2009 the year of the cane tumbler

this year i have not committed to any other exhibitions or shows. so i have no deadline or pressure. i also feel like i am lacking direction in my practice. i have decided to spend my time in the studio and hotshop this year just making for its own sake and seeing what it is i do. one of the first things i have decided to work on is cane.

glass cane is made by getting coloured glass and making it into a small sausage shape and then gathering clear glass over it. you make this into a hot sausage kind of thing and then you and your assistant stretch it out across the room into a long thin (5mm) strand of glass. then once it cools you set it down across the floor and chop it up into useful lengths like in the above image.


with these canes you can then line them up on a metal plate, heat them up and then roll them up into a tube and then close off the end to make a bubble. a very practical and technical exercise is to make this bubble into a cane tumbler. a cane tumbler is like a good stretch before a run. something to get you into the groove and your muscles moving.

for some reason i really enjoy making cane tumblers. i find them very satisfying and still challenging. also they are useful and lots of people like them. funnily enough even though they seem to go against my usual plain and neutral colour palate, i do enjoy the bright and contrasting colours put together in cane tumblers.



taking the cane one step farther, you can make what i call "fancy canes". there are many variations on the exact patterns and there is a long standing italian venetian tradition of making and using these fancy canes. the fancy canes can be made colourfully but there is also a tradition of making some beautiful monochromatic canes. these have a look similar to lace patterns.

now i am just learning how to make them, and as with most things that look simple to make they are in fact very tricky. these fancy canes are made by getting your colour set up which can be made using chunks of colour melted together or by rolling up the plain canes into different patterns. after you have the colour and pattern set up into the hot sausage shape you then pull it out again across the room, but this time while you do that you must turn the pipe as fast as you can. and just when your arms are about to fall off you try to find a second burst of energy and KEEP TURNING! trust me it is truly very hard. a talented friend of mine makes beautiful fancy cane and it is my goal to learn how to do it as well as him. my first attempts have been sad, but i will not give up and at the end will have ripply strong arms and beautiful cane.


anyways with these fancy canes you can of course still make glass tumblers. and these ones look very fancy. they are fun and playful and i really enjoy drinking out of mine.

for now i like the comfort of making something that has a clear function. these cups feel so nice in your hands. they remind me of when i was a kid and would look at marbles with wonder, how were they made? how did those patterns get in there? (very similar process) i do the same with these cups, following the patterns around and think how they were made and dreaming new patterns up.



and so this is one of the projects i will be working on for the rest of this year. each week i blow glass for one four hour session. during this time i will teach myself to make fancy canes and keep up the practice of making these glass tumblers. i will save and collect them in my studio for the rest of the year. i hope that by doing the exercise i will not only improve my glassblowing skills but that the process of making will inspire and lead me into the next idea or project. i will document my progress from time to time, and hopefully we will see an improvement by the end of the year.