First, raw materials including sand are heated up to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit to create glass. The molten glass is gathered onto a blowpipe and reheated in the glory hole, which sits at around 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. In the glory hole and on a metal bench, the glass is meticulously molded using various other tools including the punty, tweezers and shears. Soon, the artist has a fully formed vase, goblet, sculpture or whatever else they have imagined. Glassblowing is hard, tedious work inside a very hot room.
To the untrained eye, glassblowing isn’t quite that scientific. Actually, to the untrained eye, glassblowing looks like magic. “It’s fire. The sound of breaking glass. I loved it,” says Larry Tuber, glass studio director at The Works: Ohio Center for History, Art & Technology. “Making art out of goo is something. It’s cool.”
Tuber was a photography major at Kent State University. He created a business photographing glassblowers’ work for their portfolios, and soon found himself gripped by the art form. He began trading his photography expertise for glassblowing lessons. To have more time in the studio, he took glassblowing classes every semester, and got good at it. When he graduated, he was almost more interested in glassblowing than photography, and took a job with a paperweight company in Columbus. He both blew glass and photographed the products, and soon became a master craftsman.
But he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life just making small pieces like paperweights. So, in 1989, Tuber left to found his own company and stationed it in what’s now Columbus’ Arena District. Back then, it was an area rife with artists, studios and radical self expression. However, the good times couldn’t last forever, and rising rent prices and change in Columbus pushed out the resident artists. So, he closed the business in 2004, and dabbled in various ventures for a few years, but always stayed with glassblowing, creating art from glass in colleagues’ studios.
Then, in 2010, he got a new job. One not too far away. One in Newark. One at The Works. Tuber took complete control of the studio, and soon became as much a fixture of The Works as its science labs. The job made financial sense; Tuber didn’t have to buy the equipment or pay the astronomical costs required to run a furnace and other heavy duty glassblowing equipment, he was earning a salary, and his studio doors are always open to visitors of The Works – something he enjoys immensely.
Tuber works well under pressure and he’s quite animated. Tell Tuber you have an hour to talk about glass and he’ll talk with you for three. He loves sharing his art with others, discussing the incredibly long and fascinating history of glassblowing, and teaching others the practice. Glassblowing is a trial by fire, and Tuber rarely gets burned. “I’m showy, and I’m one of those people who do better under pressure,” Tuber says. “So, I do my best work when I’m under a lot of pressure with people watching.” Tuber is an old-school glassblower, and typically works alone. However, at least once each year, The Works brings in a few more glassblowers and hosts Cocktails by the Fire.
Tuber shows off his chops to an audience, auctioning works he’s created right off the blowpipe as attendees enjoy drinks and food, and become dazzled by the glassblowing process. While most of his creating is through The Works nowadays, he still finds plenty of time for his own artistry, too. You can find his art all over Licking County, including at Denison University.
Thanks to Tuber’s tutelage, The Works’ glass studio has begun to generate a profit for the first time ever, and the studio, despite being blazing hot even in winter, is so packed with spectators that it’s often standing room only. Licking Countians, Tuber says, aren’t immune to glassblowing’s charm. It’s hard not to love; Tuber himself still finds thrill in creating glass both for utility and for pure art. “You know, I’ve always been a vessel maker. And functional glass, I love making functional glass. I love making drinking glasses,” Tuber says. “I make 100 for our Cocktails by the Fire. … Me and my friends drink out of nothing but my glasses.”
