A Craftsman's Legacy

>> Legacy is about the things that you can pass on.

You can pass on your wisdom... ...your skills... >> How about this?

>> Manifold.

>> This down here?

Proper tire pressure would be?

>> 55 PSI.

>> ...and maybe you can pass on something just a little bit more.

The Ford F-150, a proud supporter of "A Craftsman's Legacy."

>> It's been awhile since I've visited a glass studio.

Four years, actually.

So I'm pretty excited to give it a try again.

I'm in Ohio visiting Shawn Messenger.

She's a woman who specializes in small creations that are making a big impact.

A craftsman battles for perfection, never willing to give in or walk away.

I'm Eric Gorges.

I build custom motorcycles using skills passed on by countless generations before me.

I used to work 9: 00 to 5:00, chasing money and titles, and it nearly broke me.

So, I started over.

I decided to work with my hands to feed my soul.

Please join me on a quest to uncover the skills that built our society.

We'll discover what drives the men and women who I call my heroes.

We'll learn their craft and maybe even find some inspiration along the way.

There's a part of you in everything you create, your legacy.

"A Craftsman's Legacy."

So, tell me what you do.

>> I blow glass for a living.

>> How long have you been doing that?

>> I started first blowing glass in 1974.

>> Why glass?

>> Well, I went to the Cleveland Institute of Art.

And I was in design class.

And the professor said, "Well, if you want to go see the glass department, you can go on Thursday."

And I said, "Glass?

What's glass?"

I had no idea.

So, I ended up walking into the glass department, and it was love at first sight.

>> Really?

>> Yes.

Oh, yes.

I was just absolutely amazed at it, and I said, "I want to do this."

>> And where did it go from there?

>> Well, I blew glass four years there.

And then I ended up going with my husband to Chico, California.

He had a job there teaching glass.

>> Okay.

>> Then I ended up getting a job with Orient & Flume Glass.

But I wasn't blowing glass.

I was in the packing room.

>> Oh, okay.

>> Which was probably the greatest thing that ever happened to me, because I saw the business end of... >> Oh, right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

>> ...of a studio.

And eventually, we came back to Toledo and ended up getting a space.

It was called the Glass Guild, and it's out at Toledo Botanical Gardens.

So, I went there and just started blowing glass and did that for, I don't know, maybe almost 10 years.

>> Oh, really?

>> Mm-hmm.

>> So, did you have a business formed at that time?

>> No.

I just was doing art fairs.

I tried to put things in galleries.

Eventually what happened, though, was that I used to do a show in Columbus through the Ohio Designer Craftsmen.

And they started a wholesale.

You just would take pictures of your products, and they displayed them at the wholesale shows.

>> Oh.

>> Yeah.

>> So, at what point did you open up your own studio?

>> It was probably around '92, I think it was.

I had done enough of this wholesale that I felt like I could make it.

>> Okay.

>> So, I just told my husband, I said, "You need to build a furnace."

So, he built all of our equipment.

>> Oh, really?

>> Yeah.

That's when we set up the studio and just tried to do it on our own, so... >> That's wonderful.

>> Yeah.

>> Do you see yourself as an artist or a craftsman?

>> Both.

>> Yeah?

>> Both.

>> How so?

>> Well, I mean, a craftsman because I think I know how to create things using tools and making, perhaps, like a piece of functional glass.

But an artist because I try to come up with different ways of looking at the glass and making it different.

You know, you have to make the mistakes, and sometimes the mistakes are better than what you thought it was gonna be like.

>> Absolutely.

>> So, you have to be willing to take those on.

>> Yeah, I'm a big proponent in failure.

>> Yes.

[ Both laugh ] >> You know, like, I truly believe that's really the only time we -- >> Oh, yes, you have to fail a lot.

You know, if you don't fail, you're probably gonna be bored by what you do.

>> I've been blessed with a lot of it.

[ Both laugh ] >> A lot of failure?

That's so sad, Eric.

>> And it looks like you specialize in the flower work.

