[Nick] 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, glass inflates to form a bubble to shape and sculpt.
The tools and techniques date back to Roman times, but we're about to…
-[whooshing] -…turn up the heat.
We're back at North America's largest hot shop
to watch ten exceptional artists…
[blowing]
…fight fire with fire.
And now the fun begins.
[dramatic string music playing]
Go big or go home.
[Nick] And with great risk…
-[Minhi] Oh, God. -Rest on the bench. Rest on the bench!
-I always come out swinging. -…comes great reward.
-Yeah, baby! -[Minhi] Whoo!
[Nick] 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 this is Blown Away.
[sizzling, hissing]
[cheerful music playing]
Glassblowers! A new day, a new challenge.
-I hope you're ready. -Yeah!
Me too.
[chuckling] Self-doubt is here,
cocky, confident,
and I'm, like, all over the place.
[all laughing]
[Minhi] The fact that I won the last challenge,
I'm feeling confident.
As artists working in glass, this year is a huge deal for all of us.
The United Nations has deemed 2022 the International Year of Glass.
-Wow. -It's friggin' awesome.
That designation acknowledges the monumental effect
glass has had on our past, present, and future.
Glass is literally everywhere you look.
I mean, it's in your house,
it's in your car, it's on your phone…
Ancient obsidian spheres, Edison's light bulb,
fiber optic cables that keep us all connected,
they all have two things in common…
They have changed the world, and they're made of glass.
We should probably also mention mind-blowing work
from glass artists such as yourselves.
-Absolutely. [chuckles] -And our guest evaluator, Chris Clarke.
[all clapping]
[Nick] Not only is Chris a sculptor and curator,
he's also the director of operations
at the world-renowned Pittsburgh Glass Center.
-[John S] Yeah! -I'm really excited that Chris is here.
His sculpting skills are awesome.
There is 5,000 years of innovation all around us.
But you'll only have five hours for this challenge.
[all chuckling]
We want you to design, create, present a piece of art
that's inspired by a glass invention
that you think made a huge difference in the world.
It could have a social impact, a scientific one, environmental, cultural.
It's all fair game.
I like this broad, open concept where we have lots of places to go.
[Katherine] We will be evaluating your pieces
on design, concept and technical skill.
The artist that does not blow us away
will be eliminated and asked to leave the hot shop.
[Katherine] The winner will be named Best in Blow
and will receive an advantage in the next challenge.
-Yay. -[Minhi] Alright.
There's so many talented people here. An advantage would be awesome.
Your five hours starts now.
[suspenseful string music playing]
[John S] I'm really excited about this.
As a kid, I used to have, like, an invention book
that I'd write down inventions in.
So I am making a piece based off of Galileo's telescope,
and the controversy that that sparked at the time
and, kind of, how controversy now in the science world is still prevalent.
[blows]
I'm trying to embody 5,000 years of glass into one piece.
Well, there's a traditional form in glassblowing called an amphora vase.
And that'll be the focal point.
And then I'll have these people coming together around it
that represent the future of glass.
I took chemistry in high school, and it was one of my favorite classes.
Science and glass go hand-in-hand.
And so I guess the message behind this piece is "science is cool."
[John M] I'm making two hands of different skin tones that are holding a smartphone.
But it also has this connotation of being a black mirror,
like, something that you, kind of, get lost into.
I'm making a smartphone with a blade coming out of the top.
Sort of book ends on the story of glass, the most modern tools
and some of the first glass tools that were ever used.
I'm inspired by these lenses that correct color blindness.
I'm going to make a portal into color.
Everything outside of the portal will be in a gray scale pallet.
So, my first idea was maybe not super PG.
But I also was thinking about how important Pyrex has been culturally.
Everyone's gotten their grandmother's Pyrex dish.
Like, I know the pattern my grandmother had, and it's a part of me.
My father lives in Portugal, and I live in the UK.
The central piece will be a globe,
and then there'll be cane to represent the fiber optics
being used to connect people from different parts of the world.
My dad's very proud that I'm here.
It keeps me sane to know that I've got people at home
that are rooting for me.
[upbeat orchestral music playing]
So we're gonna make a lot of parts, so we're gonna need a lot of hustle today.
