Throw sand, lime and soda into a 2,000-degree Fahrenheit furnace
and you get liquid glass.
Skilled glassblowers gather the molten mixture using hollow pipes,
and when they blow, the glass inflates to form a bubble to shape and sculpt.
The tools and techniques date back to Roman times,
but we're about to turn up the heat.
We're back at North America's largest hot shop
to watch ten exceptional artists…
…fight fire with fire.
And now the fun begins.
Go big or go home.
And with great risk…
-Oh, God. Rest on the bench. Rest on the bench!
-I always come out swinging. -…comes great reward.
-Yeah, baby. -Whoo!
If they can survive our fiery competition,
they'll win a life-changing prize package
that will establish them around the globe as Best in Glass.
I'm Nick Uhas and welcome to a brand-new season of Blown Away.
I'm Rob and I've been blowing glass for over 30 years.
I am coming into this competition as the big dog.
My name is Brenna.
I have a one-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl.
I may be a nurturing, loving mother,
but I am an extreme force in the hot shop.
My name is Trenton.
I'm highly competitive, I like to win, no matter what it is.
My name's John Sharvin. I'm a glass studio manager.
I-- I don't get to blow glass that often,
but it's what I wanna do. It's what I love doing.
I'm John Moran. I'm here all the way from Belgium.
I'm not gonna brag, I'm not gonna boast,
but I am gonna win.
My name is Grace.
I'm hoping to inspire other non-binary trans people.
I don't see a lot of them in my field.
I'm Claire. I see myself as a storyteller in glass.
And that brings love and positivity into the world.
My name is Dan.
My great-grandfather was a totem-pole carver.
I hope when I'm done with my work, there'll be more Indigenous glass makers.
My name's Maddy. I'm from the UK.
I'm here to flex my conceptual muscles.
My name's Minhi.
I like to pretend I'm not very competitive,
but I love being underestimated.
It makes me work that much harder.
Glassblowers, welcome to the hot shop.
-Whoo. -Consider the heat officially cranked.
I am still in disbelief that I am here.
You've all come here with big reputations and even bigger dreams,
but out of the ten of you, only one will be crowned Best in Glass.
That artist will have to survive ten challenges
and impress glass artist extraordinaire, and our resident evaluator,
Katherine Gray.
Glassblowers, this season, my expectations are higher.
And that's because the grand prize is bigger than ever before.
Now, don't worry, the winner still gets a prize package valued at $60,000.
That includes cold hard cash
and a residency at the world-renowned Corning Museum of Glass.
But on top of that, for the first time ever,
the winning finale installation will go on display at Corning.
-Whoo! -Yeah.
That would be a game changer.
Like, yeah, I want that. That would be awesome.
The challenges are tough.
We expect you to push your technical and conceptual skills to the limit
in an all-out quest to prove you are better than the rest.
It may sound daunting, but don't despair, it can be done.
Just ask this episode's guest evaluator,
the first ever Blown Away champion, Deborah Czeresko.
Deborah. I cannot believe she's here.
I love Deborah. I am so inspired by her.
Deborah's a force to be reckoned with,
and, uh, for better or worse,
she's gonna be judging my work.
Being in this hot shop was a transformative experience for me.
When I first got here, I thought people wouldn't understand my concepts
and wouldn't understand me.
But I knew this was my chance,
so I stopped caring about what other people thought and focused on myself.
And that's made me a more confident person
and a better artist.
Evolution, baby, that's where it's at.
And that brings us to our first challenge.
We want each of you to create a piece of glass inspired by how you evolved
into the artist you are today.
It can be professional or personal,
a dream, an identity,
or a bump in the road that had a lasting effect on you.
We want to understand your journey.
You'll have five hours to design, create, present
an original piece of glass art.
You'll be judged on concept, creativity and your technical skills.
And remember, the artist that does not blow us away
will be asked to leave the hot shop for good.
I want to stay.
Glassblowers, on your marks, get set,
blow us away!
It's the first challenge, I'm excited.
With this piece,
I'm touching in with my cultural identity as a Filipino-American,
and it kind of represents the blood, sweat and tears
that I've put in to this medium and this craft.
I have an engineering background.
This piece will be a stack of wheels and cogs
that morphs into a more organic abstract shape.
I'm just kinda going for it.
I'm making a piece called "Hold the Door."
I didn't get here alone.
