- On this episode of Making, we fire up the furnace for some molten glass fun.

Meet an illustrator whose wildlife has a modern style on its own, and take a bite out of this Monastery's fruity shelf stable staple.

That's all next here on Making.

This Program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station, for viewers like you, thank you.

(gentle music playing) (gentle music playing) Hello and welcome to Making, the show dedicated to makers, and the artistry of their craft.

I'm your host, Matt Burchett.

Thank you so much for joining us.

This week we begin here at Belger Arts, a place that encourages viewers to explore, question, and deepen their understanding of art and the world around them.

And one of the ways they do that is by inviting people here to the Belger Glass Annex, a facility that houses state-of-the-art glassblowing equipment, as well as a furnace that holds 300 pounds of molten glass.

(gentle music playing) (gentle music playing) - We're in the Belger Glass Annex.

It is the third Belger Arts location.

And the most recent, we've been open since October, 2021.

This facility actually used to be a maintenance shed where Belger cartage, cranes, and trailers were prepared and worked on.

Those cranes have all been moved out south to a location in Lenexa.

This facility became available and a perfect opportunity for Belger Arts to introduce glass into the mix.

Glass blowing is another name for it is offhand glass blowing.

And so because we can't touch it, we have to use a tool to manipulate the glass.

We can't touch it like we can clay, and we can't push it around any other medium like that.

Even just to hold the glass, we have to have a special tool and we've got a couple varieties of rods, steel rods that we use to just get the glass out of the furnace to where we can work with it.

We've got blow pipes and we've got punties.

And the main difference is that blow pipes are long hollow steel rods where you can blow through the mouthpiece at one end and the air comes out the other like a long straw to puff up the glass that's been gathered.

The punties on the other hand are solid and they are used for once you're finished inflating the piece and you're transferring it to finish it off to work on the opening, put it onto a punty rod.

Sometimes you'll see glass with like a wrap around it someone will bring color over and add it to a piece.

The solid rods are used for a variety of reasons but those are the two main types.

It's either a blow pipe or a punty.

The glassblowing tools that we used today are virtually identical to the glassblowing tools that were used in Venice, ancient Venice that were developed.

The first glass blowers designed these hand tools, and they worked so well that they're still what we use today.

The most fundamental tools that we have that we set up on any bench are what are called the jacks which looks like very large tweezers.

We've got very long blades, and that tool is the tool that you use to place the jack line around where the object will eventually be separated from the pipe onto the punty.

They're used in other ways as well but that's kind of their main function.

We also have a variety of different types of shears, cutting tools, straight sheer, and then a diamond shear, and then tweezers which are basically just like large tweezers like what you might have at home.

And that again is also just like for pulling, twisting.

Often there's like a move when you're making vessels where you pull the opening and trim off the lip.

So those are kind of the four main tools you always use.

We also have some wooden blocks.

They look like giant wooden spoons and they are wood even though glass is such a hot material, it's like how could you have a wooden tool, wouldn't it just burn up and be, but we keep them soaked in water, and they are made of a very hard fruit wood to begin with usually cherry wood.

So they're very dense and when they're kept wet the glass is mostly creating a barrier of steam.

So those tools last a very long time.

- Have you ever had it to break?

- We are a community and education focused facility.

All of our programming is geared towards growing glass awareness, glass education in Kansas City from people who want to learn to blow glass, people who want to collect glass, people who just want to watch glass as like a spectator sport.

We do demonstrations on first Fridays, we host visiting artists who come in, and have a residency where they make their own work.

They do demonstrations with an artist talk, and teach a workshop.

We teach intro and intermediate glassblowing classes for people who are interested in learning how to become a glassblower themselves.

- I'm just trying to solve.

- So I took glass one here about 10 months ago.

And since then, a friend and I have been coming back, and taking glass two and branching about once or twice a month, spending about eight hours out here glass blowing.

A lot of it has just been really getting used to how you work with glass, and being able to actually make it go where you want to.