>> Yeah.

People called it "millefiori."

>> Millefiori.

>> Yes.

1,000 flowers, but each individual flower, the piece is called a murrini.

>> Murrini.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> And how did you get into that?

>> Well, that one was also when I was out at Toledo Botanical Gardens, when I was blowing glass there.

All around the Glass Guild was the perennial garden.

>> Okay.

>> So, I watched those flowers come up and go away, and new flowers come up and go away.

Went to an art fair and put my pieces out, and somebody came along and said, "Wow.

That looks like a flower garden."

And it was like a little light went off in my head and I went, "Oh, yeah!"

>> [ Laughs ] >> So, I just started, you know, trying to figure out how to make something look more and more like a garden.

>> And then you just honed in on that and stuck with it?

>> Yeah, I mean, I've been doing those pieces probably since about '95, '96.

If you see the first ones, they were very, very simple, and I think they're a lot more complicated now.

>> Yeah, the ones over here look really complicated.

[ Laughs ] They're beautiful, though.

I love the depth to them.

>> Thank you.

>> Can you think of any specific time where maybe you had to reevaluate the direction you were headed in?

>> I think being a woman in glass.

At the time, it was just so male-dominated.

>> It was?

>> Oh, yeah.

>> And I didn't know that.

I mean, I never thought about it.

I just sort of -- Like I said, I fell in love with it.

>> Yeah.

>> I think just dealing with -- with the fact that people were shocked that -- that you did it.

When I do a show, "Oh, you're not the assistant, you're the person that actually does it?"

>> I got you.

>> Yeah, they always thought my husband was the one.

>> Really?

>> Yeah.

>> People just assumed?

>> Yeah.

Yeah.

I go, "No."

And plus, my name is Shawn.

I'd show up and they'd say, "Wait a minute.

You're Shawn?"

"Yep, I'm Shawn."

[ Both laugh ] >> Has that changed a lot over the years?

>> There -- It's just a lot of women in glass now.

>> That's good.

>> I mean, I think there's more women in glass than there might possibly men, it seems to me.

>> Really?

>> Yeah, seems to me like there's a lot of women.

And glass is different than it was.

You don't have to just blow glass.

There's flameworking, and there's fusing, casting.

So, you don't have to have the skill to blow glass, and I think that's opened it up for everybody -- men and women.

>> Right.

Blowing is -- is pretty technical, isn't it?

>> Yes, the thing about blowing glass is that you can't touch it, so you're always using a tool, so you have to learn that skill.

You know, you have to have the brain, touches the hand, touches the -- the tool to make it do what you want it to do.

>> That's pretty interesting, because there's not too many mediums that are really like that.

So, do you often take on apprentices or anything like that, or students?

>> Most of the assistants that I've had have come from -- actually from Bowling Green State University.

There's a glass program there.

>> Yeah?

>> And I've had like maybe five or six of them that have come through, and -- >> That's always the best thing, working with other people.

>> Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

>> You know, pushing your boundaries.

>> Right.

Well, in glass, you have to work with other people.

You can work alone, but it's so much easier when you have another person around, or two or three sometimes... >> [ Laughs ] >> ...to make whatever you're making.

>> Like bigger pieces and things like that?

>> Yeah, the big pieces that we make, it takes at least four of us to do it.

>> Really?

>> Yeah.

'Cause they're big and they're heavy and it's hot and, you know, they take two hours to make.

>> It's pretty physically demanding.

>> Yes, it is.

It's very demanding.

You're sweating a lot, and it's heavy.

It's just, you know, you have this pipe, and it's -- it's maybe not that much glass, but it's, you know, five feet out at the end.

And then you have to pick it up, and it's moving, and so many thoughts in your head of what you're trying to make, and trying to shape it, and tell somebody to blow, and... [ Both laugh ] ...which tool you're gonna use next.

It's a lot of work.

>> Absolutely.

Absolutely.

So, what do you think we'll make today?

>> Today, we're making a paperweight.

>> Oh, okay.