People that could've easily turned their backs on me
kept the door open and gave me a chance.
You know, that's how I got where I am.
So I'm making a glass sculpture
that's going to have a DNA cane technique that runs through it.
Life is like a gumball machine
'cause you can't choose what you get but you got to make the most of it.
I'm going to make a vanity mirror.
Each little lens is going to show you a different perception.
So I'm making a silhouette of a woman that will represent me as an artist
to break free from the bondage of self
-for endless creativity.
The piece is about when my father died.
He was 38 when he passed away,
and when I lived past that I realized so much of my life has been geared towards
me being afraid I would die at that age, but it's also what led me to be an artist.
I have, uh, ADHD, pretty severe case.
This signifies the challenge to get an idea out into the world.
Glass is a non-binary material, meaning it's neither solid nor liquid.
I identify as non-binary.
These are physicalized sculptures of glass as a gay specimen.
I'm excited.
Okay.
I gotta tie my mullet back first.
You gotta contain the mullet.
I mean, it's absurd enough that I have one.
I don't wanna mess it up.
We got a torch.
Yeah, baby.
There she is.
Feels great to finally be here in the hot shop.
It's something I've been, like, preparing for for a while.
And I'm excited.
I run primarily on adrenaline.
I'm a go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go type of guy.
All right, first gather.
It's the first challenge, and you wanna get off to a good start.
It gives you a vote of confidence moving forward.
It's very intimidating.
There's a lot of heavy hitters here.
There's a lot of good competition here, but I got my eye on Dan Friday.
I mean, you got to go for it, man.
The first challenge is kind of like, "Go big or go home."
-It's just beautiful.
How do you feel about the level of talent this season?
I'm pretty impressed.
People like Rob, Dan and Claire, John Moran,
they've got quite a reputation.
I feel like they're putting a lot at risk being here.
It can be hard to come up with new ideas.
I mean, they might get stuck in a rut.
We've seen that before.
This is going to be a hell of a competition.
This is the dome that will frame the sculpture of me.
Coming here and leaving my kids
was, for sure, one of the hardest decisions of my life.
I couldn't miss out on this opportunity.
Being in the Blown Away hot shop is amazing.
Yeah, the pressure's high, the heat's a little higher.
I'm not a full-time artist. I got a lot to learn.
I'm forever a student to the glass and the material.
So, Deborah, who do you have your eye on out here?
I'm really curious about the next generation,
the emerging artists.
People like Minhi, Maddy, Grace, Trenton. I want to see what they can pull off.
Blow, blow, blow, blow, blow. All right, let's get it hotter.
Blow, blow, blow, blow, blow. And stop.
So we have ten new glassblowers.
Do you think having two seasons for them to watch
has prepared them for this competition?
I don't know if any of them can anticipate
the kind of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion
this kind of situation presents until they're here.
-Yeah. -It's so demanding.
It's tough.
Whoosh.
I've never worked in a studio that had ten glory holes
going all at the same time,
so it's, uh… it's a lot.
Normally, when you're working in a hot shop,
you don't have all the other artists, the competition,
breathing down your neck, hoping you're gonna be eliminated.
So much pressure.
There's a lot of stiff competition out here, know what I mean?
I hope I win. So bad. I'm so competitive.
Any time I have self-doubt,
I just think about Beyoncé and try to be more like her.
My biggest competition, I think, is myself. I'm going for it.
I always come out swinging. That's kind of part of my nature.
So right now I'm just sculpting the basketball.
The piece is like a memento mori,
so it's like a piece about when my father passed away.
A memento mori is a reminder that you will die.
It comes from traditional paintings and sculptures
that represent this memory of death.
The basketball, I'll deflate it, and it will kind of represent a heart.
And I'm really hoping it-- it comes out the way I want it to.
It really means a lot to me.
My life revolves around creating ideas, so this is the egg of incubation.
My passion for glass is like no other.
It allows me to investigate myself in a way like no other material.
You have to concentrate from beginning to end,
and you can't stop in the middle.
We have one hour down, guys! One hour down!
Oh, God.
Keep it turning and just slightly on-- More on center.
Cane is one of the oldest techniques developed in glassmaking.
I just love doing it.
If I could just pull cane as my job, I'd probably do that.
This is gonna be, hopefully, twisted cane that's gonna look like DNA.