Because glass is an interesting medium to work with.

Because every time you go take a heat with it, you pull it back out, it's flopping around, you're trying to get it back into the ice cylinder you had it in.

So right now a lot of it has just been making an actual straight sided cylinder opposed to a cylinder that kind of does a wonky thing out or kind of cleans over over the side on you.

- Glass as material is so mesmerizing, it just so unlike anything you really encounter in daily life.

It goes from hot, like molten to solid so quickly.

What I personally like about it, what drew me to it it's kind of the sportsmanship of it.

I like sports, I like organized sports.

I like working with a team.

I like having a common goal.

I like being creative.

I like adapting as things change.

If something goes wrong or goes differently just knowing like, I've drilled for this, I know what to do next.

I know how to ask for help.

I know who to pass it to, all that stuff.

So I do like that part of it.

I also like having, for me again, personally I like how you have kind of a small working window so I have to kind of get it, and if you don't get it, you just start over.

And I think for people who see it for the first time often that is what I hear a lot of comments about is like they'll compare it to a dance or a choreography.

People will sit there riveted for hours children even with tiny little attention spans will sit there just watching.

So it appeals to all age groups and it looks easy.

It takes a lot of time to get good at it, but once you got it, it's a captivating art form.

(gentle jazz music playing) (gentle jazz music playing) (gentle piano music playing) - I want them to notice the things that make that subject unique to itself.

Sometimes they're just a small bug, but there's something special about that small bug that makes it different from everything else on the planet.

And sometimes we just need to take the time to look down or look up or just open our eyes, and see the beauty around us.

Pat and I have lived in this area, in this house for about a little over four years, and knew we loved it the second we pulled down the driveway to look at it.

Well, I've always done artwork, and been interested in it and nature.

My parents took us on a lot of trips.

He was a soil conservationist so we were outside a lot, did a lot of camping.

So the two combined, I've always been interested in doing like wildlife art.

So I start with tracing paper and I figure out the position and the composition that I want basically, and then I'll break that down into different sections, and I lay tracing paper over tracing paper, and just sketch out things.

Once I get my tracing paper pieces, I put it on an old time artograph, project that image down onto the Masonite, and then I sketch it out again.

And then I start with the indie ink.

And so I do my outline and all the black areas in indie ink.

Then I go in with acrylic and brushes, and fill that in with just very thin layers like several layers of thin acrylic.

And the acrylic and indie ink are perfect partners.

If you make a mistake with one, you can cover it with the others.

So that's how I work on the lines, and get things to the point where I want them to be.

My original inspiration was Native American art, and I still try to, with each piece keep a little bit of that spiritual feeling and some of the motifs that the native people used, like circles.

Circles are an integral part to every one to my pieces.

- The biggest function I guess that I do for her is creation of prints.

When she's finished with the painting, I digitize the image and do color corrections, and size it and get everything ready for print.

Then when all that's finished then I do produce the final print.

- I really feel like nature is just nature.

Nature is already perfect as you see it, and I can't really improve on that.

So what I try to do is pick out something that's unique about the subject that I'm trying to portray, and extenuate that, let that part come through in their personality.

I'm not trying to recreate it, I'm just trying to show my vision of it.

I have always loved working with pen and ink, and adding the acrylic to it there, it's almost meditative to do the painting.

You kind of get lost in it, and that's the best when you can just really get lost in your art.

- She is my favorite artist and still after all these years I'm amazed at her patience, her ability for executing those extra fine lines and stuff like that.

It still amazes me after all these years.

- But I do feel like every artist is expressing their inner self when they put something down on paper, canvas or whatever their medium, and I feel like I probably do the same thing.

It's part of you every time you finish something, every time you finish a piece sometimes you don't like them as well as others but it's always a part of you when you get done.

- The next thing we're going to ask you to do Matt.

- Okay.

- I'm going to take a reheat, and then when we come back we'll just start inflating this.

