Blown Away (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Thirsty Work - full transcript

[Nick Uhas] We've built
North America's biggest hot shop

where ten exceptional artists

push themselves to creative extremes.

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."

Now six remain,

-[splintering]
-battling the clock

and the sweltering heat

of our furnaces.

I'm Nick Uhas
and this is Blown Away.



Good morning, glassblowers.

Today we have a deceptively
difficult challenge for you.

We'd like you to create a drinking glass,
as well as a decanter,

that is both attractive and functional.

Wow.

That's pretty wide open
and we can go anywhere with this.

There are lot of drinking glasses
and decanters out there.

What will set yours apart?

It has to be distinct.

Helping us evaluate your work today

is international wine judge
Emily Pearce-Bibona.

[Patrick] Our guest evaluator this week
is a sommelier.

The challenge is that you have to think
a different way.

You're not trying to show the glass,
you're trying to show what's in it.



When I look at your work,
I'll be looking for perfect balance

between form and functionality.

So my advice to you
is design very carefully

and plan your time well.

[Nick]
You've got just four hours to design,

create and present an original piece
of blown glass art.

You'll be evaluated
on your design concept,

your technical execution
and most critically,

your overall form and function
of your glass and decanter.

As usual, you each have assistance
from Sheridan College.

Have fun. Good luck!

Your time starts...

now.

[Deborah] We have to design a decanter
and a glass that functions.

A lot of my work revolves around function.

I don't really do functional work,

I usually try to make sculpture.

Here I am completely out
of my element again.

I'm going to make little indentations,
like a handprint.

Left hand for the cup,
right hand for the decanter.

[Janusz] I'm gonna be risky here,

make both things in reticello.

There's lots of technical issues
in doing this sort of pattern,

so my assistant's under pressure.

[Alex]
I saw these antique absinthe glasses.

They have this constriction,
like an hourglass.

When you pour stuff into it,
it would slowly drip down.

[Patrick] The wine glass was actually

an upside down, inverted version

in size and proportion from the decanter.

[Deborah] It's an amoeba

and it's got
different cellular structures:

nucleus, mitochondria.

The white line is the cytoplasm.

It's going to pour out into a virus glass.

[Leah] What will I do?
Create a fanny pack decanter

and then a really cool...

cleavage cup.

A lot of ladies who have cleavage,
such as myself,

if we go out dancing
and don't have pockets,

you put your credit cards in there.

It's a thing!

[Deborah] Wait a minute, back up.
Different color.

I'm going to use color a lot here
to seduce.

-It's gonna be black.
-I'm not using color.

It's all going to be in clear glass.

We have a sommelier.

She probably wants to know
what color the liquid is.

I'll set up the bench and start.

Wish me luck.

Is there a dense green?

Where is that color?

You want 19? It's here.

So I think I'll get negative points
for color.

Oh God, this is a recipe for disaster.

But that's the concept for my thing,
is to actually go with color.

[Katherine] A lot of the challenges
have been more open for interpretation.

This one has a strong functional element.

It'll be interesting to see
how people balance that.

I want Deborah to make a womb
we can all drink out of.

This is such a funny thing to make.

I feel like decanters in glass-blowing
get a little bit stuffy,

and people just remake the same shape,
over and over.

I felt I wanted to make something
that was a different way

of thinking about decanting.

[Alex] Glassware that's for wine
in particular,

is always clear.

There's this whole thing
about wanting to see

the color of the liquid inside of it.

And there's usually some appreciation

for a lightweight
or really delicate object.

Those are two ways of glass-working
that I really like.

Blow harder.

I like making stuff that's really delicate
and clear.

Stop!

Makes me feel like I'm doing glass

in the way that it's meant to be done.

I'm deciding to do a reticello pattern,
a traditional Venetian technique.

It's crucial when I ask you
to turn that box up, you can do that.

Working with a new person,
everything's different: the equipment,

the layout.

Just because I can make this pattern
at home

doesn't mean it'll go right here.
It's a big gamble.

I've got to get all my ducks in a row
for this,

I have to pull the cane,
let it cool down so I can chop it,

and hopefully have time
to pull more than one cane.

So much smoke in my eyes.