Claire is one of my favorite artists, aesthetically.
Her designs are incredible.
Glass gives me courage.
I'm constantly striving to be just a little bit better
every time I go into the glass studio.
We're already killing it. Look at us. This is awesome.
This is gonna be the hand.
I'm making a hand and a doorstop.
Yeah, it's a little big, but it's good.
I'm here for a lot of other people.
I'm representing my tribe, the Lummi Nation.
And, again, all those people that held the door open.
You've got to remember where you come from.
I didn't really mean to go this big. It just happens.
-How's it going? -Yeah, not bad. You?
-Pretty good. -Good.
Deborah, if you had to do this challenge, what approach would you take?
Oof.
Good question.
I've evolved so much over the years, even just career-wise.
I mean, I started out wanting to be a professional volleyball player.
Well, of course you did.
I also went to school to be a biologist,
then later I evolved into psychology,
and this really prepared me well for glass.
The athletics and the psychology and the science,
I still use in my work today.
All right, let's do it. Come on, come on.
Perfect.
The glass is gay, and this is, like,
what it looks like in molecule form.
It's the weirdest thing I've made.
This is a crazy place.
There are a lot of people here,
some really big names, and the studio is huge.
It's pretty nerve-racking, honestly.
I want to represent my queer family, you know, so this one's for the queers.
Right now, I'm working on a part of the stand to my piece.
I think it takes, like, a really kind of special person to choose glassblowing.
People, myself included, choose glass because
we just want to be pushed.
-We just want that challenge.
Uh! Glass is so cool.
Okay, take it. Top shelf.
Whoo!
One piece down. All right.
Oh, that might pop. I don't know. Keep squishing. Keep squishing.
We're gonna make that big old wheel. Look at that thing.
I'm working on these gears, or like a stack of gears.
I left engineering school to, uh, go be an artist.
Uh, I hated engineering. It was-- it was boring.
So this piece is kind of about melody in my, like, left brain and right brain.
Choosing art over engineering was, um…
It was a decision. Parents weren't super thrilled with it right off the bat.
I made it a little too thick, which is, uh… kind of a problem.
Ready?
-Boop!
Okay, so I'm going to add water to the wall of the glass,
which is about 1,500 degrees right now, and that'll shock the surface.
Never done this before.
Ready? Oh, this is fun.
All right, perfect. We're gonna go with it.
Could've been a little cleaner, but we learn something new every time.
You know, the hardest thing you make is something you've never made before.
I'm sensing that her piece might be about the school of hard knocks.
I never quit. Never.
Sometimes I should quit, but I keep going.
Good job.
-Hey, Katherine. -Hi, Trenton.
You got an ambitious-looking project here.
Yeah.
What is it that you wanna show the world while you're here in the hot shop?
Just that there's people like me doing this,
-especially in the glass community. -Mm-hmm.
Representation, it's definitely a thing.
It's hard to inspire kids
if they can't, you know, visualize themselves in that same position.
Making a mess over here. Oh, yes.
Okay, cool. Let's have a look at that. That's-- That's looking good.
Hey, Maddy, how does it feel to be in the Blown Away hot shop?
Feels amazing. I can't believe I'm here, really.
I've only done it-- done glass for six years.
-Should be proud of yourself. Yeah. -Thank you. Yeah.
I definitely feel a little bit like a fish out of water.
There's some very amazing glassblowers here.
I think this is my proudest moment in my glass career so far,
to be here in this hot shop.
I'm getting in the hang of it a bit more now.
One hour left.
-Yes, chef. -Oh, boy. Already.
Going quick. Going quick.
I didn't realize how fast time would go.
Beautiful.
This piece is definitely about me moving beyond any hardships in my life.
How just the slightest shift of perception
can turn something really awful into something meaningful.
Recently, I lost my husband,
and it was the hardest thing I've ever been through.
And it, um…
it still continues to be a struggle.
Flip.
If he could see me here now, he would just say,
"You deserve this, and you're gonna win."
Coming through.
And flash, just gonna straighten that guy out a little bit.
I tell you what, this is the hot seat over here.
Whoo! It's hot.
This is the hottest hot shop I have ever been in.
I have never sweat or smelled this bad in my life.
Whoo.
I am feeling light-headed, my stomach is getting a little upset.
I'll have a hard time making it through this challenge.
I'm getting a cramp in my arms.