- So we're back here at the Belger Glass Annex.

I'm standing here with Robert and he's going to walk me through a project that they've kind of laid out for me.

What are we going to be working on here?

- Well, welcome Matt.

First of all.

- Thank you.

- Today we're going to be making a glass tumbler or a drinking cup.

We have some color options laid out here for you.

Today we're primarily going to be using this crushed up frit.

- Well, let's get started.

What the first thing that we need?

We're going to need a bar or a pipe or something like that that I've seen before.

What are we working with there?

- Yeah, we're going to use both bar and a pipe.

In the glass glowing world, we have different names for them.

This solid bar or iron is known as a punty rod or bit iron.

Our other option for gathering tools is known as a blow pipe.

So that's going to allow us to then inflate the glass using our breath.

- Well, where do we get started?

- All right, let's get to it.

So we have all the gathering tools here in a pipe warmer.

The molten glass actually likes to stick to cold steel.

So you can see that the tips are being preheated here.

So I'm going to take a quick gather from the furnace.

When I hand you the tool, I will have cooled it.

So we'll immediately make our way over to those frit containers.

(water rushing sound) - All right, now follow me over, and keep it slightly angled down.

So you can get in there a little more weight.

Good.

Now bring the back end up, and let's get some on the very tip also.

Perfect.

And I tell you what Matt, I think the glass is cool to a point.

We're not going to pick more up.

- So we need to flash.

- Yes sir.

- Okay.

Now what is this furnace called exactly?

- This is a reheating chamber, otherwise known as a glory hole.

This part that we're resting the gathering tool on is known as a yolk.

When we exit the reheating chamber this time we're going to approach the steel marver.

- And we're going to use that to kind of plan the surface out a little bit.

- Exactly.

- Reverse rolling pin, I suppose.

- Now unlike the first gather where we would use the steel table to marver, on the second gather, we're going to come over to the bench, and we use a wooden tool called a block.

Essentially it's just a wooden mold usually a dense fruit wood.

And by rolling the glass in there, it's going to automatically assume the shape of the mold.

We keep them wet, so it kind of rides on a bed of steam.

The next thing we're going to ask you to do Matt.

I'm going to take a reheat, and then when we come back we'll just start inflating this.

So Matt, I'm just going to run it one more time in this wooden block first.

Just to chew up the shape a little bit.

And then anytime you're ready you can go ahead, and just start with a light pressure.

So here we go.

Just a little hotter.

And then again, Matt, let's start with a really light pressure.

Go ahead and blow.

Good.

Stop, stop, stop, stop.

Perfect.

Now that we have most of the volume achieved I'm using a tool known as the jacks.

This is going to create a small impression which will then allow us to separate the piece in the end once we're finished.

So here you can see just using heat and gravity allowing that glass to lengthen and stretch out.

And that's going to give us our basic kind of cup shape.

If you want, the next thing I'll have you do is you'll come around to this side, Matt, and use this paddle.

We're just going to go on the bottom underneath the jacks, and establish a flat spot for our cup to rest.

Hey, hey, that looks flat to me.

What do you think?

- We can roll with that.

- So we've established our shape, it's important.

I'm just kind of doing a maintenance heat now known as a flash.

If any portion of this glass gets below 900 degrees it could potentially crack and break.

So we're at the point now where we want to kind of transfer our vessel and turn it around so that we can then work on what will be the lip area.

Katie's going to present the punty, I'll grab the iron with the tweezer.

I want to lean out and try to get as close to that center point as possible and barely touch it on.

We have a short window of only a couple seconds.

We can make any adjustments if we happen to miss that bull's eye.

And next we'll get a little bit of water on that constriction that we made.

This is going to thermally shock the glass, and hopefully cause a crack in the area that we want it to crack in, a little vibration.

- Excellent.

Thank you Katie.

- You're welcome.

- So we've got our vessel kind of turned around here, and we're going to think about starting to work on the lip.

