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About the Artist

I find it a curious phenomena why a person chooses the life of an artist. It certainly is not a typical lifestyle. Often there is not a great deal of financial reward attached to this endeavor. For me, I have to believe that there was a rather odd genetic combination that just happened to register as a statistical anomaly. This is the only explanation I have for such an eccentric fascination with a craft that few were pursuing at the time I started my career.

My earliest recollection of flameworking was when I first visited the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. As a child of eight years old, I had my first encounter with a glassblower who I would later know as Neals Carlson. Upon seeing Neals blow a large Pyrex swan, a sense of awe was instilled in me that has persisted to this day. At that point in my life, I felt I had seen the most amazing thing! Many years later, I met Neals again and showed him the work I had done in the glass montage technique. He seemed quite impressed; truly an example of coming full circle in one's life passages.

The next seminal event in my artistic career was a chance encounter with an announcement on a wall in the Chemistry Building at Eastern Michigan University for a one credit hour class in Scientific Glass Blowing. This was truly a heaven-sent opportunity to learn something I had only dreamed of doing before. So during my sophomore year at E.M.U., my total obsession was to learn as much as I could learn from my professor, Dr. Bruce Graves. That one semester I pretty much let everything else go to hell. The only thing I really wanted to do was blow glass and make scientific instruments. Many of those skills I learned then I attribute to my success today. When I stop to think about it, probably the only really beneficial thing I learned at E.M.U. was from that one credit hour class. Thank you, Bruce!

After having studied Education at E.M.U., I felt, for me, that there had to be a better life choice then being an elementary school teacher (my chosen major). So I asked myself perhaps one of the most important questions one can ask, "If I could choose a profession that I would enjoy more than any other, what would it be?" The answer was obvious. Glass Blowing and Flameworking have been a part of my life ever since! I always remember the quote from Joseph Campbell, "Follow your bliss." I have been working with glass for over a quarter of a century!

In 1975, I traveled to England to study Stained Glass for one year under Patrick Reyntiens and Ludwig Scharaf at The Burleighfield School in England.

Upon my return to The United States, in 1977, I became a student at The Center of Creative Studies, now The College of Creative Studies, in Detroit, Michigan, studying under Herb Babcock, concentrating primarily on furnace blown glass.

One thing that has always fascinated me is working with Soda-Lime and Lead Glass. Very few people work with these materials in flameworking. In my opinion, it is because these softer (lower melting glasses) require greater skill and entail greater risk in their execution. The question may be raised why would I work with such a temperamental material? My one word answer is COLOR. In my research, I just was never truly satisfied with working with Borosicilicate Glass (Pyrex). I did try John Burton's techniques of formulating my own colored Pyrex. At the time, in the 1970's, Northstar Glass was not available. I thought, "Why deal with this nonsense when such beautiful color in glass is already available?" In 1977, I met Jean and Donovan Boutz at The Glass Art Society Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. They both lectured and demonstrated. After seeing their skill and what they could do with lead glass, my life was again changed.

In 1981 I moved to Pinckney, Michigan and built a new studio.

The 1980's brought another encounter. One day, while visiting the Habatat Galleries in Lathrup Village, Michigan, I was amazed to see an odd black and white vase made by Kurt Walstab. This was my first "in person" experience with the glass montage technique I had only before seen examples of in museum catalogs. It was quite another experience to actually hold this kind of work in my own hands. Subsequently, I met Kurt at the gallery and then studied with him at this studio in Germany. This association finally led me to the Village of Lauscha, also in Germany. Lauscha is particularly famous for the glass montage technique of flameworking. It is through these contacts that I was provided with the knowledge I needed to master this technique.

Another very important event occurred in 1987 when I first taught at Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina. One of my students was Shane Fero. If ever there were two kindred spirits separated at birth and then reunited at a later time, this had to have been the case. It was rather amazing how we were using the same materials and the same images at the same time throughout different periods in our lives. Since there have been so few people who work with soft glass in this country, Shane has been a welcomed associate throughout our instructional and collaborative efforts to this day.

Another teaching venue throughout the years, has been The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York. For me, The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass has been one of the best institutions to teach as well as to learn. No other educational institution in the world provides a glass blowing facility, (The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass), paired with the finest museum of glass, (The Corning Museum of Glass), along with a library, (The Juliette K. and Leonard S. Rakow Library), specifically devoted to glass.

My current endeavors involve historical research exploring and documenting the history of flameworking, tool invention and refinement, and continuing to work with glass as an independent studio artist.

-Fred

For more information, feel free to download Frederick Birkhill's Resume.