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This is a fictious journal, for a role playing game (http://www.livejournal.com/community/ctd_epiphany).

Elaine Daum relaxed in the hot air by the furnace. The shop was closed
for the night and Elaine was in the mood to play. She took a pipe from
the pipe heater where it has been preheated so the glass will stick,
opening the door to the furnace, tipping the rod at an angle into the
glass while turning it and pulling out a gather of glass
(http://www.glassblowing.com/hotglass/process/index.php4). Keeping the
pipe turning to maintain an even shape of glass, Elaine went over to the
marver to roll the gather even cylinder
(http://www.glassblowing.com/hotglass/process/hotglass_2.php4). She put
the pipe to her mouth and blowed, creating a bubble of air. She held her
thumb over the mouth piece and let the air expand as it was heated by the
glowing glass
(http://www.glassblowing.com/hotglass/process/hotglass_3.php4 Just go
though the pages to see the process…). Elaine’s blonde curls reflected
back the fire from the gloryhole and furnace. Her dark blue eyes shone.
Elaine is not tall only 5’2” with a round face that fit her slightly
plump frame. Her jeans are old and worn, comfortable her tee-shirt a soft
pale blue. Elaine didn’t turn heads, but she had smile that would light
up a room if you got to know her and coaxed the laughter out of her.

On a worktable small glass sprites rested. Each little bit of lampworked
delicacy was a different color, some with wings, others looked like they
were possessed of comets with trailing streamers. Elaine heated the glass
in the gloryhole and then rolled it in sky blue and white opaque frit.
The colors faded as the frit melted into the gather, and Elaine helped
the process by returning the gather to the gloryhole. Once the glass was
back up to a working temperature of over 2,000° F. She brought the pipe
back out and worked it into shape then rolled it over the sprites. She
heated them in the gloryhole one more time before picking up more gather.

The color was all done and Elaine smiled as she started to alternate
between blowing and shaping the glass. Steam and sparks rose from the wet
newspaper that let her work with the glass like a potter with clay. She
worked the glass into vase-shape before transferring it to punty. Then
she started the final phase opening out the lip of the vase. Lastly she
broke it off and with Kevlar gloves set the work into the 900 degree
Annealer. But even at this stage the pattern could be seen, the blue vase
with white clouds was the background for a flock of tiny colorful
sprites.

Elaine set her work to cool and then shut the shop up and walked home to
the Fellows quarters. The dreamer was out the minute her head hit the
pillow.

Elaine is a dreamer. An artist with a very specialized skill. She is 24 and still has a sense of child-like wonder. Currently she is a fellow at The Creative Glass Center Of America. Located at Wheaton Village, CGCA awards 12 fellowships per year to gifted artists working in hot glass. CGCA provides glass artists with time and resources necessary to work without the restrictions imposed by the high cost of glass production.

This program is supported in part by the American Craft Council.

The Creative Glass Center of America is funded by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/ Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.

Elaine graduated High School in 1994. Received her BFA from University of Illinois in 1998. Earned her MFA in glass from Ohio State University in 2001. The project for her Masters was a series of lampworked pieces inspired by world myths about fire and creativity. She got her first job at Molten Soul Hot Glass Studio in Philadelphia. She excels at lampwork and is experimenting with fusing lampworked pieces into blown glass.

Elaine resides in the CGCA house during the term of her Fellowship. She was at first nervous about working in front of the visitors, but now starting to enjoys showing off her craft, especially to children. The 12 hours a week she is required to be ‘on display’ while working are no longer viewed as stifling. She also works as an assistant during Museum hours.

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