EXPLORATIONS - Exploring the Art of Glass Through History and Around the World

And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. AtOne of the earliest methods developed for making glass containers is called core-forming. A glassmaker places a rounded piece of clay material on the end of a long metal stick. Once the clay dries, the glassmaker dips the form in a container of hot liquid glass until it is covered. The artist can then add a second color of glass to make designs over the first layer of glass. Once the glass form cools completely, it is taken off the metal stick. The clay inside is carefully cut out to form a glass container.VOICE ONE:Another ancient method of making glass that is still used today is called casting. Casting involves making a clay form in which the shape of the glass container is carved. Then, the artist puts small pieces of glass material inside of the clay form. When it is cooked at a very high temperature, the glass pieces melt and take the shape of the clay form. Once the solid glass object cools, an artist uses special tools to carve an opening in the container.(MUSIC)VOICE TWO:But it was another method of making glass --the blown glass method-- that changed the glass industry of the ancient world. It was first developed in the Roman Empire about two thousand years ago. This new technology made glass production faster and less costly. A glass container made by casting or core-forming could take a few days to make. With glass blowing, an artist could make many containers in a day.VOICE ONE:Glassblowing involves gathering hot liquid glass on the end of a metal pipe called a blowpipe. The glass reaches a temperature of about one thousand degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the glass is a bright orange color. The glassblower must turn the pipe constantly so that the thick liquid glass does not fall off the end. He or she then blows through the pipe so that the glass expands into a rounded bubble form. The blown piece of glass can be worked and formed to create many different kinds of shapes. To reshape the glass, it must be continually reheated to stay soft.VOICE TWO:In modern terms, the hot oven that the glassblower uses to quickly reheat the glass is called a "glory hole." The artist can shape the hot glass using metal tools such as jacks, tweezers and shears. Or, he or she can place the hot glass on a metal table called a marver to shape the form by rolling it back and forth. Watching an expert glassblower is an exciting experience. The artist moves as quickly and as gracefully as a dancer.VOICE ONE:In thirteenth century Italy, the government ordered glassblowers inVenice to move to the island of Murano. The aim was to reduce thethreat of fires from the glassmakers' furnaces. It was also useful forthe glassmakers to be together so that they could control the secretsof their trade. Each generation of glassmaker would pass along thesecrets of the trade to the next generation.Murano glass became famous around the world. It is still a center forglass production today. In fact, the Murano glassblowing tradition hasbeen a major influence on one of the most famous American glassartists today, Dale Chihuly. Chihuly trained in Murano in the nineteen sixties. His electrically colorful and fluid glass works can be seen in An example of a glass work made in 1885 in Murano, Italymuseums around the world.(MUSIC)VOICE TWO:The Washington Glass Studio is located near Washington, D.C., in Mount Rainier, Maryland. This is where the artist Tim Tate works and teaches. Here he tells about his "Sacred Heart of Healing" sculpture that we talked about earlier.Smithsonian, there is a blown glass heart with a flame coming out ofthe top. The image in the flame is a hand and off of each fingertipare different natural healing techniques. The first heart I made waswhen my mother was extremely ill and after she passed away Imade the heart larger. For me, it was a memory piece. For yearsafterwards I made these large sacred hearts. Some of them wereclear with things inside, some were very colorful."VOICE ONE:Making these hearts is not easy. Tate works with a team of glass''Sacred Heart of Healing'' by Tim Tateartists at a studio in the state of North Carolina.Tim Tate is also the director of the Washington Glass School. He says he loves teaching glass skills to students because he learns so much from them. And, he likes to work near the other glass artists in the school because they can exchange ideas and methods.Tate first became interested in glass by watching glassblowers as a young child. As an adult, he developed his love of glass making for very different reasons.TIM TATE: "When I was just a small kid I went to Corning Glass works and watched the glass blowers there and was really mesmerized by that. And then, years ago when I first found out that I was HIV positive, my initial reason for doing glass was I wanted to leave one glass vase for my nephew and nieces to remember their uncle by. My initial reason was a sense of legacy."And then, I kept living and twenty-three years later, I am in many museums around the world. I just got good at it, because I knew I had to hurry because I was supposed to die."VOICE TWO:Tim Tate makes glass that is meant to be sculptural. He says the message in his work is usually about healing.TIM TATE: "My messages in all of these is all about healing. Either healing ourselves, or society's healing, or healing through making art, or healing through viewing art. So, that's what my content tends to be about."VOICE ONE:Tim Tate also makes sculptures that he calls reliquaries. These works are made of clear blown glass containers with different objects inside. He has a big collection of interesting small objects such as maps, tools, game pieces, and dolls for putting inside the containers.One reliquary is called "Dice." It is filled with hundreds of small redcubes for playing games of chance. The surface of the container iscovered with writing that has been cut into the glass. The messagetells about different methods for guessing about the future. It saysthat good health can sometimes be a matter of luck.Tim Tate is also working on a series of blown glass sculptures insideof which are small televisions playing videos. In these detailed works,the ancient art of glass meets the modern world of technology.(MUSIC)VOICE TWO:This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm SteveTim Tate holding the ''Dice'' reliquary Ember.VOICE ONE:And I'm Barbara Klein. You can learn about other artists on our Web site, . Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.。