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Jean Nelson fell in love with the idea of glass blowing at age 10, but it was almost 40 years before she finally got to pursue the art form. Now it’s her passion.
The full transcript of this episode of KUT News Now is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
This Is My Thing: Glass Blowing!
Show open and theme song
Michael Lee [00:00:12] I’m Michael Lee and you’re listening to This Is My Thing. You’re probably hearing the show is part of the KUT News Now podcast feed. So I’ll let you know right now, in case you didn’t know, that this is not a news show. You are welcome. On This Is My Thing, we talk to people about the things they do just for themselves. It is not a job and it’s not a responsibility. It’s just a thing that brings them joy or feeds their soul.
This week, glass blowing!
People have been using heat and air to create glass objects for centuries, and it’s an art form that has fascinated my guest, Jean Nelson, since childhood.
Jean Nelson [00:00:47] My name is Jean Nelson. I am super really into glassblowing and doing it now for off and on for 15 years. And this is my passion.
Michael Lee [00:00:57] I first met Jean at Austin’s Ghost Pepper Glass, where she demonstrated some glassblowing techniques by making me a lovely set of drinking glasses.
Jean Nelson (in the glass studio) [00:01:05] We’re going to walk over here. This is what we call a reheating furnace. We use these while we’re working. We heat them to about 1850 degrees. We use this while we’re working because glass will cool down quickly and we need to reheat it so we can continue to manipulate it and get it to the shape. We also keep it warm so it doesn’t explode while we’re working on it. We’re going to head over this way. I want to introduce you to Beyonce. Yancy is our main furnace that we melt all of our clear glass. It runs 24 seven. She’s kept at 2050 degrees.
Jean Nelson I grew up in Toledo, Ohio, and that was one of the places where the studio glass movement started. The Toledo Museum of Art had a one of the first studios built that were smaller and more accessible. And when I was a kid, I would take art lessons there. And when my lessons were done, I would go over and watch them blow glass at the studio. And it was fascinating. I tell my mom, ‘Don’t come pick me up. Give me a little bit of time. I want to watch these guys.’ And about time I hit 10 or 11, I went out, got my nerve up, went over and asked one of them, ‘Hey, how do I get to do this?’ And they’re like, ‘Well, you’re too young and girls don’t blow glass.’ So I’m like, ‘okay.’ And I walked away, but I never lost sight of wanting to do that. And I kept it in the back of my head. And literally 39 years later, I finally got the chance to do it. And I have been following that path ever since. And it’s everything I thought it was going to be when I was ten and 11.
Jean Nelson (in the glass studio) And I’m just going to keep going for it. Okay. Today I’m going to make some cups and I’m going to use some color. And what I have here, it’s known as frit. This is ground up colored glass right now. This looks white, but it’s actually a very bright, vivid pink. We put it in a reaction…
Michael Lee [00:03:08] That reaction you got years ago – I can understand a ten year old maybe being too young to blow glass. There are some dangerous elements too this.
Jean Nelson [00:03:16] Absolutely.
Michael Lee [00:03:17] But the thing of girls don’t blow glass – as that was that a pervasive thing?
Jean Nelson [00:03:23] Sure. It’s still kind of is. It’s definitely a it has always been a male dominated activity, which that’s never stopped me. I worked in tech for 30 years, which is definitely a male dominated space. But yeah, it was it’s tough. It was tough for women to break into that. And I’m fortunate in that here in Austin I found a home, a woman owned studio, and they made it their mission to welcome everyone. It didn’t matter who, what, where you were are. And that really opened the door for me to be able to do it. I have gone to other places and talked to other people and it’s still very male dominated.
Jean Nelson (in the glass studio) It has been heating up preheating, but it’s not warm enough. I like a little blow on the end of the pipe, so I’m going to put it in the glory hole. Yes, that’s what it’s called. And pre-heated. A little bit more till I have a glow on the end. That way, when I go to the actual blast furnace, I’ll be able to pick up glass easier. A little bit more on the end of the pipe. Won’t get bubbles trapped in there either.
Michael Lee [00:04:30] What was it about this that just captured you, that made you want to go and, like, raise your hand and ask to be let in?
Jean Nelson [00:04:37] I can still see watching them and been sitting in that studio and it was like a is a dance to watch somebody blow glass. It’s choreographed. There’s no you cannot hesitate. So I’m watching these people work around each other with long sticks and glowing orbs of something that looks like honey and manipulating it and working with it. Not not telling you what to do, but working and listening to what it says and just making amazing shapes and amazing movements. And it is just a beautiful dance to me and it still is and it’s just magical. And I wanted to get my hands – not literally – on this stuff and see if I could do it. And it’s still all these years later, just takes me back to a really special place about how magical it is for me.
Jean Nelson (in the glass studio) Now, that didn’t take long, but it took long enough that I need to reheat this now before it will pick up the color that I want to put on over there in the bowl. Give me just a second. When I’m in here, it’s again, I don’t want to look directly in there. It’s very bright.
