(upbeat music)
>>This is like
blowing up a balloon.
Use your cheeks to push the air.
Push, yeah, see,
look, keep going.
Okay, stop, stop.
Okay, go ahead and start again.
Stop, stop.
Whoa, stop, stop, stop.
(Charles laughing)
Lovely.
>>Our guest today has
close to three decades
of experience working in
glass, color and light.
Join us as we visit with master
glass blower, Charles Hall.
Come on.
(upbeat music)
Charles, what inspired you to
become a master glass blower?
>>Ooh, master, that's
very high praise.
>>But it's true.
>>Well, thank you.
Gosh, I don't know.
I've done it for so long
I've kind of forgotten
the beginning of it.
I just know that I
really love doing it.
It's amazing material.
It's an incredible thing
to be able to work with.
>>And you started
in metal, right?
You went to school-
>>Yeah I did-
>>started in metal-
>>I did metals.
I've done pretty much all
different kinds of metals
from machining to casting,
forging, jewelry making.
And actually, in hindsight,
I think it was a really
good way to start
into this process
because it gave me a lot
of information about how
temperature affects things
which is so important with this.
And so I kinda had a heads up
with it before I got into it.
>>Well, let's talk
about your work.
If someone asked you
to describe your work,
what would you say?
>>I'm not a big
mold-blown person.
I really love the
material itself,
so I'm working with it
while it's working itself.
(Charles laughing)
I guess it's a way to say it.
And so it's just been a
process of learning to let go,
or learning how to get something
to happen without touching it,
letting it do what
it wants to do.
>>So how do you do that?
>>It just takes practice.
I wouldn't even know
how to describe it.
You wanna touch something,
but if you don't, what happens?
Oh, look at that.
It's a process of discovery.
It's a lovely thing.
>>Let's talk about the process.
Take us through it.
>>This is a furnace
which holds the glass.
>>All that wet-
>>There's a small tub
in there that holds
about 80 pounds of glass.
Glass itself is basically dirt.
It's the prettiest dirt on
the planet, and it's sand.
what allows me to
be able to melt it
is the formulation
includes fluxes from metal.
We have to use
flux to do welding.
Flux melts at a very
low temperature.
When it melts, it
turns really acidic
and it eats the silica.
So while you think
it's melting sand,
it's really the flux is eating
the silica and the solution.
And so it happens at 2,300
degrees, something like that.
Can I say this story now?
>>Yes.
>>That temperature
is hot enough to cook a
fully frozen jumbo shrimp
in a second and a half but
it can't be a straight second
and a half because
that would explode it.
And it has to go in, out,
in, out, in, out, done.
>>Okay.
>>And we put beef
tips in here too.
(Terri laughing)
>>We did.
>>I believe-
>>They take like 15 seconds.
They're lovely.
It's meat candy.
It's so good.
>>Okay, so you-
>>Gather the glass.
>>Gather the glass.
>>Glass comes out.
Hopefully I've made
some sort of decision
in my head before
I start working
so I know what it is that
at least I'm trying to make.
So my colors will be ready.
I'll have other tools
out that I need,
but then I love
working with color.
I think glass and color
are just fabulous together.
So I color things, and then
I'm adding things in places,
but it then is going to move
the way it wants to move
because of the things I've put
in the places that
I've put them.
>>Because of the balance.
>>Because of the balance,
and because of the extra masses.
Temperature, it causes
movement in certain directions,
but I just let it do its
movement as much as I can.
I'm not pulling it out
or forcing it to do that.
And so I think my work
retains a lot of fluidity,
retains a lot of the properties
that the glass has when it's
molten, and I really like that.
I've done a lot of ocean work,
and I think my glass lends
itself to looking like
it's grown on the
bottom of the ocean.
It has a very,
very alive feeling.
>>And then you take it out
of here and you spin it.
You spin it.
>>You have to keep moving it.
It's liquid properties, so
it is affected by gravity.
It's affected by
centrifugal force,
so any type of movement like
this is going to elongate it.
Any movement that goes
like this has a tendency
to throw it out.
Then hold it up and down,
and it's going to try to
fold in on itself and fall.
All of those are viable ways
to get the glass to move.
And sometimes it's as simple
as just stopping turning
and letting it do something.
>>Right, right.
>>Pretty much every
movement you do
is going to have
some effect on it.
>>The whole time you're working,
you continually put it back
into, what do you call that?
>>It's called a glory hole
because the minute you pull it
out of the furnace,
it's starting to cool.
As it cools, it loses its
softness, becomes hard,
and if you want to keep working,
you'd have to reheat it.
>>So you can experiment,
but you have to be careful
because it is very hot.
Like for example,
how many times,
can you even count how many
times you've been burned or-
>>I couldn't even tell you.
>>You still have
your eyebrows, I see.
>>Yeah, sometimes.
(Terri laughing)
If you're counting your burns,
you might as well not bother.
>>Right.
>>It's gonna happen.
You're gonna get cut.
You're gonna get burned.
I want to be here.
I like doing this stuff.
I've never even
considered the time.
I know how long I've done
it but it's not like-
>>Yeah, how long?
>>28 years.
>>Yeah, 28 years-
>>I don't say like,
oh, 28 years, you
know, like poor thing.
