“I fell into glassmaking really, like most glassmakers. Now I couldn’t think of doing anything else. I like to come into work because I enjoy my job. There’s something different every single day and no matter how long you have been making glass, you will always be learning something new.
“Before joining Bristol Blue Glass as an apprentice, I did a two-year diploma at City of Bristol College and then another two-year diploma in video games design to eventually become a concept artist. I was also working as a cleaner to get money to live off. My friend Reece studied business for two years and worked at Blue Glass in Bristol, learning how the business works. He found his way into the workshop and got very good at glassblowing. He would come back with pictures of what he had made and I knew that I wanted to be a part of this ancient craft.
“I went in to take photographs and it was hypnotic, in a sense, watching people work the molten material, and I just fell in love with it. A vacancy came up for an assistant glassblower and I got the apprenticeship. They put me on a course at Bridgwater and Taunton College and the tutor used to come here once a month to see me, because it was a long way for me to travel to the college by train. I was getting paid £6.95 an hour and it was a lot better than cleaning, plus I got a level 3 diploma in craft skills for creative industries/advanced level apprenticeship in creative craft practitioner.
“When the two years were up in December, I was taken on as an assistant to the maestro, David Barry, who is in charge of the hot floor. Every glassmaker works slightly differently and each piece is like a fingerprint because makers have their own style. Of course, we measure with calipers to make sure we get the sizes correct, but we work in the style called free blowing so everything is unique and 100% handmade, and that’s what I love about it. The temperature of glass in the furnace is 1080C, the same as an erupting volcano, and it has to be cooled slowly, over 18 hours in an oven at 510C. It’s going to take a lifetime to master the skills for this craft but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
