Lampworking

Tom Galbraith

Borosilicate Lampworking
The class will focus on small to medium scale objects, namely rings, beads, pendants, earrings, bracelets, and marbles. Students will make their own color using fumed precious metals: copper, silver, and gold. We will explore the wide spectrum of color that can be achieved using this technique as a surface treatment and as an encasement because the transparency of the fuming provides different colors through transmitted and reflected light. Students will also encase palladium foil, synthetic opals, and sheet dichroic. Perfection of basic forms will be stressed in this class along with the interior composition of lensed pieces. We will explore hollow forms such as goblets, vases, and perfume bottles. Students are encouraged to bring their ideas, curiosity, and enthusiasm. This will be a fast-paced course ideally suited for beadmakers and artists who have some experience working with glass. I've got an assloaad of borosilicate color and I want to combine that with the fuming.

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Tom Galbraith

Tom Galbraith was born in California in 1960. He has lived and worked in Milwaukee, Wisconsin since 1970. Tom began his sojourn into glassblowing in 1980 when he apprenticed for six years in the neon industry, eventually branching out on his own. He then logically moved into scientific glassblowing in 1995 with a one year apprenticeship in the chemistry department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he fabricated and repaired scientific apparatus. During this same time, he also taught himself borosilicate lampworking which he considers a more organic process from the more manipulated or tooled process used in scientific glassblowing and neon. In his artistic work, he is inspired by the plant and mineral world and tries to come as close to natural phenomenon as possible. For the last 25 years, he has worked as an independent glass artist in Milwaukee where he owns and operates his own studio, Luminous Glassblowing. He sells nationally to galleries, bead stores and jewelers. Since 1990, he has taught both individuals on a long-term basis as well as small groups in his home studio. Since 2005, Tom has taught or assisted in Lampworking, Neon, and Plasma courses at the Glass Furnace.