What a year…
Team-based, hands-on activities at MIT have been seriously challenged by the COVID pandemic. This has certainly been true for the MIT Glass Lab, where students work in close proximity learning the ancient craft of glassblowing. Practices long considered normal–like sharing blowpipes–suddenly became off limits in the context of a highly transmissible and health-threatening virus.
In September of 2020 the Glass Lab received permission to restart limited operations. No students would be in the lab, and only a few senior instructors were granted access for the purpose of blowing 2000 glass pumpkins for the annual (and now iconic) MIT Great Glass Pumpkin Patch fundraiser. In order to accomplish this, a new, safer, COVID-compliant way of blowing glass had to be invented.
Contrary to popular belief, it takes very little air pressure to inflate a glass bubble. The glass only needs to be hot enough to move. In fact, the typical glassblower generates no more than 4 to 6 pounds per square inch while mouth-blowing. Since all the work stations in the lab are equipped with compressed air, it was not difficult to design and install a system whereby the glassblower, wearing a mask at all times, could introduce air into the end of a blow pipe through a hose, using a pneumatic foot pedal to start and stop inflation. It’s a simple yet very effective solution.
One year and 2000 pumpkins later, we’ve worked out the kinks (or the known ones, at any rate), and are confident that our alternative inflation system will be a safe and effective teaching tool as we welcome our new beginning glassblowing students this fall.
Peter Houk, Artistic Director
Michael Cima, Faculty Director