Delicate work

MOSES LAKE — The crucial thing when working with glass, said Kathleen Parr, is that the artist has to wait until the glass is ready to cooperate.

“Everything requires its own time and its own technique,” Parr said. Parr and partner John Church are the owners of Elemental Glass, 4477 Wenatchee Dr. NE.

As a result glass requires patience. “Oh, that’s the first thing you’ve got to have, is patience, patience, patience,” Parr said.

“It’s just learning to work with it and not against it. It (glass) has got a mind of its own.”

The traditional picture of a glass studio usually features a big hot furnace. But glass is a versatile medium; with the right tools it’s possible to have a working glass studio in a small basement. Parr and Church specialize in “flameworking, also called lampworking. Everything we do is done with a torch,” Church said. Their glass ornaments, goblets and jewelry are sold at Made In Moses Lake and at the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center, in addition to their shop. They also take custom orders.

For their material they use borosilicate glass; that’s the kind used to make kitchenware. “It has a certain look to it,” Church said. It’s harder than some of the other glasses used by artists, and more durable, he said. “It’s also less forgiving.”

But whatever the base material, the secret to successful glass art is waiting until the glass is ready. Parr demonstrated the techniques by fashioning a pendant.

A borosilicate glass leaf with dichroic accents starts with the torch, mounted on a worktable, and a clear glass rod. Glass being a relatively delicate material, it requires a delicate touch – the first step was to attach a second tube, to be used as a handle.

And then the glass heats up. Depending on the size of the project, heating can be a relatively slow process, Parr said, and that’s where the patience comes in.

And as glass heats it melts. When it’s ready to be worked ‘it’s more of a liquid at that point,” Church said. “Let gravity be your guide,” Parr said as she worked.

But all that loose free-flowing glass requires attention, because it can pick up air bubbles. “Trapped air is kind of your worst enemy,” Church said.

Parr flattened the pendant with a block and paddle made of graphite, which don’t conduct heat, and returned to the flame to melt the dichroic glass and the colored rods used as accents. Different glasses are made up of different materials, and react differently to the heat; as a result Parr had to keep the dichroic side away from the direct flame. It would’ve burned off, she said.

Glasswork does require investment in tools, she said, but they’re not all specialty pieces – she used an old table knife to add swirls to the pendant back.

Adding the bail was a second operation, requiring separate tubes and rods, and precision handling.

Parr and Church said they’ve been working with glass for about 15 years, 10 to 12 years full time. (They also help out at the winery owned by Parr’s parents, Camas Cove Cellars.) Parr is a painter and sculptor as well as a glass artist. Church said he was interested in art, but “my main focus and love was music.” Both were (and are) percussionists.

They met at the shop where they worked, a Spokane business that sold glassworks wholesale. Church said he got one lesson, and taught himself the rest. Parr took up the torch after “somebody didn’t show up to work one day.” Her boss needed a replacement “and he said, ‘I dare you,’ and I’m, like, ‘okay.’” Her boss offered to pay her to do the prep work, “and I was hooked,” she said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.