Tools: Facilitating the Mystical Mix Between Spontaneity and Certainty

Exodus 31:3 reveals the divine value of creativity and craftsmanship.  God instructs Moses to appoint Bezalel and Oholiab, artisans filled with God’s Spirit, wisdom, and skill, to lead in the construction of the Tabernacle.  This sacred endeavor, guided by Moses, transforms human craftsmanship into a form of worship.

David Pye, “In the Nature and Art of Workmanship”, describes craftsmanship as a dance between certainty and spontaneity.  I experience this firsthand in my floral glass designs, especially when encapsulating them in clear glass.  These instances carry the highest risk of failure, yet they yield the most organic and credible results.  Spontaneity invites surprise, and when balanced with certainty, it lifts creation beyond routine, fostering joy and a sense of purpose.  In this dynamic interplay, mastery meets creative surrender.

Certainty provides the structure essential to quality; spontaneity breathes life into the work.  When these forces harmonize, the process becomes immersive and transformative.  As I often tell my students, pursuing excellence is as much a head trip as it is a hand skill.  The tension between structure and spontaneity fuels those creative highs that define the artistic journey.  These moments often lead me into a state of elation, where a balance between skill and challenge creates an intense engagement.  In this rhythm, I find not only creativity but also personal growth.  Each experimental effort becomes a lesson, making the process itself a source of learning and renewal.

Hand tools are the bridge between certainty and spontaneity.  They enable precision while allowing expressive freedom.  My specialized tools—especially the gas-oxygen Carlisle CC bench burner—are not just instruments; they are extensions of my vision.  At 2,200°F, just inches from my fingers, this torch melts soft glass, fusing control with spontaneity.

My love for tools began in childhood, sitting quietly with my grandfather before dinner as he sketched Art Nouveau designs—patterns he once engraved on precious metals.  His craftsmanship, marked by dedication and hand skill, profoundly influenced my own.  His tools, passed down to me by my mother, continue his legacy in my work. Though I struggled academically, my hands found purpose and identity through crafting object art.

Working with glass—a medium that demands respect and precision—I’ve sometimes fantasized about shaping it with my bare hands, like a clay artist.  Although fleeting, this thought reflects a more profound yearning to merge the material and spiritual.  My tools, so familiar in my grip, are extensions of my hands and soul.

As an artist-craftsperson, I appreciate small-scale, hand-crafted art.  It has deepened my understanding of the transformative power of the human hand, guided by both mind and heart.  These are the ultimate tools.  With them, artisans transform raw materials into timeless beauty.   Through tools and dexterity, we become co-creators with the divine.

My modest hand tools—tweezers, carbon paddles, scoring knives, and a magnifying lens—allow me to blend precision with personal vision.  This fusion is the soul of my work.  Each labor-intensive design once encased in clear glass, becomes a deeply satisfying expression of balance and perseverance.

The Carlisle CC burner isn’t just a tool—it has shaped my creative identity.  For over 60 years, it has enabled me to manipulate glass with both strength and delicacy.  I can shape several pounds of molten glass or craft the tiniest stamens sealed within a blossom.  These tools embody the perseverance of my craft.

At times, as I melt glass, the spontaneous rhythm of creation reveals new illusions. These moments teach me how to explore and express the organic quality of nature with delicacy and detail.  The process becomes a dialogue between control and risk, the known and the unknown.

In this dance of fire and form, I find meaning.  Tools, in their humble precision and expressive potential, are the mystical link between control and inventiveness.  They are the silent partners in my pursuit of beauty, where certainty meets spontaneity, and craftsmanship becomes poetry in glass.

In this delicate dance, I find a reflection of the divine, a reminder that as I shape glass, I am also being shaped, co-creating with the ultimate artist, the divine force that guides all creation.  My work, a humble offering, celebrates the sacred and the spiritual, blending the material and the eternal into a timeless beauty.