What I noticed is that in the portion where it broke off, it's a little thick.

We'll come back to the bench.

The nice thing about using color is it really allows you to see where the heat is.

You can see back here it's colder, and this orange is indicating that the lip is nice and hot.

It's going to allow me to pull, and stretch that thinner with the tweezers, and then we'll use a straight shear to go in, and kind of cut off this ruffle.

And that's just going to allow us for a much thinner lip and more comfortable mouth feel.

So I hope you're happy.

I think we're going to call this finished cup here.

Thank you for your help.

- Thank you for showing me.

- Onto the knockoff station.

Hopefully a little tap should free it.

So unfortunately we cannot leave this out at the room temperature.

It'll cool too rapidly and could break.

So we have to load it in a temperature control or computer controlled, a kneeling oven where it'll slowly cool over about the next 12 hours.

- So come about tomorrow morning, it'll be ready to go.

That was cool.

- Pretty neat.

(gentle jazz music playing) (gentle music playing) (people praying) - Assumption Abbey had its beginning in 1950.

For 25 years we supported ourselves with a concrete block factory.

Later there was recession and competition, and we had to get out of that business.

There was a lady who she was the wife of the Episcopal pastor in St. Louis at the time, and she knew a French chef who had been the pastry chef for Charles (indistinct) but he had some fruitcake recipes and two we liked best, and we kind of blended the recipe together to what we have now.

So now we've been making fruitcakes over 30 years.

- We bake six days a week from Monday to Saturday.

So we normally bake about 125 or 126.

So within a year we bake about 30,000, and our cakes always sold out every year.

- It's a very fruit centric recipe.

There's probably a little more fruit than batter.

In each batch there's a mixture of three kinds of raisins, pineapple, cherries, lemon peel, orange peel.

And that's soaked in about four gallons of burgundy wine.

And that soaks for about two weeks before it actually goes into the batter.

- Right after mass start preparing the ingredients for the cake itself.

Once the batter is made and then we just start scoping, and weighing and then put it in the oven for about two hours.

And then what we bake today will be decorated tomorrow.

They inject into it with rum.

It's a 40% alcohol, so it's 80% proof.

It's a cake received 32 milliliter.

Some people would even like a double injection.

They will order specifically a double injection.

They will inject it first, they'll coat it with corn syrup, and then put the cherries and pecans.

Then once they put it, then they will put again, a syrup on top of its pecans and the cherries.

So they will put a syrup on, its kind of make it again shiny.

And once they finish decorating, and they will wrap it with the sealer - And then it's packaged and set on the shelf to age for anywhere from three to six months.

Most of our time through the year is spent just building inventory in a warehouse and aging it.

We sell a few cakes every day gets shipped out but in October through December, it gets very, very busy.

Somewhere around Thanksgiving, up till Christmas, we may be shipping a thousand boxes a day.

It's still a popular item in the holidays.

So probably over 90% of our inventory is shipped out during those three months.

- It's a very lucrative business that it can support our community, and allows us also to help people especially around our area.

We don't come here just to work.

We don't join the monastery just to work.

Work is for our self sustenance.

It's a way of life.

So there's an integration, the work and prayer.

That's the motto of St. Benedict.

Work and pray, aura labor.

(staff members praying) We pray in the bakery, we stop also.

So we never neglected our prayer.

We pray seven times a day.

The atmosphere in the bakery is very good because it's very quiet, it's very conducive to solitude and silence and prayer.

And also the fruit cake, it's very light work.

And so it allows you to think of spiritual things can meditate while working.

And for me, that's a very rewarding to be able to think of things that are above.

So we work and we pray.

That's our way of life.

- That's all the time we have for this week.

But we hope all of our makers have inspired you to unlock your creative spirit.

We thank you all for watching, and we hope you'll join us here next time to see what we'll be making.

More information is available on social media or online@kmos.org.

(gentle music playing) This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(gentle music playing) (gentle music playing)