About the Author
No, I'm not going to give you my life story such as, born, raised, did this, did that, yadda, yadda, yadda. Now if I had written many books and won many prizes it might be interesting but alas I've written only one book, won a few prizes, received a few awards and met the usual suspects. Nothing that would stop you in your tracks. On the other hand it is a bit more interesting than that, as in, I taught glass for 30 years and worked with glass for over 40 years. My that's a long time, but during that time learned the nuts and bolts, ins and outs, ups and downs, and a lot of other tools of the trade. So what is it that I can write here that would make you want to buy my book? Okay, here it is: My book Glass Notes is a compilation of what I know and what other experts in the field of glass know about many of the technical aspects of hot glass and the hot glass studio. And best of all we're willing to share it.A Bit About the Book
I have tried to make the book informative for the beginner and instructive for the more advanced studio artist. I am proud of the fact that many college and university programs have adopted it as a text for their students. Many of you have written and called to tell me how helpful Glass Notes has been and for that I am grateful. As I said, the book is a compendium of information gleaned from many sources. It is a who's who of contributors. To name a few: Nick Labino, Mark Peiser, Tom Ash, John Chiles, Pete VanderLaan, Hugh Jenkins, Charlie Correll, Alicia Lomné, Dr. Frank Wooley, Dan Schwoerer, Stanislav Libensky, Klaus Moje, Jeremy Lepisto, Bob Carlson, José Chardiet and others. They, like myself, felt it important to share what we know with you the reader. This 4th and latest edition brings up-to-date information on how to build and run a glass studio.
Portrait of the Artist
Old Blowers Never Die
When I was a potter we had a few books that helped us to understand how to put together a clay studio. When I moved over to glass there was nothing to guide us on how to build a glass studio. The first person that helped to inform us was Dudley Giberson. His pamphlet "Joppa Catalog of Fact and Knowledge" was the first bit of information we had that helped us. Beyond Dudley's pamphlet of information there was a need for a how-to book on building and maintaining a hot glass studio so that I (we) didn't have to spend all our time re-inventing the wheel. Over the years I had put together informative hand outs for my students. The hand-outs ran the gamut from equipment building, sand casting, enameling, annealing and other areas of information I picked up from the large number of visiting artists that demonstrated their "tricks" and techniques. During the school year I would photocopy those notes that were pertinent to what I was teaching at the time.
In about 1990, an acquaintance gave me his old Macintosh computer. To make a long story short, I transferred all my notes to the computer, printed them out, and had Kinko's photocopy them. At the time, Kinko's had this business wherein college teachers would give Kinko's permission to photocopy their information and the students would then purchase the information from them. The teacher did not get any remuneration from the sales of the notes. I soon discovered that students in glass programs at other universities were able to purchase my notes from the Kinko's in their region. Kinko's was cashing in on our notes! Well you get the idea I pulled my notes and asked my daughter, the computer expert, to show me how to put my notes together in a book form. I pecked away at the computer, learned how to use a draw program and compiled it all in a program called PageMaker. I hit print and voilá Glass Notes. How the book got its name is another story.