[Patrick] Blow hard.

Stop.

[Momo] Great.

I'm making at least a few cups
to pick from,

so the best one I have
will be the one I present,

as we're only allowed to present one cup.

[Nick] Any pet peeves
when it comes to glassware?

I truly loathe stemless glassware.

You put your hands on it,
then you get your fingerprints on it,

then maybe you eat
and you get your handprint on it.

By the second glass,
it's kind of a hot mess.

Stop! Hold tight.

[Emily] Another of my pet peeves
are decanters that can't fit in my hand,

because it was designed for a man's hand.

A lot of the hand tools
that glassblowers use

are designed for men's hands.

And a lot of females
approach the toolmakers

to make specialized handles
that are a bit smaller.

[clink]

Get in there. We got something.

I'm about to pick up one set of cane
for the first cup.

You lay the cane out on the plate,

and the cane are loose,
just held in place by two stops,

and you roll the whole thing
inside the glory hole.

It sticks to itself, that's when the sheet
is formed that you roll up.

Got to just stay calm.

Okay, go for it.

Nice and easy. I'll close the doors
once you're in there.

[Alex] Janusz is doing something
really ambitious over there.

He's making a pattern called reticello.

[Momo] It's definitely ballsy for him
to try that

in this studio,
because you'd usually do that

in a setting you're familiar with.

[Janusz] So much can go wrong
in a hot shop.

Everything's instantaneous.

Things can go wrong in a flash.

[crash]

I just hear this crash behind me.

[crash]

The plate had fallen off the fork.

All the cane, everything is on the floor.

And the plate's broken?

-No, it's okay.
-[Janusz] Good.

That didn't feel good for anybody.

Okay, take a deep breath.

Okay.

Glassblowers, three hours remaining!

Three hours!

[hissing]

Flip.

-[Katherine] How are you doing, Leah?
-Ha! I'm doing okay.

What's the concept of what you're making?

So it's a fanny pack decanter

that you put over your clothing.

As you're dancing, it's aerating.

It's aerated from your dance moves.

And then the cup

is how girls like to fit things
in their cleavage.

[Katherine] How do you think our judge
will receive it?

I have no idea.

It's a 50-50.
[laughs]

I feel like everything I make is a risk.

I'd no idea it was so heavy.

[Patrick] I'm not a conceptual artist,

so I think the challenge this week
was suited for my style of work.

Doesn't make it any easier,
but I felt I was more within my range.

[Janusz] I see things going on around,
people making progress

and putting things in the box,
I haven't as yet got an object in the box.

My calipers are off. I measured,
something changed, I don't know what.

The size was wrong,
so the wheel that I made

to pick up the cane on was too small.

Time's getting eaten away.

How are you doing here, Janusz?

A bit of a struggle.

-You want to talk about it?
-Not really.

Do you want to talk about your design?

Not right now, this is a mess.
I got to fix it.

I will come back.

Thank you.

I need my tagliol now.

Stop.

The cutting-in of the amoeba pseudopods,

they're called pseudopods,
they're like legs... that is critical.

And I'm just flipping it and cutting it

and it's just super-hot.

Turn! Use more of your back!
Your whole body.

You are a fierce, powerful woman!

One of the most challenging parts
about making this piece

is that you have to be immediate
and work the glass very hot.

Otherwise It will look tortured.

Keep going!

This is where my experience comes in.

I know what I'm doing out there.

Stop!

One spot. You can hold it on an angle
so it gets bigger.

I understand it's important for a decanter
to have a big surface area,

for the liquid to be in contact with air.

I guess that's what decanting is, right?

There's air that's involved
in that process.

So I want this biggish decanter.

I mean, for me it's quite big.
Well it's huge.

Two-handed pour.

For sure.

[Janusz] If he can't lift and pour
with one hand,

it's not a functional decanter,

and I saw a bit of that going on.

[Alex] You're good.

I'm not mentioning any names.

It's big!
[laughs]

Blow! Keep going.

And... off.

[Momo]
I think my cups are a little thicker

than what most people want
for their wine glasses,

but putting in finger divots,

I want to be careful I don't accidentally
torch right through it.

I'm excited to finally be able
to hold this once it's cold.

