Scientific glassblower continues century-old campus tradition (2021)

https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/news/scientific-glassblower-continues-century-old-campus-tradition

by dredmorbius • 2 years ago

98 14 2 years ago

chemistry.berkeley.edu

Nice to see the high end still in action; at the cheap-and-cheerful end I read a survey chemistry lab book by someone teaching at a small liberal arts college in which he claims many civilisationally-useful reactions can be run in 2L drink bottles.

https://www.cavemanchemistry.com

EDIT: I was once surprised to learn that a glass artist friend knew a great deal about borosilicate, until I figured out that while he was proud of his art glass, he was paying his bills via the craft of glass products intended for consumption of tobacco and legal herbs only.

defrost• 2 years ago

It's either that, lumpy shapes for bodily orifices, or develop some real talent: https://linotagliapietra.com/artwork

Frankly pipes and bongs are much easier and don't have the same health and safety liabilities as bad dragon glasswares.

0823498723498722• 2 years ago

La Madrina: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/anne-gould-hauberg...

(the link being by way of Chihuly/Pilchuck; her father spent 5 years at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaux-Arts_de_Paris which probably didn't hurt...)

EDIT: https://linotagliapietra.com/artwork/tasmania is an excellent material shadow of Hesse's glass bead game. The reticello uses cane laid down upon independent axes, a wedge product of canes if you will, and then this work layers those in the remaining spatial dimension —alongside the bubble as neutral element? or dreamtime?— to produce an aesthetic effect evoking its namesake.

If we were playing the gbg with textual quotations instead of murrine, one might almost imagine this work as proceeding in a Hegelian manner: the first axis of cane as thesis, the second axis as antithesis, and the perpendicular excursion as synthesis?

gtsnexp• 2 years ago

The size of his glassblowing lathe suggests the potential complexity of the artifacts produced in his workshop. What a truly remarkable art.

jumploops• 2 years ago

I once had the pleasure of working with my university’s glass blowing department —- I was building a digital hydrometer for an undergraduate embedded systems class and needed a custom glass housing.

I remember my first visit fondly, as the glass blower helped narrow in on a more simple design using mostly “standard” tubes, and then eagerly agreed to build the one custom piece. I came back a day or two later and the result was perfect.

This was at UMich circa ~2012.

beng-nl• 2 years ago

I loved this video. Highlight at the end “kids these days… they’re gonna save the world.”

A while ago I watched a longer, more in depth video on the same topic (spoiler for video title) by Angela Collier. Can recommend, she has a pleasant style and goes really in depth.

https://youtu.be/1eUI38MpiYo?si=6DAme9STHi6f6NDk

dtgriscom• 2 years ago

I visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History once, and saw their collection of glass plant models. I wasn't very impressed, until I realized I was understanding them as a dusty collection of plants. Once I really got into my head that they were actually glass, it was amazing. Totally realistic.

https://hmnh.harvard.edu/glass-flowers

borbulon• 2 years ago

My daughter was there recently on a class trip, and she was amazed at how lifelike the plants were.

mrbluecoat• 2 years ago

They grab a stool at a tabletop he calls his “altar of ideas.”

That's beautiful.

fuzzfactor• 2 years ago

So true.

If you're going to do science like art it's good to have a blank canvas standing by at all times in addition to whatever pieces may already be present in the studio, whether unfinished or undergoing restoration.

The more unique and diverse the pallette of materials you have at your fingertips, and the more you sharpen your skills at utilizing them, the more likely the outcome will be something worthwhile never seen before.

So any time you get a wild idea, you have a place to at least give it a little try, or when others who are needy declare an art emergency, you've got a place where you can step right up to the plate and hit it out of the park.

In the chemical instrumentation lab, some invention needs to be done from time to time anyway, might as well make it easier on yourself by having an "invention bench" standing by. Eventually when you have experienced the occasional cool thing coming off the bench, you don't even need an idea. Just belly up to that bench, and you come up with more ideas than you could ever execute in a lifetime. Mostly beyond your immediate pallette of resources or single-handed ability, but it really can only take seconds to mentally go down that list until you hit the things that don't tick those two boxes.

Then something interesting starts to appear on that blank canvas.

Go ahead and make it look easy, Bob Ross would be proud :)

devilbunny• 2 years ago

My chairman in undergrad did scientific glassblowing as a hobby. He offered it my senior year as an elective. It filled within seconds.

dhosek• 2 years ago

When I was last at alumni weekend at Harvey Mudd, there was a corner of one chem lab filled with broken glass. One of the students was doing an independent study learning scientific glassblowing.

rinzxc• 2 years ago

Idelvan santos pinhero

dekhn• 2 years ago

I live in the area and I definitely consider this role for when I retire. I already do some small lightweight glass work to make custom pipette tips. And working with molten glass is just so much fun.

Scientific glassblower continues century-old campus tradition (2021)

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