On December 5, Charlottesville awoke to billowing flakes. While some enjoyed the day inside, steaming mug in hand, or even outside, chasing rosy-cheeked rugrats, our friends and members rallied by pulling on parkas and boots to attend SSG's ornament workshop at McGuffey Art Center.
This annual event is always an adventure! Charles Hall, glass artist extraordinaire, has a workshop/lair in the North Basement of McGuffey which is perhaps best described as a Dickinson-Seuss lovechild. Menacing furnaces and kilns face a small army of plastic bags full of candy colored glass and the gorgeous curvature of his beautiful pieces which nest in every free inch of the studio. He is a great coach- getting one and all alike excited to create a signature ornament.
The basic process is this : pick your colors, point out a few patterns that you admire, sanitize the end of the glass blowing rod, wait for your cue, and then BLOW with all your might. Charles turns the rod round and round while your huffs and puffs try to fill out the glass sphere. Eventually, after many encouragements along the lines of, “Keep going, you got it, blow blow blow!” Charles would yell, “STOP!!!”, lower the rod and then raise it to the light above so you could see the colors start to deepen. The performance of it all was so amusing that many stuck around to see other members give it a go. At the end of the weekend, nearly 100 glass balls had been blown!
Everyone left smiling, warmed by hot apple cider, the anticipation of seeing their finished ornaments (since they had to stay in the kiln overnight!), and the knowledge that through this festive crafting they were supporting Second Street and a talented local artist. If you missed out this year, make sure to make a mental bookmark. Christmas 2010 will be here in no time!
Cheers,
the SSG elves
The studio!
Chip firing up the ornament
Getting ready to blow
Ta-da...artisan quality holiday ornament!
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