I'm just looking for a color, but it doesn't seem to be here.
So I am searching for an alternative.
-[dings] -[clacking]
I have alabaster. Hold on, I don't have that one yet.
[John S] Are there any more trays?
Five hours is a lot of time in the shop. But I have a lot of pieces to make.
Each individual piece isn't that complicated.
It's just making the whole thing together.
But we'll see.
[breathes deeply]
[flame whooshes]
So the UN names 2022 the International Year of Glass.
What does that mean to you guys?
Honestly, I don't know.
I feel like every year
-is a year of glass for me. -[laughs]
[Chris] I think it's a great time for people all around the world
to really understand how important glass has been through history.
It's everywhere in our lives.
[John M] Flip.
[Dan] Glassmaking, it's got thousands of years of history.
And it's one of those things
where no one person could figure it out all by themselves.
There's just thousands of years of innovation.
And so we stand on the shoulders of giants.
Lift.
I feel like I saw a few ideas centered around, like, a smartphone.
When you think about it, like, we are interacting with glass constantly,
all day every day.
[dramatic music playing]
[John M] Stay right there, please.
John Moran looks like he's making a too.
But it doesn't really bother me.
I think it's gonna be two completely different avenues towards the same idea.
Because so many things have really changed our whole world that are glass.
I think I'd probably go back to, like, the 16th century,
when the microscope was created.
I mean, that opened up, like, so many things.
Biology, medicine, the vials that we put vaccines in.
That may be the hardest part of this challenge,
is picking one thing that's had such a profound effect.
[intense music playing]
[John S] So I'm kind of doing a pretty ambitious sculpture.
It's a decent-sized telescope I'm making.
But I'm gonna build that with smaller components.
Flip.
Sculpting can kinda be like building blocks,
using simple shapes to make these complex objects.
Paddle. Nice.
It's always fun doing shapes you've never done for a challenge.
I'm still learning what I'm doing here.
I have an unorthodox start in glass.
I didn't go to school for it. I didn't learn the basic shapes.
All right. Good enough.
It's good enough. Let's keep rockin'.
It hasn't been easy.
I started off doing production-factory work.
I learned a lot from the people that worked at those places,
and that kinda shaped who I am.
I don't know where I'd be without glass,
but I can definitely say that I'm in a better place.
Hold…
My PhD is in glass and sculpture,
but I have over $100,000 in student loan debt.
Well, I'm famous in the glass world,
but it doesn't equal financial stability, by any means.
I'm gonna make, like, a dark-skin hand, a light-skin hand.
So this is the left hand. Left hand. Left hand.
So I'm gonna solid sculpt the hand and basically shape it into a mitten form,
and I'll cut the fingers out so it looks like a glove.
And then I'll go into details.
Grace has got a nice-looking thing going on.
-[Nick] It is really nice. -[Katherine] Isn't it?
I wanna push what glass can do, my concepts and my technical skills,
and my relationship with the material as much as I can while I'm here.
And I think that will take me to the end, hopefully.
Whoo! One down. [chuckles]
[pleasant music playing]
[Nick] All right, so let's talk hot shop glass.
What made you guys want to work in glass?
Even as a child, I had-- I really loved fire.
Camp fires, watching how it danced.
And when I got to college,
I saw-- I had an opportunity to play with something
that was on fire all the time.
I found a home where I was comfortable and enjoyed being.
[John S] You get to play with fire all day!
What do you not love about that?
Like, flamethrowers, molten glass.
Oh, it's amazing!
[Dan] Glass is an incredible material. It's a dance, it's a choreography.
I almost have a hard time seeing how everybody doesn't want to do this.
It's the love of my life, glass. It really is.
My body craves blowing glass.
I mean, glass is like another animal in the room.
It's gonna do what it's gonna do.
But it's about how you communicate with it, really.
I think glass and I have a pretty good relationship.
Right now we're communicating well.
Oh, yeah!
[exciting music playing]
[Dan] I feel really fortunate to have a career in glass.
I mean, I've done a lot of jobs. I worked as an auto mechanic,
I owned a tow truck, drove tow trucks.