I'm gonna push through all the pain. Still gotta keep going.
Gonna need some cold beers after this, though.
Ten minutes and counting. There's only ten minutes left.
Wait. What?
Okay, we gotta move.
Pull the socks up, folks.
Looking good. Last flash coming up.
I'm gonna do this one more time before we break it off.
This is redonk. Okay, were gonna knock this off inside the annealer.
-Squeeze the legs really tight. Yep. -Yep.
-What's up? -Time check!
Five minutes left.
-Let's get those pieces into the annealer.
-Down to the wire. -Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.
We're almost done. This rock is gonna save us.
Saved by the rock.
All right. Ready to catch it in case it pops?
Let's see if this'll come off. Boop.
Yeah, baby.
Take it. Squeeze hard.
I like it. I like it.
-Coming through, right side. -Very careful.
Did it. Okay.
Yes. Thank you.
In this challenge, we have to reflect upon the evolution
of who we've become as artists today.
Glass has changed my life because it has such a caring community.
If it wasn't for people holding the door open,
I wouldn't be where I am today.
I've been through a lot of hardship in my life.
This piece really emulates my struggle.
This piece ties into my cultural identity, family and tradition, and sacrifices.
This piece, it really hits home personally.
It's kind of, like, beautiful but dark.
The idea is that something comes your way
and you have to make the most of it, whether it's bad or good.
I want to tell my story and show more the inner workings of how my head works.
I hope my piece shows anything is possible.
I want to show people that there is a ton of beauty in fluidity, and it's super fun.
I hope the evaluators see a lovely sculpture
that is indicative of my work and my creativity.
Our first gallery of the season.
This is Rob's piece.
Rob's ADHD diagnosis has made him the artist he is today.
Glass forces Rob to focus on the incubation of ideas
and the allure of the endless possibilities.
I mean, I'm really taken with the egg.
It's a nice contrast
with what he's got going on with the, sort of, marionette figure.
So this says a lot about him as a person and how he feels about his ideas
and the grandeur of his ideas, but this piece is very didactic.
What do you mean by didactic?
It's telling the viewer what to think and how to think.
-I see. -There's not much room for interpretation.
-Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. -I see.
This is Trenton's piece.
I'm in love with this piece.
I see this as a deity from his culture.
Things like this were originally carved in wood.
So, doing it in glass just takes it one step further.
The bowls and the vessel forms are done really well.
The sculpting… Mm, it's okay.
This is Brenna's piece.
You know, all of this, kind of, broken glass,
it's kind of sharp and messy and seems kind of distracting.
I definitely give her props on the technical side,
but, conceptually, a cocoon and a butterfly,
it's a little bit simplistic to me.
This is Maddy's work.
Instead of life being like a box of chocolates,
Maddy found out life was more like a gumball machine.
You can't choose what you get.
It's very straightforward.
The narrative is done in an overly simplified way.
This is John Moran's piece.
We have a whole bunch of different-looking
kinds of objects here.
I'm not sure they really kind of coalesce into a strong narrative.
Uh, for me, this piece is poetry in glass.
It's really emotional.
The basketball's just, like, deflating a little bit.
You can tell it's hanging on for life. I think it's just so poetic.
I take it this is a "slam dunk" for you?
-Mm. -Absolutely.
This is Dan's piece.
He has done a really great job of sculpting the hand.
And even the details on the doorstop are done really well.
Do you think this is Dan, like, showing off,
you know, how much glass he can handle?
I don't doubt it. You know, this is a competition,
so I think you want to… go big and not go home.
-Yeah.
This is Claire's piece.
Claire is a very proficient glassblower.
They had five hours.
I feel like she has the potential to have done so much more.
Maybe she was playing it safe. I'm not sure.
I think Claire, maybe, just struggled in a new shop.
But everyone's in the same conditions. It's an equal playing field out there.
The bird's cool.
It is pretty cute and endearing.
But it's telling the story of cuteness, not the story of transformation, to me,
or evolution as an artist.
This is Grace's piece.
Grace created a piece that examines glass's queer molecular structure.
-Not liquid, not solid… -Yeah.
…kind of floating in between.
This is like a rainbow queer molecular structure
that's gonna grow up into something big.
I just think it's playful, fun.
I love it.
This is John Sharvin's piece.
The rocks represent bumps in the road
and John's decision to use those opportunities to grow
rather than letting them shut down his engine.
