"Hot Glass" by Rev. Barbara Merritt

Tue Mar 4 17:12:21 EST 2008

M I N I S T E R’ S   M E M O

“Hot Glass”

I entered “Bead World” because of desire, cheapness and ignorance. Let me explain. Because it all began innocently enough.

A good friend, Betsy Mandel Carley (and wife of a dear colleague) introduced me last November to stringing beads when I visited their home in Memphis. For an entire afternoon she taught me how to expertly string one beautiful necklace after another. Her extensive bead collection was a treasure trove. (Besides being a licensed clinical social worker, she donates all her jewelry to the Civil Rights Museum.) Beading was play. It was great fun. I had found a new and very relaxing hobby.

I returned determined to keep my craft simple. I wanted to string beads, not to make jewelry. I wasn’t interested in a new career path or an additional source of stress or vanity. I just thoroughly enjoyed the patterns and textures of a seemingly infinite variety of glass beads and stones.

I had to assemble my own collection of beads which necessitated visiting “bead stores.” Too quickly I started graduating to some beautiful polished semi-precious stones. Then, I found some slightly more expensive natural pearls which dramatically set off the stones. Even more dangerous was the discovery of the “on-line bead stores.” (They can take up a lot of time.) But the real trouble began when I found the locked artist’s cases with hand-blown beads. They were breath taking. They were stunning small works of art. And they were $200 per bead.

Now there is no known universe where I would pay $200 a bead, no matter how beautiful. (This is where the cheapness enters in.) But the desire was intense. . . . I was drawn in an almost hypnotic way to their loveliness. So it was, knowing absolutely nothing about glass bead making, I signed up for the beginners course of bead making at the new glass studio at the Worcester Craft Center. (Ignorance.)

When I first walked into the studio my jaw dropped. You make these glass beads through a process called “lampwork.” You melt rods of Italian colored glass over an intense 1,900-degree flame, wrapping the hot molten glass around a stainless steel rod. (It is a little like trying to make of piece of art out of hot molten cheddar cheese.) The skill set also assumes that you can twirl the post with your left hand, while “painting” with hot glass with your right. If I had done my homework and researched just how demanding the process was, I’m sure I never would have even attempted it.

It is like going to school at Harry Potter’s “Hogwarts School for Wizardry.” There are golden powders that frizzle and spark when you put them in the flame. My fellow students can make red roses bloom in the middle of their hot glass. (While the course was listed for beginners, it turns out that I am the one and only beginner.) And what my teacher can do with glass goes way past magic. She can spin out multi-colored twisted filaments. She can paint intricate flower gardens onto glass landscapes. She can move and shape the glass into discs, squares, pendants and barrels. And every week, she shows her students more phenomenal techniques. I am fascinated, thoroughly intimidated and having more fun than I’ve had in a long time.

With a whole lot of concentration, I’ve managed to make a few beads that are not so misshapen or so malformed that they may someday hang on a necklace. For three hours every week, I lean over that intense little flame and watch the glass glowing and moving with a mind all its own. I tell myself that with enough practice, someday I will be able to handle this mysterious material with greater control and dexterity. For now, my very patient teacher and astonishingly unpredictable molten glass are showing me what can and cannot be done.

This “Bead World” has its own vocabulary: mandrels and annealing and Effetre. It has its own tools: rod nippers, optic molds and tungsten picks. There are magazines, trade shows and conventions. Who knew! Because my trade is not arts and crafts but theology, this strange new world is offering a few lessons to bring back to the life of the spirit.

♦ Beginning with a “beginner’s mind.” I recommend to one and all, no matter your age or circumstances, to learn something new. Neurological experts claim that learning environments that involve eye-hand coordination have been known to improve memory! I’ll let you know (if I can remember) if there are any dramatic improvements.

♦ The power of the liquid form. The Taoist tradition claims that God can best be understood as water: fluid, constantly moving and changing; ultimately more powerful and persistent than rock. Glass is an odd material, taking a sometimes brittle, shatterable form, and yet, when it is hot it is so malleable that it seems to be alive and produces its own light! Apparently, even a glass window centuries old still retains some of its liquid properties, in that is ever so slowly settling in a downward direction. Under the right circumstances what looks to be permanently stuck can transform in the twinkling of an eye.

♦ Take care. To work effectively with glass you need to pay attention and keep moving. The glowing glass bead needs to cool and then needs to pass quickly through the flame in a temporary bath of heat. You can’t let it get too hot or too cool. Glass is extremely sensitive to the way it is being handled. Like some people I know. Like most people I know. If I could listen to others as carefully as I “listen” to that glowing ball of hot glass, I suspect I would be a better friend and a better minister.

A high risk hobby is not the answer to all of the soul’s yearning. But the world is spinning with objects and relationships that are constantly changing. They are in motion for a reason. Even our smallest gifts, the size of a glass bead, can bring some beauty into the world.

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