I mean, I was 20 years old,
and I just saw the guys that I worked with that were where I am now in life.
And they just didn't seem like happy people.
Take it. Lift.
And when I saw glass, it was like a path out for me.
-[Minhi] All right, open her up. -Both?
[Minhi] Let's see how fast we can spin open a rondelle.
Minhi has a rondelle, which is one way that window glass used to be made.
With centrifugal force and heat,
the shape will kinda open up into a big disc.
And a lot of times that was used to kinda cut smaller windows out of.
[Minhi] Come on.
Build up the heat!
The rondelle references the lens, or the portal, to my piece.
If I don't have the rondelle, then nothing is gonna make any sense.
-[clangs softly] -[both] There we go.
[blows]
Blast it.
It is perfect. It's great.
-Thank you. -Yep.
-Yes! We did it! -Ha-ha!
Victory!
[clatters]
[Brenna] Ready?
Go straight down. I'll take it. I'll take it. Straight down. Thank you.
[Dan] I can see Brenna working. And she's making a big amphora-style vase.
-Man, it looks big from where I'm sitting. -Blow.
Blow hard. Don't push hard, blow hard.
-Brenna is just a beast in the hot shop. -[Dan] I don't even think she sweats.
My brothers always called me a beast,
and I hated it, so I don't wanna be the beast.
Katherine, you're more of a glassblower. Chris, you're more a sculptor.
What's the difference and which one's harder?
[whimsical music plays]
Ooh, I think they're both hard in different ways.
The main difference, I would say,
is when you're blowing, most of the time, you're working symmetrically.
[Chris] And where sculpting glass, you wanna be more asymmetrical,
more natural-forming.
In nature, life is not symmetrical, so therefore an asymmetrical form
does look more natural.
I'm in my element, I get to sculpt today, and it's nerdy subject matter.
I actually really want to win this challenge.
It's really up my alley.
I never had a telescope growing up, but I really wanted one.
I think space is really interesting because it's so grand.
It's infathoma…
-Like, its an uncomprehens… [slurring] -[music slowing]
-[music distorting] -It's uncomps… Uh, it's inimagin-- in--
It's really big! [laughs]
-[upbeat music playing] -[grunts happily]
So glad that came off.
He's really going for it.
His piece looks really great, and it's a little bit worrisome.
I'm trying not to think about that too much.
Dude! Yeah.
I'm making hearts, lots and lots of hearts
that have got little bits on them
so that I can eventually connect 'em together.
I'm just gonna flash it. I'm so paranoid with the flashing.
Flashing. It's like… [imitates whooshing]
…and then out. [chuckles]
Back at home I work in a lead-based glass,
and here it's a soda-lime based glass.
Lead glass is heavier, it retains its heat for longer,
so you don't have to flash it so much.
So you've got more working time with the glass that I have at home.
Thank you.
It is quite a big learning curve for me, but I'm getting there.
[John M] Flip.
-Hi, Minhi. -Hi, Katherine.
-How are you feeling after your win? -I feel really good.
[chuckles] Winning the challenge was a confidence boost.
I just hope that I can stick around for a while.
I feel a change in your demeanor.
When I first got here, I was very nervous,
and I'm starting to loosen up and feel a little bit more normal.
I definitely am getting more of a sense of your personality these days.
[Minhi chuckling] I'm glad to hear it.
I am half Korean. My childhood was really hard. [chuckles]
I grew up in a really small town where I was different.
That was a really big struggle for me.
So the more people that I meet in this community,
the more I realize that this is my community.
This is where I belong.
[sizzling]
Four hours have passed, everyone! There is only one hour left!
I've got ten hearts made already. I need three more.
I do love my hearts. They're very cute. [chuckles]
There's one hour left. I'm gonna use every last second.
Got a big piece of glass here
I'm gonna try and blow out into a bell jar form.
So I've gotta make a big enough bell jar to encapsulate this -knife.
It needs to be 16 1/2 inches.
-[indistinct conversations] -[blowing rapidly]
Ah!
[exhales]
Not a little bit lightheaded, a lot.
[exhales sharply]
[clacking softly]
How are you doing, John Moran?