Michael Lee [00:05:51] You mentioned not getting your hands on it. Before you said that, I was…I was thinking, I don’t know that this is unique, but I can’t think of another medium immediately that you sculpt without being able to physically touch.
Jean Nelson [00:06:03] You know, and I’ve spent some time thinking about that, too. And I work with metal. Sometimes I weld. That was like a surrogate for me when I couldn’t find glassblowing. So it’s like, all right, well, we’ll melt things with fire and… Awesome.
Michael Lee [00:06:18] So heat and fire is…
Jean Nelson [00:06:21] Apparently a thing in my life.
Michael Lee [00:06:22] I mean, welding is also not a world that is as welcoming maybe to women as to men.
Jean Nelson [00:06:28] Exactly. But it’s just you know, what I’ve discovered is guys have much better toys, too. I have this model once I discovered what you guys were holding back on me. Power tools are awesome. Playing with fire, amazing electricity, awesome stuff. And yeah, I still do girly things too. I love all I love making things. But you guys were kind of holding out on me with the tools and the toys. Number three. Sometimes it starts to get a little long, my glob of glass. So I’m going to hold it up. And she let Gravity work with me a little bit. All right. Last coat. For the most part, once you start, you can’t stop in the middle of it. You can’t put that piece away like you can in ceramics or pottery or welding or woodworking. You start, you finish it, whether it makes it into the entire into the box, as we call it. That’s one way to finish it. Sometimes I have pieces that just fall onto the ground and destroy themselves. But you never you never come back to it. You just go from start to finish. It is definitely A to Z, and I don’t know anything else that’s like that either.
Michael Lee [00:07:49] That’s interesting. And it also that means that it sort of takes away what in my experience has been a useful part of a lot of artistic endeavors, is being able to set it aside.
Jean Nelson [00:08:00] And think it…
Michael Lee [00:08:00] For a minute or for a week or for a year maybe. If you’re running up against a wall, sometimes being able to take a little break helps to solve those problems. That is not available…
Jean Nelson [00:08:10] Is not available when you do. So what… And we do. That happens to everyone. I am definitely a hobbyist, but I have access to the most amazing glass artists who work with me and who are so lovely and have taught me so much. But they have those same days and it’s like what you do is you put the pipe down really big and you you cut your slot right there because if it’s not working, are you running into that wall over and over again? You don’t have time, like you said, to think about it in the moment. The only in the moment you do is when you pivot because, this is going wrong. I’m going to. Right. I can adjust this way. When you hit that while you have to just stop and maybe come back in a couple of days or even work on something else completely different because there is no. Right. We’re just figure that one out later. And then we do a lot of talking about it. There’s a lot of postmortem. Why do you think that happened? And again, I have access to some amazing people who walk me through the technical sides of this as well. The the physics, the thermodynamics, heat management, certain colors, the chemistry involved with glass. You know, we don’t even think about that. All the different colors are made with different metals and they don’t always play nicely together. Get these really ugly or unpleasant reactions. So for me. To learn all of this. It’s just constantly practicing and repetition and learning from the mistakes. And you just have to pick it up right in the moment. And then when it fails, you say, okay, I’ll think about that later. And I take a lot of notes. We all have notebooks. How did I do that? Why did it work that way?
Jean Nelson (in the glass studio) Okay, so I’ve kind of plunged my bubble into the glass, and now I’m letting the excess. I want a certain size of amount of glass on there. I’m going to let it fall off. All right. Coming out and I’m going to the paper. With glass. And a lot of times for me, especially still, I make the peace and I still don’t know what it is going to exactly look like until it comes back out of that in or. It may look great while I’m working out and the next day my 000. What happened there? So it’s just an ongoing journey and I will never be good at it. I get better.
Michael Lee [00:10:44] Well, I think that glasses on this table indicate that you’re pretty good.
Jean Nelson [00:10:49] Well, that’s very kind of you, but it’s. It’s a great journey for me. This has been. It’s been it’s a great humbler. You know, I kept very humble while I’m working with that because the glass really is in charge in my world. It’s also taught me to be very mindful. I cannot think about anything else while I’m trying to work with the glass. If I do, it won’t work. I make mistakes or and someone could get hurt, you know, or I could damage a piece of equipment. So I have to be very focused, very in the moment and I have to have an idea of where I’m headed. But I have to be able to pivot at any moment. If I do something weird or the glass decides that, you want to do that right now. So it’s really been a good lesson for me to learn. And the biggest one, though, is to embrace imperfection.
Jean Nelson (in the glass studio) …to make sure that both. Yeah, there are moving. Thank you. At the same temperature and behaving the same way. All right. I’m going to give it a puff because you can see my bubble is a little misshapen in there right now from the pressure.
