KU LIFE
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, April 13, 1993
9
Dick Rector of Lawrence (left) and Jim Slough, co-owners of Free State Glass, 307 E. Ninth St., out the hot-finished glass vase from the steel rod. After the piece is removed from the rod it is placed in a cooler where it cools for 60 hours.
The art of glass
Glass blowers form molten glass into many things including paperweights, vases and perfume bottles.
STORY BY WILL LEWIS • PHOTOS BY IRENE LANIER
he reggae music in the background does little to cool the 2000 degree Fahrenheit gust of heat that escapes the glowing stone oven. Jim Slough, co-owner of Free State Glass, 307 E. Ninth St., dips a 5-foot steel rod into the oven full of molten glass. He pulls it out and lays it across two bars, where he carefully rolls it
back and forth to round it out. When the glass begins to cool, it is inserted into the glory hole, a heating oven used to increase the sculptures' pliability. Concentrated cobalt and copper is added to give the glass a blue int.
Immediately after he removes it, Slough covers one end of the hollow rod with his mouth and blows. The glass begins to take shape. He repeats the process until the elegant vase is formed.
"You learn to respect heat." Dick Rector, who was helping Slough out, said. "You learn to assume that everything hot."
Rector and Slough opened Free State Glass in 1985 and have since made everything from perfume bottles for Neiman Marcus department store to the lamp shades at Paradise Cafe, 728 Massachusetts St.
The two KU graduates built the heating and cooling ovens used in the shop themselves.
"We basically just have fun with it," he said, displaying a back room filled with about everything that can be made from glass.
"We've been working together so long that most of our communication is nonverbal." Rector said. "We can anticipate the next step."
Without such good communication, the next step could be the last step.
"It's extremely involved," Rector said. "You can't lose concentration from start to finish or the piece is history. Glass is very impatient."
Slough said he had become fascinated with the art of glass blowing after he had attended a workshop and watched a professional perform.
"I just saw it being done and I knew that I had to do it," he said. "I kind of dropped everything I was doing so I could blow glass."
Although he has no plans to retire from what he is doing anytime soon, Slough, who works once a week as a pharmacist, says the work is physically draining.
It's really hard on your body," he said. "My thumbs don't work right. I have tennis elbow, my shoulders are sore and my fingers don't work as well as they used to."
One of the three ovens Rector and Slough use for the molten glass during the making of their art work. The oven runs at about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. They use it to reheat the pieces while they work on them because the glass can only be shaped when it is hot .
But that isn't enough to make him call it quits.
"I don't know how long I can keep doing it."
Slough said. "But I have no plans to stop if possible."
Slough grabs a section of hot glass from a steel rod held by Rector and places it on a future pitcher. The piece made a handle for the pitcher.
Rector blows through the steel rod to shape the hot glass. Blowing the glass is one of the essential steps in creating a piece of glass art.
Slough shapes the handle of a pitcher with a special tool made for the trade. The glass is not which enables him to shape it how he wants.
A glass-blown perfume bottle takes approximately 17 hours to make. It takes about 30 minutes to shape the bottle, about 15 hours for it to cool and two hours to sand it smooth.