>>Let's go back to talking
about the creativity of it
and how you put it all together.
So talk about the variety
of pieces that you make.
>>Well, it's kind of large.
>>Just rattle off a handful.
So conch shells, vases-
>>Well, vases, bowls,
ornaments, all that basic stuff,
but then I started making fish.
I've made coral, trumpets-
(Charles making trumpet sound)
(Charles laughing)
>>Okay, so that
sounds difficult.
So just talk about
the difficulty, the
degree of difficulty.
So you'll make an ornament
which is probably one of
the simpler things you make-
>>But still takes a little bit.
I think an ornament, it
probably took me four years
to be able to make
a good ornament.
This happens a lot,
people come into the shop,
they see me work, and they're
going, wow, that's so cool,
I want to do this,
and then they try it,
and they're like,
man, this is hard.
(Terri laughing)
I'm like, yeah, it is.
There have been so many days
where I've walked
on broken glass.
You have no idea.
And so many times
where I blow something
and it goes (blowing sound),
and it's just something weird.
It's really intentional,
and part of that process
was learning how
not to do things.
>>Right.
>>You can be, oh-
You can totally mold something,
but being able to do
it free in the air
and letting it do
what it wants to do,
it looks better to me,
but learning how to do
that, it takes time.
People say, how long did it
take you to make that piece?
And I've literally
gotten to the point
where I say 28 years (laughing)
because I wouldn't have
been able to make it
if I hadn't been doing
this work for that long.
>>So you were 2014 State
Ambassador of Glass.
Tell us about that.
>>I was chosen by the
Artisan Center of Virginia,
and I'm not quite sure what
all the responsibilities are,
but the Artisan Center,
I've been involved
with them for, I don't know,
five, six, seven years,
and they are fighting a good
fight for the arts in Virginia
as far as I can tell.
They put together
Artisan Trails.
I've been on the Artisan Trail.
I think I saw the sign for it-
>>So that's a nice deal
though to have that honor.
>>Yeah, I mean I'd
put it on a resume.
(laughing)
>>That's good.
>>It's lovely.
>>You're here at McGuffey.
Talk about how long
you've been here.
>>I've been in this building
for 14 years I think.
>>Here in Charlottesville.
>>14 years.
>>And another 14 or 15
in New York.
>>In the Finger Lakes, yeah.
>>So talk about some
of the galleries.
We have some local
spots that you have-
>>I have work in Vivian,
which I've sold to Vivian
since I came to town.
>>Wow, on the downtown mall.
>>Yeah, and it's sort of like,
it's been a really good
symbiotic relationship.
I tell people to go down to her.
She tells people
to come up to me.
I've gotten some
custom work out of it,
and I get to display work in
a great place on the mall.
I sell at a place out
in the middle of nowhere
called the Barn Swallow.
>>Oh, that's gone 250.
>>I know.
>>That's fabulous.
>>They're lovely.
>>That's fabulous.
>>And I sell at the gallery
at Sunspots where I work.
>>Which is in Stanton.
>>Which is in Stanton,
but I used to do shows
from Maine to Florida,
Chicago to New Orleans,
and man, I've traveled so
many miles and it just,
at some point, it
got kind of tiring,
and that's not to say
it won't happen again.
It's how I want to push.
And I think a lot of
what's been going on
since I stopped doing shows,
it's been a different
kind of grounding,
and so it's more like,
instead of running out
trying to sell my
work everywhere,
I'm just slowly, if it
happens, it's gonna happen.
So this is gonna to be
green and yellow specs
with a little swirl in it.
>>You do shows here.
McGuffey has an
annual open house
every December.
>>Yeah, holiday open house.
We've done that ever
since we've been in here.
We have an open-door
policy for the public.
And I also do benefit work
for Second Street Gallery.
I've done benefit work
for Piedmont Craft.
I'll do it for anybody
that wants to do it.
>>And can people just
walk in your studio
when you're here, or should
they have an appointment?
>>Now, with the time that
I'm spending in Stanton,
I'm going to have
a couple of days
that are going to be
open to the public,
but generally, it's going
to be by appointment,
and it'd probably be people
who've already done it.
I get a lot of repeat people.
People love it.
They think it's the coolest
thing in the world, and it is.
>>Talk about this
passion that you have
for color and for light.
>>It's like
everything. (laughing)
Color and light, it's all of it.
You see it in
everything you look at.
It's something about the way
glass transmits or reflects,
and the distortions
that it makes.
I'll make a simple paperweight,
but then I'll
grind a lens in it,
and so you can
look at this thing
and see this pattern of color,
but then if you look
through the lens,
it's a completely different
perspective of the same thing,
and you can do that with glass,
and you can't do that
with other material.
Metal is beautiful, but
you can't see through it.
All it can do is reflect,
so that's all you're
gonna get in its light.
Even if you start doing enamel,
you're only going to be able
to see it as a reflected light.
And I love enamel work.
I think some of it is gorgeous,
but you don't get what
you get with glass.
And the forming of it,
it's 360 degrees to
do whatever you want.
It's infinite.
You could make anything.
And some people
are afraid of that,
and I just think it's like
the most craziest thing ever,
like, oh, wow, you know,
pick up the pliers and pull.
Who knows what you're
gonna get? (laughing)
(jazz music)