Ella Blodgett’s life as a glass artist began during his sophomore year of high school while wearing a reindeer onesie.
Ella Blodgett’s life as a glass artist began during his sophomore year of high school while wearing a reindeer onesie. It was pajama day at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School when he walked into Martha’s Vineyard Glassworks and asked Wil Sideman, the manager, for a mentorship.
Four years later, Mr. Blodgett is a college student at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and continuing his work at the glassworks shop during summers.
In his first year at Mass Art, Mr. Blodgett studied a variety of art forms, including painting and woodworking. He took classes in glassblowing, too, to ensure he still had studio time.
On a recent afternoon at Martha’s Vineyard Glassworks, which is located on State Road in West Tisbury, Mr. Blodgett lowered the tip of a long pipe into hot glass to gather material that he will sculpt into a paperweight. He was working on his 10th piece that day and it wasn’t even noon yet.
Fashioning another piece at MV Glassworks.
Fashioning another piece at MV Glassworks.
“I love sculpture...but anything that includes using my hands is just great,” he said, taking a short break from his work. “And the fact that it’s something so dangerous that most people wouldn’t even think that anyone would want to do it — that’s cool.”
After Mr. Blodgett loaded the end of the pipe with molten glass, he carried it to a stainless steel table. There, he pressed the hot glass against a pile of blue pieces of glass that crackled as they made contact with the clear glass, which looked yellow in the heat. He then put the end of the rod into a glory hole — a reheating chamber, twisting it as the glass heated up.
While glassworks generally recycles clear glass, Mr. Blodgett reuses colorful glass in his paperweights. The colored glass comes from previous projects done in the workshop.
Mr. Blodgett said he has been using recycled materials in his art since before he began at glassworks. While a student at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School, he made several pieces using trash and recycled materials. He said that his time at the charter school helped shape him as an artist.
He feels the danger inherent in glass blowing also contributes to the artistry of the medium.
The finished product.
The finished product.
“Doing things safely makes the art better... safety is precision,” he said.
Once the glass was hot enough, Mr. Blodgett brought the pipe to a bench. The blue strands appeared red due to the intense heat as he manipulated the glass into a design.
“When I’m collecting the color, I don’t even think about the design I’m going to do until I’m sitting at the bench and I have my crimp in my hand and I’m like, okay, twist, twist, twist,” he said.
When Mr. Blodgett began making paperweights, he would twist two colors in and add bubbles. He thought the pieces were nice, but too similar to each other, so he changed his approach.
“My thought process is usually what will look the weirdest in a way that is desirable,” he said.
Sometimes, he will pull the color to make a flower or a tornado. Other times, he will go in without a solid idea.
“I’ll just pull a whole bunch of stringers out, collapse them all on themselves,” he said. “I don’t know what that’s going to look like, almost like my form of abstract art.”
When a customer purchases a paperweight, Mr. Blodgett enjoys telling them where the colorful glass came from.
“This one has crunched up glass from pumpkins, some old paper weights...random bits from those ornaments, I’ll give [customers] all that information,” he said.
As Mr. Blodgett worked with the molten glass, he dipped his hand into a bucket full of water to cool his skin. Although the heat radiating from the glass is so hot it can cause blisters, he cannot wear gloves because that would lessen his dexterity.
“I usually just suffer and put my hands in water. It’s not too hard to do,” he said.
He rested the paperweight in a block — it looks like half of a large wooden ladle — and twisted the pipe to shape the paperweight. The block is made from cherry wood because fruit wood holds more water and is harder to burn.
Once Mr. Blodgett was happy with the design and the paperweight cool enough, he tapped the pipe to drop the new piece alongside the others to cool for several hours.
“You actually can’t touch it for a full day. You quite literally just have to leave it and not think about it,” he said. “That’s weird. What other art form do you see that? You finish something and you can’t just immediately pick it up.”
In addition to shaping Mr. Blodgett as an artist, the studio time at Martha’s Vineyard Glassworks, and at Mass Art, have made Mr. Blodgett a faster worker.
“We’re trucking along. I guess school did do me some good,” he said as he pulled another pipe out of the pipe warmer to make his 11th paperweight of the day.
Add new comment