>> One of my Red Roses paperweight.

>> Well, that sounds like fun.

>> Yeah.

>> You know, I've only worked with glass one other time, so, and I really enjoyed it.

It's very magical, I think.

>> Yeah.

It is very magical, but it's very -- It'll -- You have to impose your will upon it.

That's one of the things I -- I will give you advice.

>> Well, thank you, thank you.

>> Because the glass will impose its will on you.

[ Both laugh ] It takes over sometimes, yeah.

>> All right, well, let's go out in the studio and get to work.

>> Okay.

Sounds good.

>> Millefiori, the Italian word for 1,000 flowers, was only coined as a glass-making term in the 1840s, but the process it describes is much more ancient than that.

Originally called "mosaic glass," it is believed that about 3,500 years ago, the ancient Egyptians were the first to practice this technique.

They were followed by the Phoenicians, and then the Romans, who mastered this process and helped spread the word around Europe.

Mosaic glass also enjoyed a period of popularity in the Islamic world during the 8th and 9th centuries in Mesopotamia and Syria.

Soon after, for reasons that remain unknown, the knowledge of making millefiori glass was lost and not seen again for about 600 years.

In the 15th century, the famed Venetian Murano glassmakers rediscovered it, or maybe reinvented it, and made it famous all over the world.

Inspired by the natural world around her, Shawn Messenger has adopted this practice to make the tiny glass flowers, also called murrinis, that she incorporates into her beautiful creations.

Are you telling me we're gonna make this?

>> [ Chuckles ] Yes, you are.

>> No way.

This is absolutely beautiful.

>> Thank you.

>> And everywhere you look, you see something a little different.

>> Yes.

>> This is murrini?

>> Yes, it is.

>> And what -- what is that?

What does that mean?

>> Well, murrini is a section of cane that we make, that has the different colors on it.

So, we -- we just cut off one section of this, and that's what each one of those individual flowers are.

>> Oh, really?

So, one piece of that is a flower?

>> Right.

Correct.

>> So if you were to look down this, like this, you can sort of see a flower in there.

>> Yes.

>> Huh.

You really can.

>> Yes, you can.

[ Both laugh ] It's amazing.

>> And how do we get started with something like this?

I just -- I can't imagine that we're gonna do something like this.

>> Right.

Well, first, we're going to make this murrini.

>> We have to make the cane.

>> Yes, we have to make the cane.

First off, I'm going to make -- pick up one of the beginning colors.

>> Okay.

>> You're gonna bring another color to me, and we're gonna overlay that.

And then we're gonna have another layer of clear that goes over that.

>> So, we're gonna be working in this area here.

>> Yes.

>> Run back and forth.

>> Yes, heating.

>> And you're gonna tell me exactly what to do, because I don't know what I'm doing.

>> Exactly what to do.

[ Chuckles ] >> I'll be very careful.

>> Yes.

And do not mess it up.

>> All right, well, let's get rolling.

>> Okay.

>> Let's make glass!

>> Really.

Open the glory hole up.

Okay.

So, I'm just taking a little bit of glass out.

>> Okay.

>> Okay, so the end of this is getting hot.

>> You can't even tell what color it is anymore.

>> No.

There you go.

Straight up and down.

There you go.

Over the -- Over the fan.

Slowly in.

>> What do you -- What do you think?

>> All right, let's try it.

Chill that end, and then come back down on the side.

There you go.

So, keep going.

Let me get mine warm.

Let me come out.

>> Same thing?

>> Yeah.

We're just trying to get the heat all the way through it.

You can get up closer.

It's much easier if you're closer.

Yeah, there you go.

Okay.

>> How's that?

>> That's good.

Okay, go back and heat it up.

You got in there all right.

All right, let's try it.

There you go.

Okay, so we've got the second part of our sandwich.

>> Right now, you've got two different colors of red on there, right?

>> Yes.

>> And what happens next?

>> What happens next is I'm going to go over to the marver, and I'm gonna reshape the piece back into the rectangle again.

>> Okay.

