Hot Time in the Mountains
October 1, 2009
Inside the tent at the Great Canadian Glass Gathering was a buzz of activity and good music.
By Joanne Andrighetti
It was billed as three days of flameworking demos, collaboration and networking with other artists in a beautiful mountain setting, and it was all that and a lot of fun as well.
Patrick Vrolyk, aka Redbeard, hosted an event called the Great Canadian Glass Gathering for the second year in a row at his home, a small organic farm just north of Pemberton, BC, on July 24-26. He and a small group of helpers set up a large ventilated tent and workstations, brought in oxygen, propane and glass, and invited all the flameworkers, pipemakers and beadmakers they knew to bring their torches and kilns up and play. Accommodations consisted of camping on site, food was available and demos lined up.
What we didn’t count on was a record-breaking heat wave in British Columbia that week. Daytime temperatures broke 40 degrees, which took away the will to move, let alone melt glass. Fortunately relief could be found in a nearby beautiful mountain lake, and by late afternoons it cooled off enough to allow melting.
The melting went on into the wee hours with lots of information sharing and casual collaboration amongst the participants. The highlight of the weekend was the “heady” piece demoed by Korey Cotnam and Patrick Stratis, whose breathtaking work is on the cutting edge of flameworked glass. While technically functional, a heady piece is designed to show the limits of what is possible in flameworked boro and every year these limits are pushed further and further.
We were also honoured to have the technical expertise of Jeff Holmwood, who over the course of the weekend showed how to build a kiln designed especially for the construction of complex borosilicate pieces.
It was a great weekend full of the spirit of sharing and co-operation that epitomizes what is great about the Canadian glass-making community.
