricultural community in the area, the pieces the Breeds create are often inspired by the nature around them.
“Our business is always about people, too. With where we are located on a given Saturday, we might have a farmer that's a neighbor of ours come in to bring his grandchildren to blow standing next to an engineer at NASA who's working on some project related to space exploration. Then we've had Ray Charles' daughter come and sing “Amazing Grace” a cappella in the middle of the hot shop. Gathering people from all different areas, occupations and interests is huge for us,” explained Christy.
Orbix Hot Glass hosts several classes for people to get hands-on experience glassblowing ornaments and pumpkins, but they typically fill up quickly. Learn more or shop these fragile creations by visiting orbixhotglass.com.
