Molten glass often glows orange, viscous and workable. If the temperature drops too quickly, it may shatter. Shaping it successfully requires speed, steadiness, and skill, and very few academic programs in Southern California still teach the practice in a hot shop.
Santa Monica College is the only public institution in Los Angeles County to offer both glass sculpture and glass fusing courses through its credit and noncredit divisions, respectively. The hot-shop-based credit course, "Glass Sculpture," runs twice a year. It fills fast.
Associate Professor Terri Bromberg leads the glass courses. Her work is supported by laboratory technicians Andrew Berney, Darren Frale, Susan Haskell and Myles Freedman. Guest artists, such as Evan Chambers, visit for demonstrations.
During lab time, students work solo or assist each other. They use a blowpipe to gather incandescent molten glass from a furnace heated to more than 2,000 degrees, where glass at its hottest is closest to white. As it becomes orange, they shape it with marvers, blocks, jacks, and punty rods, working quickly before it cools, and returning it frequently to a glory hole for reheating. Frit — crushed, colored glass — is rolled or dabbed onto the surface for color.
Once formed, glass pieces are placed into electric annealing ovens, which provide a gradual, controlled temperature decline overnight to prevent cracking.
Asked about the hot shop's benefits and limitations, lab technician Andrew Berney pointed to scale. More space and equipment would mean room to work on larger pieces. “There's always going to be a chance to have better equipment,” he said. “More glass, more colorful glass. Bigger annealers.”
The space holds three glory holes and benches, with lab time scheduled for up to 33 students.
A setup like SMC's is accessible to students and staff who use it, rather than one that would accommodate larger pieces while serving fewer people. The scale of the annealing ovens also determines the limits of what can be made and safely cooled.
“There's size limitations,” Berney said, “but having the chance to touch any molten glass is very special. And again, it’s very special that Santa Monica College has it.”
During final presentations, several students wore black T-shirts from the Corning Museum of Glass Studio that read, “All I want to do is make glass.”
