Skills Glassblowing, lampworking, sculpture
Team Sam Rauch
Blue Crab
This guy is based vaguely on a blue crab mixed with a stone crab. Made with borosillicate using nothing but a regular torch (no hand torch!)
Tropical Fish
I created these fish using soft glass on bead mandrels during an intensive class with artist Deb Crowley, then assembled them on a piece of wood to create this aquarium scene. They’re all modeled off real tropical fish! The corals, seaweed, and sea slugs are made of borosillicate.
Blue Lobster
I have a soft spot for blue lobsters. Ocurring only once in every two million lobsters, according to the New England Aquarium, they sport a genetic mutation that results in their blue coloring.
This guy is made with borosillicate using a tabletop torch and a hand torch.
Shells
Also made during my class with Deb Crowley, I created these using blowing techniques on the torch, punching a hole in the side to allow them to be hung.
Process
I began taking classes at the Pittsburgh Glass Center in college, when I found out Carnegie Mellon let us take glass classes for credit. Since 2020, I’ve been learning more and more about glassblowing and lampworking, and now, I’m in the hot shop and the flame shop as often as I can. There’s no other medium quite like hot glass.
Here’s me working in the hot shop and the flame shop!
©Sam Rauch 2024