Earthly Trades

Works of Two Women Using Natural Materials

As technology and consumer demand increased, large factories and machines began to replace small shops and people, slowly losing the connection between buyer and artist. Fortunately, there are still artists keeping artisan trades not just alive, but thriving, and as society is beginning to again desire knowing the artist who made their desired piece - talented, local artists are making a comeback.

he art of glass‑making dates back thousands of years to Mesopotamia, but many historians and writers believe the art dates back to even earlier times in Egypt and northern Syria, with some of T the earliest objects found being small beads and pieces of jewelry. Now, glass is found all around us: windows and doors in our houses, the glasses we drink out of, the windshields in our cars, light bulbs, mirrors, vases…the list goes on. All of these things exist in our world each day without us putting much thought into the process of how they’re made, let alone how the glass itself is actually formed.

For Glass Artist, Signe Ballew, the process is what called to her the most. Born and raised in Damascus, PA, Signe grew up on the river’s edge before heading off to Alfred University where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts, passionately studying glassblowing.

“I think the initial interest was that it [glassblowing] seemed like magic, and I wanted to understand how it worked,” Signe explained. “There’s something about working with glass, especially hot, that is just unlike any other medium I’ve worked with. One minute it’s extreme‑ ly malleable, like honey, the next it’s hard as a rock. The chemistry make‑up of glass is fascinating.”

Glass is one of the world’s most versatile human‑created materials, and it’s created from liquifying sand, but don’t expect to go to the beach and be able to melt sand with fire. Sand melts at 3090 degrees Fahrenheit, and when it cools

it doesn’t turn back into the sand we walk on near the ocean but rather undergoes a complete transformation ‑ gaining an entirely different inner structure. It becomes neither a solid nor a liquid, but an amorphous solid, which means it contains a bit of the structures of both, and is completely transparent.

Most of us have heard the tale of lightning hitting sand and creating glass, which is actually true, but what we don’t realize is that you won’t just find lightning-formed glass lying around on the beach. When lightning strikes, the conditions have to be perfect ‑ hitting sand that contains high amounts of silica or quartz - which then forms into hollow, glass‑lined tubes under the ground, not above. And these formations are usually never found unless erosion exposes them.

It’s this exact mystery of chemistry that caught the at‑ tention of Signe.

“In High School, I got to visit the Corning Museum of Glass for an art trip, and once for a chemistry trip. We got to make the classic ‘Corning Flower’ and did a fused tile, and made a sand blasted cup,” said Signe. “When I was touring Alfred, originally planning on studying photog‑ raphy, I saw that they offered glassblowing, and I knew that’s where I was going to go.”

Signe now works in all variations of glass: hot, flame, mosaic, fused, stained, and more.

“For me, I am a glass artist,” she explained. “For others you’ll hear ‘glassblower’, ‘flame worker’, or ‘caster’. These artists have a focus in their glass making practice. I like it all.”

Some of the people who have inspired her work are people like stained glass artist Judith Schaechter, her friends Kelsie McNair, Corey Pemberton, SaraBeth Post, Kit Paulson, and Arlie Pemberton, among many, many others. And then of course there are the classics like one of the ‘fathers of studio glass’ Harvey Littleton and Italian Maestro, Lino Tagliapietra.

Since moving back to the Catskill area, Signe has been on the hunt for a studio space, which hasn’t been easy to find. And finding a space that could act as a hotshop, or a glassblowing studio, is even more challenging as, ac‑ cording to Signe, the space would need to be extremely well ventilated and able to handle the heat of the furnace, which runs around 2100+ degrees.

But Signe’s passion for sharing the art of glass work, and the hope to expand people’s vision that a skill like glassblowing is still very much alive and thriving, keeps her looking and keeps her working.

“Having worked in a non-profit public glassblowing studio for the last 5 years, I can tell you that this is defi‑ nitely not a dying trade. We had people from all over the world coming in, taking classes, learning how to make their own cups, pendants, ornaments...etc,” Signe ex‑

pressed, “and we had plenty of people moving to the area to work in our studio. I think it’s a niche art, and I think that it’s a privileged art. I think that there are people out there, trying to open it up to more people, and give oppor‑ tunities to those who have not had them. The process that might be seen as dying is the production side of things. There aren’t as many people‑run, production, factory style places. Machines have taken over that,” she contin‑ ued. “But that’s not to say they don’t still exist, because they do.”

Clay pottery is one of human’s oldest handicrafts, with some of the oldest clay found in China dating back nearly 20,000 years. The use of clay to line woven baskets in order to create a container for carrying water, in many ways, marks the begin‑ ning of civilization itself. Some of the first Kilns for firing pottery have been found in Egypt, and decorated pottery has been found in ancient ruins all around the world.

“Clay was traditionally a utilitarian craft found in all ancient and modern cultures,” said Local Ceramicist Tara Backlund. “It wasn’t until the 1960s west coast Abstract Expressionist clay movement and the New Ceramic movement in England in the 70s that ceramics have been thought of as fine art in the modern art world. Since then we’ve been moving away from utility and asking how useful objects play a role in how we perceive the world and aesthetics in general.”

