Podcast EP 8: Harriet "Harry" Schwarzrock - Hearts and Minds

In Today's Podcast, we'll be talking with Harriet Swarzrock an Australian glass artist who has recently finished a residency at Canberra Glassworks where she explored the use of both plasma and neon in her work.

I invited her on the podcast after seeing her posts on Facebook and Instagram. Initially hesitant to the invitation, but she was happy to share her experience as a glassblower at the beginning of a new process. Here we’ll be illuminating the struggles of learning Plasma,  the issues she had to overcome, as well as the role that the residency for an artist developing new work, and importance of mentorship and support.

Without further ado, onto the podcast!

Show Notes

​Intro Music: Boost by Joakim Karud
www.joakimkarud.com
https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud
​www.patreon.com/joakimkarud

Outro Music: The Process by LAKEY INSPIRED
WWW.LAKEYINSPIRED.COM
https://soundcloud.com/lakeyinspired
www.patreon.com/lakeyinspired

•  Canberra Glassworks
  • ​Steve Ciezki
• short residency meeting Richard Wheater and Branden Van heck
• Steven cole and Emma Kate Hart aka Neon Hart
• Sound addition wiht Brian McNamara aka Rare beast
• Electrode Attachment ("cold" attachment)

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​Thank You for listening to the Taming Lightning Podcast.

I'd like to thank  Harry for taking the time to be on the podcast, especially between residencies. And for being open to talk about her experience in working with a new and difficult medium. Also, I'd like to thank Pittsburgh Glass Center for supporting me as a place of research and inspiration, as well as encouraging me to pursue this project, and the Plasma Art Alliance where I have access to the well of knowledge and connects me to some amazing people.

Keep an eye out for more classes at Pittsburgh Glass Center as we work to provide a space for learning neon and plasma. Check us out at www.pittsburghglasscenter.org or call our studio at 412-365-2145.

 See you next time!

Percy Echols II
​Taming Lightning⚡​​

More Content

A video by Suki & Hugh Gallery for the Hearts and Minds exhibition featuring Harriet Swarzrocks "Between Stillness and movement" , "interconnected" collaborations with Brian McNamara, "4th state of matter", and Penny Byrne’s piece "hurt locker."

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Cold Attached Electrode

Thanks to Harry's careful documentation, I can talk about some of the things she does in her process, and SHOW one of 3 types of electrode attachments: Hot, Warm/Kiln, and Cold. I'll go into more detail about Electrode attachement in future posts. 

After making her vessel in the Hot Shop, she then attaches the electrode "cold". Cold being a relative term for room temperature glass. This process if very similar to what neon benders do, when apply electrodes to thier tubing.

Note that the thicker glass, the the slower you have to heat it, so not to break the glass with Thermal Stess.

By doing it this way, especially with Furnace Glass Blowing
+More control 
+More Time
+less Thermal Stress  on Electrodes
-Must anneal as soon as possible
-Increase breaking

A post shared by Harriet Schwarzrock (@harryschwarzrock) on Dec 10, 2017 at 10:41pm PST

A post shared by Harriet Schwarzrock (@harryschwarzrock) on Feb 10, 2018 at 2:31am PST

Once the electrode is attached, she attaches the small tubulation to the manifold inside of the kiln. This does two things:

1. allows for oven pumping to occur (necessary for single electrode processing)
2. re-anneal the glass with attached electrode (the blown object is much thicker and retains much more stress when being heated)

There's a lot more to the process of electrode attachement, especially between different glasses: softglass vs borosilcate, electrodeless/wireless, and Making Your Own Electrodes. Which I hope to update after Wayne and Mundy's Class is August.