Okay, the rock is my favorite thing because of the texture.
You really want to touch it.
The rock is really realistic,
which makes the parts of the cogs that aren't so realistic
stand out a little bit more, but not necessarily in a good way.
This is Minhi's piece.
Well, I see that this is a vanity mirror.
However, I'm having trouble really seeing the point of this.
I guess I see the pink as maybe being, you know, a reference
to the idea of rose-colored glasses.
It's a pretty basic concept. It's kind of a cliché.
So I'd rather not see a cliché.
It's not going to cut it.
It's not gonna cliché it.
If Minhi stays in the competition,
I hope that we see more evidence of technical chops.
All right. Are you two up for a little critiquing?
Ready as ever.
There are flaws in my piece for sure, but I feel pretty confident.
I'm already deciding what I'm gonna do when I get home.
I'm-- I'm freaking out.
If I was eliminated first, I would go home proud.
Your first showing in the Blown Away gallery
was one of the best we've ever seen.
-Nick, have you forgotten Season 1?
You know, I always hope that it's gonna be really obvious
who is the best and who was the worst,
but you guys are not making that choice easy.
Dan, tell us about your work.
I went a little bigger than I had wanted to,
uh, but once you're down that path, you don't turn back.
One thing that sticks out, especially looking from this vantage,
is it looks like you're giving us the middle finger a little bit.
I was wondering if that's intentional.
-No, it is not intentional.
I would definitely not give Katherine the bird.
Grace.
What kind of technical skills did you want to showcase with this piece?
Both of these specimens are hollow-blown pieces.
And they're also sitting on Petri dishes,
which is, uh, a pretty technically-challenging shape to make.
-Thank you, Grace. -Thank you.
-Claire. -Do you think that this
conveys your skill?
Yes, I definitely think
that the creation of the cane with the DNA motif
is something that I'm particularly good at.
I feel like you could have showed more finesse in the sculpting.
The bowl is not particularly well made.
Hundred percent.
-Thank you, Claire. -Thank you.
Minhi, do you think your work is good enough
to keep you in the competition?
I feel like my concept is very strong, and it's very personal.
Are you here in this competition as part of your transformation?
Being here in this competition is definitely part of my transformation.
Yeah.
Recently, I watched the most important person in my life perish before my eyes,
but…
…the people who love me often ask me how I keep getting up every single morning
and putting a smile on my face,
and it has everything to do with my perspective
and with my ability to just
see brighter days.
-Thanks very much, Minhi. -Thank you.
John Sharvin.
We were really impressed with the realism you achieved in the rocks,
which maybe worked to your disadvantage
because it was, maybe, slightly absent in the cogs.
I kind of mismanaged my time,
and that's what I went with, um, because I had to present something.
Am I, you know, completely happy with it?
No. Uh, I know I can do better,
and I want to show you guys how I can do better.
-Thank you, John. -Welcome.
Thank you, artists. We're gonna take some time to deliberate.
I really, really hope I don't go home.
I have a lot to show, and I-- I want to keep going.
I think they had a great concept, but I just don't think they pulled it off.
I know that I'm an excellent glassblower.
I don't want to be eliminated first.
I think this is an instance where we can't be swayed by a story,
but we just have to look at the artwork itself.
I'm thinking I might have bitten off more than I could chew.
Thank you all for waiting.
One of you started the season off with a bang,
creating a piece that was personal and passionate
and showed tremendous technical skill.
Today's Best in Blow goes to…
Dan.
I'm speechless. I can't believe I won the first challenge.
Tsk. Thanks for the target on my head, I mean, come on.
Dan, as the winner of this challenge,
you've won yourself an advantage for the next challenge.
But you're gonna have to wait until then
to find out what it is.
Wow.
-Dum, dum, dum!
Moving on to elimination.
There was one artist today whose piece did not blow us away.
And that is…
-Claire.
Please say your goodbyes and exit the hot shop.
Thank you for the opportunity. I'm sorry I let you down.
Good job, everybody. Good luck.
I am very disappointed
I wasn't able to produce a piece of work that represented me very well.
Obviously, I didn't wanna leave first.
That wasn't my plan.
But I will persevere.
One challenge down, nine more to go.
Get some rest because you're gonna need it.
I am a roller coaster of emotions, but it's so exciting. Buckle up.
I need to step it up.