Drawing and painting since she was a small child growing up along the Delaware River, Tara’s first experiences with clay were not until high school.

“Honesdale High School had an amazing art depart‑ ment with a pottery wheel which I fell in love with,” she said. “I also started sculpting large coil pots and small fig‑ ures which soon became my most favorite activity.”

Tara went on to attend Keystone College outside of Scranton where she received her Associate’s Degree in Fine Arts before taking a two year break to travel the United States. Feeling that the travel experience was es‑ sential to her artistic process, she then returned to finish her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts.

“The arts program at Keystone was packed with great artists. One of the founders of the art program at Keystone, William Tertsteeg, a ceramics professor and working art‑ ist in the region, became my mentor,” expressed Tara. “He always pushed the boundaries, asking his students to create clay works with meaning and depth expanding on the traditional forms. Sculpture was the focus when I attended; with a bronze casting foundry, a glass blowing hot shop, a ceramics studio, and a sculpture studio that was set up with many resources to explore materials and make objects. We were encouraged to scavenge materials, for example my class went on several missions to collect metal, cutting out old radiator and pipes from buildings; asking restaurants for wine bottles for glass sculptures, stacking our own pit fire and raking kilns. I loved the ex‑ perience and miss the community of artists.”

Ceramic comes from the Greek word κεραμικός (kera‑ mikos) meaning “of pottery” or “for pottery”, and so the term or title Ceramicist is the most inclusive term for clay

worker including utilitarian and fine art. For Tara, clay is a canvas for expression, innovation, and utility, and when she first started working with it, she was enamored.

“The nature of the material ‑ earth that can be mold‑ ed into any form and has a temporal temperament,” she said with a smile, “meaning the time it takes to make, dry, fire, and glaze (that at every stage you have a high poten‑ tial for loss is very engaging for me), not to mention the thousands of years water must wash over rock and settle into silt to form workable clay is incredible. The timing of working, waiting, and firing aligns with my own creative ebbs and flows.”

And according to Tara, from making to firing, the al‑ chemy of creating with clay is, in a way, very scientific because of the measuring and recording in order to repro‑ duce it.

“It’s also so intuitive and unpredictable because you

must surrender to many variables,” she added. “The di‑ chotomy has a level of surprise and keeps me actively in pursuit of my next experience with clay. Clay is hard, yet soft, and you can imprint anything on its surface. You can form whatever you dream up within the specifications of the material. It is very much alive in the sense that it has a memory ‑ every action informs the molecular structure and this can show up later in drying and firing states,”

Tara continued. “For instance, you can stress the wall of a mug by handling it properly and won’t see a crack until the glaze firing, because the memory of that pressure is always present. The practice is a mindful practice. It’s an elemental practice utilizing water, earth, air, and fire.”

According to Tara, especially as a beginner, there can be a big loss factor due to blow ups in the kiln, cracks, and glazing mishaps but are all a part of the learning process. Even after her 20 years of work‑ ing with clay, she still experiences losses due to experimentation and exploration as well as studio and kiln conditions.

“Detaching oneself from the outcome is essential and a meditative process when working with this material,” explained Tara. “The expense can be overwhelming with tools, pottery wheels, kilns, and firing costs. Even the cost of teaching and sharing the experience can be hard to nav‑ igate. Therefore, the retail cost of a mug is relatively high, but I find that people love hand-made products and are willing to pay more knowing that it directly supports an artist. Essentially the drive to create must be greater than the expense.” Living by this idea and feeling, Tara at‑ tended Odyssey Clay Works studio classes in Asheville, North Carolina for three months in the winter of 2020, taking a figurative sculpting class with live models.

“Sculpting anatomy with realism informed by live models can bring life to your pieces, enhancing mean‑ ing and bringing conceptual and aesthetic components together. Working alongside other artists can be a great motivator and sets the stage for learning and collabora‑ tion,” she said.

She is also currently taking online figurative sculpture courses thanks to the pandemic moving many artists on‑ line to offer their knowledge and skills. Artists who in‑ spire her work like Puerto Rican born figurative sculptor Cristina Cordova, animal sculptor Beth Carver Stichter, Mexican born figurative artist Javier Marin, Crystal Mo‑ rey, and Raven Half‑moon.

“Some of the sculptors mentioned have courses teach‑ ing techniques that improve my style and skill,” Tara said, “ and access to their knowledge would otherwise be a greater expense owing to travel and time.”

Tara’s own clay process starts with the wheel. She wheel‑throws cups, bowls, and plates ‑ using her skills to produce items that are handled intimately every day.

One of her biggest challenges at the moment is studio and kiln access. She has built many small studios but dreams of a very large open space to both work and teach ceramics. A studio to build a wood fire kiln, a gas kiln, and a soda kiln.

“I dream that someday I can create the space to have a supportive community and open a large art center, supporting working artists and novices,” concluded Tara.