CREATING WITH GLASS

During the American Craftsmen’s Council conference held at Lake George, New York, in 1959, artist Harvey Littleton first raised the question whether “glass should be a medium for the individual artist”. This could be seen as the beginning of the International Studio Glass Movement led by the Americans. After that, Harvey Littleton began with his friends, to experiment with glass for low-temperature firing. They also set up small glass kilns for individual studios and schools. From this point, a new creative material and a new art form emerged and started to be recognised and appreciated internationally.

The Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University first established an Art Glass program and a glass studio in China in January, 2000. Over the last eight years, we have built a complete curriculum for art glass. We regard practice as an important part of our courses and encourage students to experiment with new methods and materials. We also cooperate with different glass manufacturers, who support both our investigation of glass techniques and the practice of our students who have the opportunity to undertake work placements in different glass factories.

What is glass? Glass is widely used for windows, glassware etc, it is part of our daily life. Therefore, our knowledge of glass can easily be limited to its properties of transparency, fragility and refractivity. In fact, the definition of glass is more complex. Using different processes, glass can take various forms and be used for different purposes. Compared to other materials, glass is enormously rich in form and expression. It has unlimited potential as a creative medium and language. In order to take advantage of glass as a special material, artists should first understand its character. Having practiced the techniques of blown glass at Wolverhampton for nine months, I believe that one of the best ways to get to know about glass is to work with hot glass. Different from metals, glass gets soft and ropey gradually when it is heated. It can never reach the same fluidity as copper. Only if we know the character of the material, can we understand its potential.

Glass forming techniques present a number of difficulties. Artists must practise and reflect constantly to learn the techniques and discover the hidden mystery of glass. In my opinion, a glass artist usually has the following characteristics:
1. They love glass and have a passion for glass. Honest to themselves, they understand it is crucial for the success of an art work.
2. They have an understanding and respect for the glass kiln. Glass artists need to experiment with glass in the kiln environment.
3. They are extremely patient and calm, so that they can reflect on his work and learn from their own failure.
4. They know how to cooperate and share with other people, since glass makers usually need to work as part of a team.
5. They look after their facilities and tools because they are expensive and crucial for the success of an art work.

The ideas and thoughts behind the art work are of the utmost importance. A clear idea at conception can sometimes avoid unnecessary mistakes and waste. Art is not a waste. When working with glass, an artist should have a clear knowledge and purpose of each step he is going to take in th creative process. Otherwise he might end up unconsciously creating glass with ideas from other people. The essential meaning of Art is its creativity. An artist should create art with their own language, in their own way, which requires both courage and understanding that there is still unlimited space for us to explore the paths already trodden by other artists. I remember that in Wolverhampton, we were trained to write artist’s statements. It is actually very helpful for students to form their ideas before they start to work, thinking about questions such as: Where does your idea come from and how you are going to develop it? What influences you most? What have you created? This kind of training focuses the mind and achieves more considered results.

Many focus on the techniques of art glass. However, in my view, it is the ideas behind the artwork that are more important. Many years ago in China, it was the norm for oil painters to discuss techniques and it was widely accepted that an oil painter should be proficient in all the techniques before he started to paint.

I believe that techniques can be acquired naturally while creating ideas and pursuing a practice. Even though glass making requires comparatively complicated techniques, those techniques should be developed step by step, from the basic to the complex, while at the same time gaining a knowledge of glass. Artists could learn a basic technique through making something with a simple form. It is important to make sure that they are in control of each stage of the process. Then after a period of experiments and practice, they will gradually gain some knowledge of the material and in time, they will be filled with happiness by discovering their own ‘new methods’, which is one of the reasons why glass is such an interesting material to work with. Glass artists continually challenge the limits of the material, they create art works that are greatly appreciated.

There are different techniques related to glass forming but I shall discuss two of them, blowing and kiln casting, to explain why ideas and concepts are so important. Glass blowing is definitely a hard skill to acquire, requiring several years of practice to perfect. After gaining a certain control over the glass blowing process, artists will start to challenge the limits of the technique, as unlike the glass worker involved in manufacturing they seek not to realise the designs of others, but to express their own creative ideas with their own hands.

Cast glass does not have the same exciting performative rituals of blown glass. The process takes more time and may seem a bit boring in comparison.

Each step should be planned and carried out carefully and finally the artist must wait with patience and anticipation during the long glass firing. When the time comes for him to open the mould, his heart beats faster. It is as if he is waiting to see a new-born baby. No artist is willing to repeat the same form or method constantly. Even the smallest change or variation in the final art piece will give greater satisfaction.

An important step in the creative process is to sketch before working. You can actually think and plan the whole procedure on paper, find problems and solve them. At the same time, you can stimulate your creativity, which is crucial for an artist. My tutor Professor Keith Cummings once said to me that an artist should endow his work with a certain ‘nationality’ I don’t think that he meant a superficial nationality. What he meant is the spiritual, contemporary, and original cultural identity carried by each artist. It is a difficult path to follow. In my opinion, the identity of Chinese art could be generalized by four words: richness, grandness, delicacy and profundity. I try constantly to understand these words and learn from them, searching for inspiration from our own culture. They are not only the driving power for my creative work, but also the basis on which we build our teaching.

As a medium, contemporary art glass has already taken root in China. Its unique charm increasingly attracts attention and the desire to engage with it. The more people that get to know about glass, the more they are going to be in love with it. In Chinese history glass production was present in almost every dynasty. The Boshan people in Shandong province believed that the Goddess Nüwa, who used coloured stone to fill a big hole in the sky, was the founder of glass making. A new glass art with more oriental influence has begun. As Professor Cummings has suggested, we are trying to build our own glass art system, which will be based on conceptions that are more original, more creative, more open and more confident, because we are all the offspring of Nüwa, and we are all born fortunately in this rich land with its national and cultural heritage.


Guan Donghai,
Associate Professor and Director of the GlassArt Studio,
Tsinghua University, Beijing

(Translation, Yu Lan)

Creating With Glass pdf

FOREWORD
Professor Tim Collins: Foreword

ESSAYS
Professor Andrew Brewerton: Glass Routes
Professor Keith Cummings: Continuity and Change in Glass History
Stuart Garfoot: The Glass Baton, A Personal Overview
Susanne Frantz: Glass Tiger
Associate Professor Xiaowei Zhuang: The Development of Studio Glass at Shanghai University
Associate Professor Guan Donghai: Creating With Glass
Dr Kristina Niedderer: Developing Glass Practice Through Creative Research
Xue Lu (Shelly): Growing With the Soil of China

Stuart Garfoot: Introduction to Creative Pathway
David Reekie: Creative Pathway 1
Katy Holford: Creative Pathway 2