-Good. How are you doing, Kathy? -I'm good.
How are you feeling about the fact
that both Rob and Claire have gone home already,
very accomplished glass artists?
It's definitely intimidating.
I'm looking around, and it's all babies now, except Dan.
So, we're feeling old, and, uh, wondering if we're gonna make it through.
I met John Moran about 20 years ago.
[John M] We took a class together, hung out every night in the studio,
talking art and making crap… [laughing]
…and really having fun.
[Dan] And a bottle of whiskey and good art times.
To see his approach to glassmaking and sculpting, it was influential.
[John M] I've seen him do so many amazing things over the years.
He's just an intimidating person. Dan's a big competition for sure.
Hey, guys, we have 45 minutes left!
Forty-five minutes!
I'm making these playful Pyrex pieces that have a life of their own.
So I want a really opaque finish and, like, really strong color.
I have to get several layers of this fine frit on the outside.
I'm wearing this bandana to protect myself from the glass dust in the air.
I'm going into the glory hole,
I'm getting the glass really, really, really hot,
and then I'm rolling it in this fresh frit.
I want that color right on the surface.
Whee!
Ring around the color! [laughs]
[Trenton] I think using clear glass is risky.
Everyone around me is using color and I'm using clear.
Definitely with the clear glass, the imperfections are gonna show.
You gotta really focus on the form, the thickness and the clarity.
So that's definitely a challenge.
I am working on an incalmo, the portion of my piece that transitions
from the colored world to the uncolored world.
So much can go wrong with an incalmo. [laughing]
An incalmo is a technique that allows you to splice two colors together
in a very sort of crisp way.
Yes.
I love a challenge. [chuckles]
[clanks softly]
[blows]
Artists, there's only 15 minutes left on the clock!
[groans]
[clock ticking]
You can just break it off yourself. Okay? Keep turning.
To make these fiber optics,
I'm going to string a piece of hot glass all the way across the hot shop.
The strings become so thin
because you're pulling at such a high temperature so quickly.
And that's actually how fiber optics are made.
Boom.
[John M] With this, I can either make all the individual components,
and then once they've cooled, I can glue them together.
But I would like to assemble this hot.
Okay, flash.
So when I have the glass hot and I put them together,
I can actually bend parts of the fingers and the hands
so they really cup the phone mirror in the right way.
It will feel the most natural.
This is a huge risk
because if it falls off the pipe, I lose everything.
Flash.
Glassblowers, there's only six minutes left.
[suspenseful music playing]
Flip.
Paddle on the lip on time.
-Hot. -[Brenna] Got it?
Yep.
[John M] Grab it and squeeze the arms together. Good. Beautiful.
[clacking]
All the way over here to the other side of the world.
Coming through, hot glass.
Get your pieces in the annealer. Time is up!
Nice! Look at that.
[sighs loudly]
[music stops]
[pleasant music playing]
[light clunks]
[Grace] For this challenge, we had to honor a glass invention
that made a big impact on the world.
I think my personality and energy is evident in this work.
[Dan] The knife is a reference to the Paleolithic era,
when hunting and gathering were how we sustained ourselves.
And the cell phone is how I conduct most of my business and how I feed my family.
[Maddy] We can talk to each other
from millions of miles away across the planet
all because of these tiny, little strands of glass.
It is pretty cool.
[Brenna] Looking at my piece, the ancient form really comes across.
I hope the evaluators see the story of glass and its endless possibilities.
[John M] The hands coming together really represent unity,
and then the screen being this kind of void.
It's my best piece I've made in this competition.
[Trenton] I'm really hoping that the evaluators appreciate
my technical skills on this challenge.
[Minhi] I want the experience to be like stepping into Oz.
Suddenly, everything is in color.
I'm really happy with the piece I made today.
I think it reflects me and my skills in the hot shop.
I definitely think I'm in the running to win this challenge.
It'll be tight. There's some really nice pieces.
[intriguing music playing]
[Nick] Welcome to "2022: A Glass Odyssey."
[Katherine] Impressive.
-Not the joke, but the gallery. -[chuckles]
First up, we have Grace's work.
"This exemplifies the significance of familial recipes and dishware,
passed down from generation to generation."