Jean Nelson [00:12:28] That’s a hard lesson to learn. I think for me, growing up, the way I did were, you know, look at all of these fabulous, beautiful things we grew up with, insisting they’re all perfect and they’re, you know, identical and consistent. And we were taught that that’s what was the goal. And now I’ve been able to let go of that. And it doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, it should be more going to what it is, or more me. I can put more me in it, which is about how I live in a wonky world here. And then it reflects in my glass.
Michael Lee [00:12:39] Did you did you expect to learn that lesson from this hobby?
Jean Nelson [00:12:43] No, not at all. Not the mindfulness, not the accepting of my abilities at the time. Not accepting that it will never be perfect. I spent the first ten years in my lessons, in my classes, in my rental slots for practicing. My goal was literally and I would say I want a perfect cylinder. And then one day it’s like, No, no. It’s never going to happen. I can go buy one at the store. But that’s so what’s the point? The point is, when I hand somebody one, it’s like, okay, I made you this. And it’s like, when anybody makes you anything. I think that’s important. There’s a little bit of my weirdness in there, and I’m hoping that it’s okay and someone will appreciate it.
Jean Nelson [00:12:28] Comes time to take it off of this pipe. I will chill it and it will cause the piece to break off cleanly in theory. Yeah, exactly. Okay, So this is in, hanging it down a little bit, too narrow it up at the top.
Michael Lee [00:13:49] So when you did finally enter this world, tell me what that was like for you.
Jean Nelson [00:13:55] It was… It was so cool. It was everything I thought it was going to be. I was terrified for the first year, not terrified of getting hurt, just terrified of doing something. This sounds so weird. Disrespectful. I was so concerned that I would step into this space with people who were allowing me to enter their world. I kind of held myself back for a couple of years doing that, just being very cautious and being very respectful of the space I was allowed into. But it was everything I could hope for. And I kept trying to find more ways to be in that space.
Michael Lee [00:14:29] You mentioned wanting to be respectful of their world. Do you now consider it your world?
Jean Nelson [00:14:34] No, I still consider myself… And that’s what I say. I don’t know that I’ll ever be good, but I’m working on getting better. I am. This is the perfectionist coming out in me still, even though I’m learning that lesson. But being invited into someone else’s world, into your home. I would go in with great respect and I’ve been welcomed at the home I have here in Austin, but I’m still going to treat it with the greatest admiration and affection and respect, and it gives so much back to me.
Jean Nelson (in the glass studio) Here we go. I’m almost there. Okay. Next, two moves. I’m going to lengthen this and I’ve got my calipers that I.
Michael Lee [00:15:20] When you’re working with the glass, do you ever… I know you have to be focused on what you’re doing, but does your mind ever drift back to that ten year old girl?
Jean Nelson [00:15:29] Yeah. Every, you know, all the time. I’m finally to the point where I’m not so excited this time and nervous that I have to run to the bathroom before I can start my plus up. Honest to God, that’s where it is. And again, I walk in there and I’m like a kid the whole time. The whole time. Even when I’m dragging and I’m like, okay, I have to sit down for a minute. And then I’m like, No. No, keep going. I can’t. I even said, You know, when I start to joke about, I go up to the furnace, I open it up and like, Hello, glass. You know, we’re going to play today, and I approach it that way. So that whole childlike thing is still there, which is kind of kind of cool because we lose that for most of our life. After a certain point, they beat it out of us. But it’s still there for me with this.
Michael Lee [00:16:19] Do you think you’re going to keep doing this for the rest of your life?
Jean Nelson [00:16:21] Yes, as long as I can. As long as they let me come back and they let me do it, I will. It is really this brings me so much joy. I have to work for it. I’m working my butt off. I’ve lost 40 pounds since I started doing this. I literally worked my butt off, and it’s all worth it. It’s all worth it.
Jean Nelson (in the glass studio) To see it work that way. Take a. Bat and go right off.
Michael Lee [00:16:54] Thanks for listening to This Is My Thing. I’m Michael Lee and I produce the show. Special thanks, of course, to Jean Nelson for sharing her love of glassblowing. And for that pair of drinking glasses she made me.
Jean Nelson (in the glass studio) Glassblowing one on one.
Michael Lee (in the glass studio) So in about 18 hours…
Jean Nelson (in the glass studio) 18 hours, I will have a glass and I’ll bring that to you.
Michael Lee [00:17:11] If you haven’t seen them already, you can see some photos of Jean in the glass studio on our show page at KUT.org. We’ve got more This Is My Thing coming soon. We’re working on pieces about pole dancing and barbershop quartet. And we’ve been talking to some other interesting folks that we haven’t had time to interview yet, but we will! Keep listening to hear those stories and more.
If you’d like to tell us about your thing and maybe be a part of a future episode, that’s easy. Just go to the This Is My Thing show page at KUT.org. You’ll find a form on that page and let you tell us about your thing. And you might notice that that is not the only form on the KUT website. If you’re so inclined, you can also fill out a form to let you become a member of this station. Our members make this and everything we do possible.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
