There is more to the art of glassblowing than meets the eye. Simply seeing the end product as a beautiful, glass sculpture is not truly enjoying glass art. Just as watching your child grow from one day to the next, the process is part of the amazement and wonder of glass. Glass is made from a mixture of about 70% sand, soda ash, and several other hazardous chemicals. I mix these ingredients myself and load them into a furnace which reaches 2,300 degrees F. The furnace runs 24/7/365 (natural gas isn’t cheap for glass artists). A blowpipe is used to get gathers or layers of glass from the furnace. The larger the piece, the more layers of glass that are used. Glassblowers work from the inside out on a piece. Generally, the colored glass, dichroic glass, cane, designs, and detailing is added first. Once this layer cools slightly, more layers of clear glass can be added until the desired size is reached. Yes, ALL that you see in my work IS glass. Not much else could withstand these extreme temperatures. Every time I put another layer of glass over an inner layer, I get 2,000+ degrees F in my face from the furnace as I spin the pipe through the honey-like molten glass. Molding and shaping the glass using a variety of sizes of wood blocks (bowls with handles), blowing air into the piece, using wet newspapers to shape, swinging the glass with help from gravity, brute strength, and lots of skill and finesse are all part of the art of glassblowing. After creating a piece, keeping it hot at all times using a reheating chamber that reaches temperatures of 2,500 degrees F, the piece is then precisely broken off the pipe. The glass is placed in an annealing oven for 2 days to cool it to room temperature. Keeping the inside and outside temperatures of each piece of artwork the same as it cools is crucial so as not to stress the glass and cause cracking. Finally, after cooling, the glass is cut, ground, polished, cleaned, and signed, which can take hours on many pieces. I expand my capabilities everyday with this medium. I pour myself into my glasswork, and I believe that the glass speaks for itself and for me. Nothing gives me more peace of mind than the quiet roar of a glass furnace on a calm, clear day and me with a blowpipe in my hand... with a piece of myself on the end.