They've done a really great job of making handmade vessels
that immediately we recognize by the color, the shape.
Excellent job.
[Nick] This yellow casserole dish reminds me of green bean casserole
-and the crispy onions on top. -Mm-hmm. Yeah.
I mean, I can almost taste it.
It really does hit the look in memory for me as well.
[Nick] This is Dan's piece.
[Chris] I find this piece very interesting.
The phone's very recognizable, a point referencing the obsidian spears.
And a bell jar makes it very precious.
This is a nice example of Dan's sculpting and blowing skills being combined.
Uh, you see both ends of his talent.
I'm not really sure what he's trying to say with the piece.
It's certainly showing the range of glass from ancient to very modern applications,
but it seems like it just sort of stops there.
Its a nice design.
[Nick] This is John Moran's piece.
We're seeing exemplary craftsmanship.
The hands are really beautifully sculpted. He's done a lot of what's called bit work.
Really, kind of, a technical tour-de-force.
I feel there's more of a message here
than maybe in Dan Friday's piece, for instance.
[Chris] I do get the black as, you know,
screens currently are viewed as a almost black hole sometimes.
People lose themselves in their devices. I actually really do like this piece.
This was all put together hot, which is pretty incredible.
[Chris] Really nice accomplishment.
This is Minhi's piece.
I love that she's really exploiting the optical properties of glass as a lens.
It just opens up into this magical world.
And I love that metaphor.
This piece is very well done. Uh, the colors are really popping.
The incalmo on the ball is really well done.
It's a nice show of technical skill.
[Nick] This is Trenton's chemistry set.
This piece is well executed. The forms look like scientific apparatus.
Trenton took a bit of a risk here because he was just using colored water
as, kind of, filling in to enliven the piece.
Could've used some incalmo to replicate the color inside.
[Katherine] The blown glass elements are really well done.
Only thing, I feel like this is a little bit literal.
All in all, very straightforward, but shows a lot of skill.
-Agreed. -[Chris] I agree.
[Nick] Maddy decided to create a piece
inspired by the importance of fiber optics
and how it has enabled people to stay connected
with their loved ones from across the globe.
She hasn't done a great job on the globe,
what with in terms of getting the continents on there,
but even just making it round.
Something that's supposed to be round does not translate when it's not round.
The message that I think she's trying to get across can be powerful.
I feel it's a little bit undermined
by the simplification of how she's rendered it.
The pink hearts, a lot of glass artists make those for their sweethearts--
-Where do they put them? -Often you see them in gift shops.
-Oh! -[Chris chuckles]
[dramatic music playing]
In this piece, Brenna marries the ancient history of glass
and the endless possibilities of what's to come.
[exhales]
I clearly get the reference to the fiber optics.
Seems like there's some kind of ritual going on here,
like this worship of this vase in the middle.
And I feel like for how important this vase is
as, kind of, this… stand-in for glass history…
[sighs] …it's not hitting the mark for me,
both in shape and how it's fabricated, the color.
One of the things that I see a lot is glassblowers try to push a scale.
And I'd rather see it a little bit smaller and executed properly.
[Nick] This is John Sharvin's telescope.
"The debate between scientific evidence and non-science thought
has continued throughout history and has increased in recent years."
Love the little virus. The texture here and the color contrast.
It looks virus-y and evil.
[Chris] I was nervous when I saw John's design,
thought that the telescope might be too simple.
I feared for the-- the outcome of this piece.
I think it's well executed.
John's a great sculptor, I like the little details.
You can see the articulation of the joint
that holds the base and the telescope together.
This does show his range as a sculptor. I think he's done a really good job.
I think this is John Sharvin's best piece yet.
Oh, agreed.
Chris, Katherine, do you think we have a clear winner?
I think we need to talk to the glassblowers first.
Let's do it.
[music stops]
[dramatic music playing]
[Grace] I want to show the evaluators that I am not just a glassblower
but I'm an artist at core.
[Minhi] I think that I question myself sometimes,
particularly in this group,
because everyone is just so talented.
[Brenna] Even though I may appear to be confident,
I sometimes struggle with a lot of self-doubt.
My biggest critic is always me.
