Campus glass lab hosts open house and sale
The UW Glass Lab will host an open house with glassblowing and neon demonstrations and a student glass sale on Saturday and Sunday, April 29 and 30.
The event will be held from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. at the lab, located at 630 W. Mifflin St., next to the Kohl Center. Admission is free.
UW–Madison’s glass program, which started in 1962, is the oldest of its kind in the nation. Students receive instruction in the use of glass as an artistic medium. The program has produced some of the most successful glass artists in the world.
Lisa Koch, a lecturer in the departments of Biochemistry and Art who teaches a course on neon, says that it takes about an hour to make a smaller blown piece, which can reach temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees. After the pieces have been shaped and placed in kilns, also known as annealers, for cooling, it takes a day and a half for the glass to return to room temperature. Thicker items, such as cast glass or solid sculpted glass, can take up to a week to cool because of the thicker material.
For more information about the open house, call 262-2963 or visit the UW Glass Lab website.
Lisa Koch (left), an associate research specialist and lecturer in the departments of Biochemistry and Art, works a mix of tools, blown air and strenuous effort to shape molten glass into a new series of gourd-shaped vases during her scheduled “blowslot,” an allotted time to blow glass in the hot shop at the UW Glass Lab. Quincy Neri, an alumna of the glass program and now a working artist, is seen at right assisting Koch. Koch currently teaches the art department’s neon glass class.
A scissor-like tool is used to cut molten glass.
Koch’s vases incorporate a technique called “incalmo,” meaning to fuse two colored halves of glass together while hot. Koch explored the technique while working with visiting glass artist Luke Jacomb.
Koch uses a large, tweezer-like tool to shape glass into a vase.
Glass is repeatedly heated in furnaces set at more than 2,000 degrees, which makes the glass more pliable for shaping.
Collaboration is a major part of the glass program. Artists sometimes need assistance on some of the more challenging parts of the process. Neri, wearing protective gear, prepares to transfer Koch’s finished vase to a nearby kiln for cooling.