>> And get that in the proper shape, and then I'm going to go to the bench, and you are going to bring me the next layer, which is clear.

>> I'm gonna do another gather, but it'll be clear this time.

>> Yes.

>> All right.

>> All right.

Now you can go for it.

So, you're gonna use this.

This pipe, too.

This one?

>> Yes.

Come out.

Let it cool.

Keep it turning.

Keep it turning.

Okay.

>> And right now, you're trying to draw it out in length?

>> Yes.

The hardest thing, I think, is lengthening it, actually.

So, now I'm gonna go over to the marver... >> Okay.

>> ...and we're gonna start rolling it up.

>> And you won't do this in one heat, right?

>> No, it take a couple heats.

>> Okay.

Oh, my gosh.

Look at that.

>> Almost.

Now, we have the cinnamon bun.

>> Very cool.

Look at that.

So, we've got a really cool shape on the end.

>> Yes.

>> What are we gonna do next?

>> You're going to gather.

You're gonna come out, and you're going to flatten it a little bit, not a lot, and then come over here and marver that.

>> Okay.

>> And then you're gonna wait for me.

>> I'll do my best.

>> [ Chuckles ] >> Is that enough?

>> Yep.

Flatten it.

And then marver it.

Okay, go heat it up just a little bit.

Okay.

Get it.

Gonna pick this up.

There you go.

You're going in the glory hole there, with that.

>> That's cool.

>> Okay, let's go out.

We're gonna marver that.

>> Okay.

>> You can finger-marver this, with your fingers.

There you go.

Now go straight up and down to flatten it.

Perfect.

Go in the glory hole.

>> Am I doing okay?

>> You're doing perfect.

Push.

Push.

Now flip it.

Push.

Okay, good.

>> Looks like a bell pepper.

>> Yes.

>> Okay, ready?

>> Yep.

Go sit over here.

Basically, like, right there... make a line.

All the way down.

Okay, one more.

>> All right, look at that!

Okay, so, we've got the rose, right?

>> Right.

>> So, the next thing we'll be doing is pulling it out?

>> Yes.

So, get it all the way up on the pipe.

>> Like that?

>> Yep.

There you go, there you go.

Perfect.

So, we're just dipping it in.

>> Is that enough?

>> Yep.

Okay, you come over here behind me.

>> Take this one?

>> Yep.

>> Yep.

>> And now we're gonna pull.

Stay right there.

Keep it turning.

Just kind of go back and forth.

>> Back and forth.

[ Laughs ] This is cool!

>> Now we're gonna lay it down.

>> Okay.

>> And you're gonna grab those gloves.

Shake it.

There you go.

>> Okay, I'm doing something.

>> Yeah.

Very good.

Now, you got to pick them all up.

[ Laughs ] Then we're walking over here, putting them in the oven.

>> Just lay them down?

>> Yep.

They're in there.

>> Okay.

That was pretty crazy.

>> [ Laughs ] >> Here's our paperweight again.

>> Yes.

>> And we spent the first part of the day working on these little glasses.

We drew out that cane.

That was one of the coolest things I've ever done.

>> Right.

>> We've got those done, and now we have to work on the rest of it.

The inside has all that glitter and stuff going on.

And then the outside has a bunch of glass around it.

>> Right.

>> So, how do we do that?

>> Well, it's all done in layers.

We have the powder on first that makes the bubbles.

>> Okay.

>> We're gonna get another layer that's going to have the frit on it, and the dichroic glass, which is the shiny, glittery part.

Then we're gonna have another layer that has the flowers and the stems on it.

>> All right.

>> Another layer of clear after that, and then we actually make the paperweight.

>> All those layers give it dimension.

>> Yes.

>> That's why everything looks so deep into it.

>> Right.

>> Like a galaxy-type thing, right?

>> Right.

Right.

Yeah, that's great, yeah.

>> That's awesome.

And you think I'll be able to do some of this?

>> I think you will.

I don't think you'll be able to do all of it.

[ Both laugh ] >> All right.

