Glass (Where We're Headed)

I recently went to Mikebuda Park of Study and Reflection, near Budapest, for a brief but lovely visit to see friends and enjoy the great atmosphere of the Park.

One evening we fired up the furnace and did some glass work.

(Tamas gathering glass)

Many years ago, I did a weekend glass workshop in Toronto with a few other friends, around the time I started working in Silo's fire craft. 

(me and Danny, about 20 years ago?)

Since then, I've tried my hand at glass two or three other brief times, so I have a wee bit of familiarity with the substance, but my experience has never been permanent enough to really feel like I'm learning. So I was more than happy to receive full instruction from my friends and learn as a newbie again.

Judit worked on a rounded glass.

Magor worked on a stemmed glass. 

Tamas made a little video of Magor working; it's great to see the whole process.

It's beautiful to watch them work, and to sit in the workshop area, chatting, working, watching and enjoying that special reflective atmosphere that is so central to the basic attitude that Silo's Craft work aims to develop. Each person is doing their thing, but caring for the others, at the ready if needed, relaxed; trying out new things, failing often, enjoying equally the attempts and the successes that eventually arrive.

Tamas was working primarily on casting glass into molds - horse head shapes that he had made for his daughter.

And I worked on blowing a sphere (another nice little video by Tamas): 

Getting a bubble within the glass and blowing a decent sphere is step one in the making of many glass objects. How great that a glass sphere is also delightful to look at, in its own right.

"Imagine a transparent and luminous sphere that descends towards you until it comes to rest in your heart..."         (Silo's Message; The Experience)

(A few of the pieces)

Working with glass is basically the last stop in the Fire Craft. Although, of course, there is no stopping - once you've gone from fire conservation through ceramics, metal casting and glass, you can go and deepen your work in any of those areas for a lifetime. Here in our group in Toronto, we've got Bronze and Iron to do before we turn to Glass. But we'll get there. In the meantime, it's well worth a visit to Mikebuda to get a taste of the future...

(the meditation hall)

P.S. It's been too long since I posted anything! We've been researching bronze furnace construction, and sand molds, and so on, gearing up for the bronze stage, but there was very little bloggable Craft activity in 2022. This year will be different.