Ridgway, Colorado

Bolstering Ouray County’s evolving reputation as an art community, Ridgway’s new Cimarron Art Glass Studio and Gallery offers hands-on classes and demonstrations by glass artist Munro DeForeest. DeForeest apprenticed under Ed Bradfield in Denver and worked with several other glass studios there before moving to Ridgway. The gallery is open daily and the glass classes, held evenings and weekends, will encompass beginning to advanced glassblowing.

DeForeest enjoys working with students of all ages and sharing is own unique vision of glass. “Glass flows,” he said. “It’s alive. It’s always moving. And it has a memory. When you work with glass, it remembers what you do to it. It’s a very unique material. It still has structure, even when it’s in a liquid state.” 

Because of its liquidity, glass has to be worked continually with smooth, even movements. “Once you start creating something, you can’t stop until it’s finished,” DeForeest said. A sculptor can walk away from his work for days, even years, and the stone will still be there, waiting for him to pick up where he left off, when he returns. Ditto an oil painting. Given a long rest, the paint may dry, but the painting will wait until the artist picks up the brush again. Glass, however, has to be worked from the moment the first gather (of molten glass which is kept liquid at about 2000 degrees Fahrenheit) until it’s ready to placed in the annealing oven where it gradually cools down (about eight hours). 

Working with glass “is kind of like dancing with gravity,” he said. “Gravity is one of the main tools in the process. If a piece falls off the pipe, it’s called a ‘floor model.’” If not, it’s destined for the gallery. Demonstrating, DeForeest dipped a warmed pipe into the glass furnace, gathered a liquid bubble, blew it, gathered more and blew the bubble bigger. Standing, he twirled the pipe like a long baton. The bubble began to look like a bud vase, hollow, bulbous at the bottom and slim-necked at the top. He rolled the bubble across a smooth metal surface, re-heated the now-recognizable vessel in the oven, then sat and rolled the pipe (while the vessel dangled at the end) further shaping the gelatinous vessel.A little more blowing, heating and rolling, then the piece was transferred to a ‘punty’ and further shaped with wet newspapers and paddles. (The transferring process leaves a discernable round mark on the bottom of the vessel—the mark of truly handblown glass.) 

The basic method of blowing glass has not changed in nearly 4,000 years, since the art was first perfected in ancient Northern Africa. Color and style may vary, and the art has taken on new dimensions and design. But at Cimarron Art Glass in Ridgway, you can still watch glassblowing done in the traditional way.  294 S. Lena. (Behind Fishbone Graphics.) (970) 626-9808.

Editor’s note:  There are two other glass artists in Ouray County. Sam Rushing, Ouray Art Glass uses traditional glassblowing techniques, producing vessels, ornaments and fine glass giftware. John Clark, Alpine Art Glass, Ridgway, specializes in custom cut, stained, fusion and architectural glass.

Top:  Blowing glass. Bottom: Monro DeForeest twirls a liquid glass bubble. SJPG photos.