Well, you ready to get started?

>> Yes.

Up a little bit.

Okay, that's good.

Now go in here.

There you go.

Now you're gonna go into the frit.

>> All right, so how am I doing?

What's next?

>> You're doing great.

You're gonna go in here, and you're gonna heat this up, and then you're gonna go over, and we're gonna pick up the dichroic.

One side.

Opposite side.

Opposite side.

>> Now?

>> Now we're gonna heat.

That's good.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, that's good.

It's moving.

So, swing.

Get over there -- it's coming.

[ Laughs ] There we go.

Okay, stay down.

Low.

Low.

Low.

Like, low.

>> There.

>> There you go.

All right, I think that's it.

So, now we just have to wait for it to cool.

>> And now it's time to add the flowers, right?

>> Yes.

I'm going to add the -- the next layer of clear and add the lines and the roses.

And you're gonna help torch.

>> Okay.

I'll just preheat the roses.

>> Right.

>> [ Laughs ] Okay.

I'm just trying to do a basic shape here.

>> Gotcha.

>> So, now I'm gonna heat it and marver it.

See how those murrinis are just sort of melting in?

And try not to push too hard.

There you go.

Yeah.

There you go.

That's much better.

Get it wet again.

There you go.

There you go.

Chill the whole thing?

>> Yep.

We have to let that cool before we have the next layer of glass.

This is always the hardest part.

There you go.

It's almost there!

[ Chuckles ] Okay.

Now take that graphite.

Yeah, like this.

You're kind of gonna do the same thing.

So, what we need to do now is we need to use the torch to torch off any of the imperfections.

You're just gonna kind of run it around on the surface.

And kind of do it a little slower.

Like, follow it back and forth.

Yeah.

Okay, that's good.

So, hang that up.

That's your paperweight.

[ Laughs ] >> I think it's pretty neat-looking.

>> Yes.

>> It does not look like yours at all.

>> No, it does not.

Not at all.

>> Not at all.

>> So, what happens from here?

We got to get it off the rod, right?

>> Yes.

So, we get it off the rod just by using a knife.

We'll break it off, and we'll put it into the oven... >> Uh-huh.

>> ...where it will be annealed, and that takes out all the stresses and strains.

>> Well, this is pretty big.

It'll hold a lot of paper, so... >> Yeah.

[ Laughs ] >> Well, let's do it.

>> Okay.

>> This is another example of what we did earlier, right?

>> Correct.

>> The one we did is still in the oven.

>> Yes.

>> And how long does it have to stay there?

>> For 24 hours.

>> Why is that important?

>> Because we need to take the stresses and strains out of it so it doesn't crack.

>> Oh.

Okay.

We don't want that masterpiece cracking now.

>> No.

Not at all.

[ Both laugh ] >> This one here looks like it just came out of the oven.

The bottom still is really rough from coming off of the rod.

>> Yes.

>> And what would be the next step?

>> The next step is to use the grinding wheels.

We have diamond wheels on top of here that make it smoother and smoother until it finally is polished.

>> Well, I had such a great time working with you.

>> Thank you.

So did I.

>> I really, really enjoyed it.

This is incredibly difficult.

>> [ Laughs ] >> These are just absolutely beautiful, but I'm gonna let you handle this, 'cause I don't want to break it.

>> Right.

[ Laughs ] >> I have to admit, when Shawn was folding the glass this way and that way, I had no idea how this was gonna come together to look like a tiny rose.

I'm still in awe of the whole process, and I can say working with glass remains a magical experience for me.

>> Legacy is about the things that you can pass on.

You can pass on your wisdom... ...your skills... >> How about this?

>> Manifold.

>> This down here?

Proper tire pressure would be?

>> 55 PSI.

>> ...and maybe you can pass on something just a little bit more.

The Ford F-150, a proud supporter of "A Craftsman's Legacy."

>> To discover more about "A Craftsman's Legacy" and the craftsmen we feature, please visit our website.

And you can also follow us on social media through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.