Teen shapes beauty from glass

Scorching summer days are nothing to Spencer Pittenger: The 2,100-degree furnaces at Gary Zack's glassblowing studio in Saratoga Springs, where he works six days a week, make the studio at least ten degrees hotter than the temperature outdoors.

"Every once in a while, I get burned, but nothing really serious," the teen said of his fiery hobby, adding: "My hair gets burned a lot."

The recent graduate of Saratoga Central Catholic High School has studied lampworking (a type of glassblowing using a gas torch instead of an oven) at the Corning Museum of Glass and Museum Glassworks in Ballston Spa, created a lampworking studio in his home and interned with Mr. Zack before working for him full-time. He plans to attend Alfred University in western New York next year, majoring in fine arts with a concentration in glassblowing.

Carrying a torch

In addition to the glassblowing technique most people are familiar with, which uses ovens, the lampworking type of glassblowing uses a torch to make small objects like marbles and pendants. A friend with a torch introduced Spencer Pittenger to glassblowing, and he was immediately hooked.

"A lot of people look at it as an addiction: You get into it and you can't stop," he remarked.

Spencer thinks he gets his artistic bent from his parents: His father, Russell, is an accomplished painter and carver; his mother, Linda Whittle, creates pottery and crafts. Spencer also has a wide range of other hobbies, including drumming. At Spa Catholic, he was a peer minister and tutor, and active in student government, sports and the mock trial team.

Malleability

Glass is "a fantastic medium," Spencer explained. "You can make any object out of glass."

On a typical day, he and other glassblowers at Mr. Zack's studio may create three large glass platters or nearly two dozen glass flowers. Spencer just finished a set of six drinking glasses for a friend of the family.

He enjoys making objects that challenge his skills. For instance, he pointed out a bowl he just completed with a blown-glass base, or "foot," explaining that it's difficult to get the foot even and exactly the right shape.

Pipes and breath

To make an object out of glass, said Spencer, a glassblower takes a long pipe and dips it into the furnace in a technique called "gathering," putting a blob of molten glass on the end of the pipe. The number of gathers will determine the size of the finished object.

The molten glass is shaped by rolling it along the top of a metal table called a "marver," and air is puffed into it to create a bubble.

Areas of the bubble are then cooled to shape the glass into the desired object, and the mark where the glass is finally broken off from the pipe is "flame-polished" away.

Secrets

To make a colored piece of glass, clear glass is draped with a layer of colored glass, then another layer of clear glass is lain over the top -- so what appears to be a colored vase or platter, Spencer noted, is actually a "sandwich" of colored and clear layers.

Finished pieces are placed in an "annealer," or kiln, which gradually brings the objects back to room temperature so they don't crack or explode. Of course, that doesn't always work: Spencer said that of every three pieces he makes, one gets broken.

"The challenge is that, at any stage, if you're not paying attention to the glass, it's going to get off-center or ruined," he added. Heating the glass is timed to the second, and "you've got to have the patience and drive to pay attention."

Learning his craft

Although Mr. Zack's work is for sale, most of the pieces Spencer is currently creating are made with an eye toward improving his skills with shape and color, rather than marketing the products.

He hopes to continue to improve during his time at Alfred University, which is well-known for its glassblowing program.

His goal is "to be able to say, `I made this,' when you make something and it's exactly the way you want it to be. A lot of the time, you have a picture in your head, and it almost always comes out different."

(8/5/04)