AOTM July 2010 - Glenn Godden

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Glenn Godden

All I wanted was 12 buttons! While looking for them I came across an advert for a Hot Head, and I decided it wouldn't cost much more to get a starter kit than to buy very expensive buttons - so I'd make my own. It was really an excuse to buy it, I'd always wanted to work with glass but the only other options I'd seen before were fusing which didn't really excite me. I guess it all stems back from when I was a kid and the local 'Glass Animal Man,' I just wondered 'where do you get to learn how to do that?' I think that question sat in the back of my head waiting to be answered.

I think I first lit the hothead about May 2008, looking at all the old Mapp gas receipts! I set up a workmate with the hot head & home made holder in my front room. Took ages to get it working as I was so nervous I wasn't turning it up enough to catch light! I think I was already hooked on it before I'd lit the torch, it was only a couple of months later I got an oxycon and minor.

FHF was great when I started as I worked though the tutorial section. When I started I decided I would try (just about) everything & every technique. Some I'm rubbish at, but some I found I really enjoyed like implosion techniques, which led quickly onto boro. I was very lucky when I started boro as I got into some chats with Emma (Garishglobes, our new boro mod!) who was and still is very generous with her knowledge.

  Pick any week's S&T and it will be stuffed full of people I admire! I started listing them all, but it became a long list and then I was worried I'd miss someone! However the one person who sticks out from my early days is Claire Morris (Rowenberry) as it was seeing her stunning tree & landscape beads before I started while I was researching lampworking (and before I found the forum) that amazed me. Until that point I assumed a bead was on or two colours, it was then I realised how this small area could be a canvas for so much more in expert hands, and why lampworking really has so many possibilities to explore.

I'm a believer in subconscious feeding me inspiration. I've returned to leaving a notebook by the bed, and it's always just as I'm dropping off I get the 'what if I do that?' ideas. I also like trying new techniques even if I don't use the technique itself, it sometimes leads to new ideas.
When I traced back where I'd got the idea for the glass keys I realised it was partly a new technique for making loops on hearts, partly an autobiography of a severe manic depressive, and partly a bad horror film where people had key-shaped organs in their heads!



I think it's all about connections; the things that have caused the most major changes to my life have been the small things setting off odd chain reactions, and I think ideas are the same. I had the key idea knocking around for ages but couldn't think what to put as the 'fingers' until that terrible horror film which made the connection; to unlock a heart, use a heart!

If I had a signature style, I guess most people would say 'marbles!'  I do enjoy the blend of 3D, technical and freeform that they allow, and how they can be a micro-world in themselves. I realise beads are NOT my thing though, I have the patience to spend 1 1/2hours on a marble, but get bored of making more than three beads the same – and I really hate cleaning bead release so I do as much off-mandrel as I can!



I'd like to learn how to handle boro tube properly. I have a play but I end up with so much twisted glass. I want to get more solid boro work behind me, and then I want to treat myself to a workshop on that. Then I can explore larger scale vessels, and wherever that will lead onto.

The bits I'm most proud of now look quite shoddy, but they mark those 'ahhhh' points as I've progressed. One of these was first time I'd tried to put a Gilson opal inside glass. I worked better than expected, and by accident four tiny bubbles got trapped exactly in orbit around the sphere like moons! Enthused I dived into making a second more elaborate one, and was mid way when the gas started running out. Everyone seemed to like this 'failure' more though, but all I could see where the dents and unwanted bubbles! After that I couldn't get them working well, it was only a couple of weeks ago I tried again, adding them to some new pendants and I'm now really pleased with how they work.



I suppose my work shows I've got a split personality. I tend to either be over serious and intense, then swing the other way and just do plain daft stuff like the Triffids! I guess my work tends to follow a very sci-fi line, although I wouldn't call myself a sci-fi geek (I can't speak any Klingon, only have one Star-Trek DVD, and collect no comics!), but I originally trained in electronics so I naturally end up hanging out with them! My current glass obsession is the seedpod pendants where I've put the nebula marble idea into a more organic shape, I guess this reflects the real 'me' most as I went from studying electronics to working with plants for many years before returning to engineering.



In the past few months I've felt a change in the way I work and think about what I make, all for the better. I can't really put it into words, but the seedpods were part of this increased confidence and willingness to be bolder with shapes, and to take myself more seriously.
I've also got a sculpture bubbling away, based around valves, but that's still forming in my mind. Also I feel there is something missing from it, I don't know what, but I know it's something that will 'arrive' sometime and make that connection.

I've got a shop on Etsy www.steampunkglass.etsy.com and a UK shop on Folksy www.steampunkglass.folksy.com plus my own site www.steampunkglass.com and if you haven't had enough waffle from me there is my blog at http://steampunkglass.blogspot.com/ as well!