Artists, welcome back.
We had a chance to tour the gallery and take in your work.
I commend you on some really nice pieces.
-Everyone really performed well. -Nice.
Brenna, we'd like to know more about your piece.
I love that my piece tells the story of 5,000 years of glass,
from the ancient form to the innovative technology.
I'm pretty happy with the concept.
The execution, I feel, could be a little… nicer.
-Thanks, Brenna. -Thank you.
-John Moran. -[Katherine] I was a bit distracted
by the whiteness of the fingernails
when everything else was done so realistically.
But it's a small point.
I was hoping that the white would go a bit more translucent on the fingernails.
But I agree, they are a little bit on the white side. [chuckles]
[Chris] I was impressed that you put this all together hot.
I felt it was, like, important that it would feel natural.
And sometimes when you glue an element, it looks like it's floating in the hands.
It was important the hands were gripping the mirror.
I think your risk paid off.
-Thank you. -Dan.
Between the phone and the obsidian blade, were those attached hot or were they cold?
[Dan] It's a timing thing.
You gotta hit these benchmarks along the way as you're working.
I almost don't know if I could have done it that way.
[Chris] It's cold connection?
-Yes, absolutely. -Okay, okay.
It was a cold connection.
And, uh, it was just
-the most expedient way to do it. -[chuckles]
-Trenton. -The challenge was very open-ended.
But I decided to more specifically target scientific glassware.
Trenton, I know you used colored water in the pieces.
Did you think about the possibility of maybe trying to use, uh, colored glass
to try to up the glass level on these pieces?
That thought did cross my mind, but I felt like with the time constraints,
I probably could've only made, you know, a few nice pieces.
And my goal was really just to try to make as many pieces as I could.
-Thanks, Trenton. -Thank you.
Grace. That brings us to your Pyrex.
The person who brought Pyrexware into the forefront
was the wife of a glassblower.
Since then, women were also the ones
to sell Pyrex, share Pyrex, pass Pyrex down.
We really think that you nailed it
in terms of the reference with the color and the shapes.
I was maybe a little bit confused
by, like, the lids and the slumping, melting kind of aspects.
I didn't want to just make, you know, some dishware
that we have seen, and, um…
[laughing] I'm not trying to talk about Trenton,
but I-- Like, I thought about just making a bunch of Pyrex dishes,
but I also wanted to animate them and have their own characters to them.
And then, you know, the…
[inhales deeply]
The casserole dish just got overcooked,
-so, you know… -[chuckles]
It happens. [chuckles]
Thanks, Grace.
Thank you.
Thank you, artists. We just need a few minutes to discuss.
[suspenseful music playing]
I'm nervous. Really, really nervous.
[Chris] The concept for me is just weak.
Your butt is on the line out there. There's not a big margin for error.
I mean, time was not a factor for John Moran.
I feel like the overall visual of my piece could have been better.
[Trenton] Been playing it safe.
I definitely feel like I'm on the lower end of the gallery this day.
If you're here to play it safe, then, like, go home.
[Nick] Thank you for waiting.
This decision was tough.
But one piece stood out above the rest.
It delivered on concept, design and technical skill.
The perfect trifecta.
The artist who is today's Best in Blow is…
[suspenseful music playing]
[music stops]
John Moran.
[triumphant music playing]
[Minhi] Good job.
I am on cloud nine right now. Finally I won one. [chuckles]
This just solidifies my confidence.
As the winner, you are going to get an advantage at the next challenge.
But you won't find out what that is until next time.
Now it's time to burst one glassblower's bubble.
The artist who did not blow us away today is…
[tense music playing]
[music fades]
Maddy.
-[sentimental piano music playing] -Aw.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Aw.
It's been really amazing to meet other glassblowers from around the world
and to compete against them.
I'm really proud of myself for being here.
Bye.
I came here to prove I'm more than just an assistant,
and I think I've proved that.
[music fades]
And then there were seven.
We'll see you back in the hot shop for your next challenge.
It's sad when someone goes home, and it's gonna only get harder
as this progresses.
I'm excited. I'm still here, and I'm here to win it, damn it!
[laughs]
[closing theme music playing]