So we went to The Crucible in Oakland the weekend before Christmas to take some classes. 

The morning was spent doing glass flameworking.  Basically, we were heating plexiglass 'blanks' and 'sticks' over a propane/oxy flame.  First, we tried to make a basic marble.  You oughta see mine!   Lumpy - but I like to think that adds to its charm, not to mention its innate uniqueness. 

You use graphite tools, save for a long steel tweezer device, which you are never to hold in the flame.

Graphite does not stick to the glass.  Here's the marble molds below:

Then we learned to make the marble, not snap or burn it off, but instead to rotate it gently and evenly over the flame, with a pencil thin plexi stick on either end, ever so slowly pulling, and it started to turn itself into a spiral.  Before this pulling/turning process, we'd smash, moosh the marble with a graphite paddle, making a lollipop; then crush the lolly into frits, crushed glass, fusing it, thus adding color, and then proceeding with the spiral-making.

Here's a lolly before spinning/turning.  I don't know yet how they have the milky and clear glass, but I will learn:

We three each made a minimum of two marbles and two or three spirals (longer ones used as ornaments; a couple of shorter ones became pendants).  The very hardest part of the ornament/pendant production is the small loop at the end through which one places a ribbon or lariat or chain.  Wicked sticky, man!

Ours are all gone, but here's a pic of a beautiful ornament made by Cindy Gimbrone:

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We lunched up at Subway a block or two away.  Exquisite Victorian houses, some kept up, some boarded up.  A somewhat iffy neighborhood.  I felt cautious, and sad.  The onramp to the highways nearby, exhaust and exhaustion in the air, asleep in the streets.

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In the afternoon, we moved on to MIG welding.  Our instructor, a mere lass herself, took us on a thorough tour of the welding arts - MIG, TIG, arc, etc.  We were antsy - wanted to get into the business of Fire + Metal!

For the welding, we wore flame-proof jackets, gloves, closed toe shoes, and anyone with mesh type sneakers was encouraged to duct-tape same.

We got to wear those awesome hoods that you can flip up on your head, and with a headbob, they pop down.  You can't see a damn thing out of them until you light your torch, and then basically you see the core of the flame.  You are taught and encouraged to set up your welding spot, balance and support your arm or arms on the table, and then flip your hood down.

We were given a number of approximately 3x3 squares of medium gauge sheet metal.  We were told to make a box, using this spot welding technique.  This was not too difficult, but definitely not always pretty.

Here's Dot 1 at her table:

The part I didn't know about and did not expect is then we were instructed in the operation of a plasma torch.  Oh, this thing's a beauty.  You take your box or whatever you've made over to a large grill, use some firebrick to hold it in place, and try to "cut" designs with the plasma torch.  We only had to wear big old movie star-looking black glasses for this one.

The instructor demonstrated, cutting through the metal like the proverbial knife through butter.  She cut circles and triangles and stars - all sere and sharp and perfect.

Dot 2 on the plasma:

Dot 2 loved this the best.

The truth is, it's about as easy to wield a plasma torch as to operate a firehose without warning.  Here's my box:

It's supposed to be a candle holder.  The spiral is to evoke eternity... or infinity... or some damn thing.  The Christmas tree looks like something out of a Tim Burton movie. 

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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It's funny.  I've been wanting to learn to weld for years, decades really.  I knew a sculptor in New York ages ago, and his yard was always full of these large, evocative, visceral pieces.  I wanted to do that.  I wanted to feel that.

But I fell in love with the glasswork.

Dot 1 wouldn't go near the plasma once she learned she couldn't cut - without much practice - a straight line, or even a straight curve.  She focused on building a really cool box with demon like horns and a beaked nose.

Dot 2 loved the plasma, cut many shapes and names into many pieces.  She insists on pricing torches on the internet; wants to install a facility in the garage.  The very flammable garage.

We came home and flowed into our Christmas week exhilerated and moved.  And every glass and metal thing we saw, we wondered about how it was crafted - handmade or molded?  Cast or cut?  "I made this," was a regular statement for days, as we gifted our ornaments, pendants and boxes to friends.

It's a good thing, to play with fire.

                                                                 Fire Phoenix  (© 2004 David Hassoun)