[Deborah] I can see some
of what Momo's doing.

She was putting indents into the side,

and it seemed like it was
where a hand would hold the glass.

I want Momo to do well
because she's a young woman

trying to push the boundaries here.

But I was worried that the sommelier

wouldn't like the idea
of touching the wine glass.

[Janusz] Okay, relax.

Making the reticello,
there's two parts to it, two pick-ups.

They must oppose each other.

Then you twist that canework,
you make a cup out of it,

you put the cup in the oven to keep warm.

You do the process again,

but twist the cane the opposite way,

so that when you put the one bubble
inside the other, they cross over.

Stuffing this cup is gonna be...

the do or die.

Go!

Open.

Make the second bubble a bit smaller

so I can lower the bubble
inside the other cup.

It must hit the bottom of the cup
and inflate evenly.

[sucking sound]

See, that's not ideal.

The cup just... goes to one side.

Normally I'd throw the piece away,
but there isn't time,

so I'm making this piece

just knowing that the pattern
is an absolute mess,

stretched on one side
and dense on the other.

[Deborah] If you're gonna do a reticello,
you gotta do it right.

It's too pedestrian for my taste.

I'm not gonna come into these challenges

and just do a simple cane pick-up

and a simple form
we've seen a million times.

I'll try to bring something else
to the table creatively.

Boom. That's it.

[Leah] I'm taking the torch
and heating certain places

and then carving into it
with different tools,

sculpting fabric grooves.

Leah's is amazing,

because it's so her!
It's so her personality, it's so her art.

[Leah] You have to be careful,
you could really hurt yourself.

It's like the forever burns.

You can get tendon nerve damage

from burning yourself
on an oxy propane torch.

[Deborah] I originally had the amoeba
very flat and graphic,

now I'm going
with a much more voluptuous amoeba.

Like whew, this is a porn-star amoeba.

[Momo] I look at Deborah's bench

and I'm seeing some thick, wavy,

kind of clear legs
coming off of a pink form.

I don't know what's going on,
but it looks cool.

-You got it?
-Yes.

-Got it?
-Yes.

[tapping]

Get it all the way in the back if you can.

-Nice!
-Alright, we have it in the box.

You got your decanter in the annealer?

I got one in there.

I'm wondering how you think
the judge might perceive your decanter.

I feel like the judge
is more classic-inspired.

I knew that she was gonna hate my design.

But I had to be true to myself
and my visions of what I'm doing here.

You have 2 hours 20 minutes left.

Maybe I should make it clear.

I'll leave that up to you.

Throw it out and start again
and get spontaneous.

It got wedged too far into that V.
It wasn't coming off.

-Push it.
-Close that door.

[Momo] Having the doors open
in the annealer for a long time

is bad for everything else in there.

-If it gets too cold, it will break.
-[splintering]

Leave it in there. Gentle! Leave it in.

[Leah] Momo, close that door.

[Momo] I don't want to disappoint
the other artists

and have any of their broken pieces
be my fault.

Okay.

[flame roars]

You can't avoid me forever.

How's it going?
It looks like you're trying reticello.

[Janusz] A bit of a gamble,

but we got the first cup in the box.

I've got to pull cane, chop it,
do it again for the decanter.

I've enough time if I don't screw up.

[Patrick] So I'm making a decanter.

There's a thread of glass
round the collar,

so if a little drop of wine
would try to escape,

it would stop and not just go
all the way down.

Glassblowers, time is flying!

You only have one hour left.

[Leah] Blow.

Off. Punty.

Why isn't it stretching?

I wasted half my blow slot with color,

but I transitioned
when I realized it was a loser.

So I went for crystal clear.

-[assistant] That's not coming out.
-That's stuck.

This is pretty delicate so we can't
be banging on it really aggressively

and that stuff,
so throw it on the ground and start over.

[tinkle]

[Katherine] Thirty minutes left!

Your final half hour!

Blow soft. Stop.

[snip]

[splashing]

I've got sweat in my eyes,
I can't see much.

[Janusz] Over.

Good.

[tapping]

[Alex] Oh, man!

The same problem I had on the first one.

It doesn't want to come out.

-I just keep making little mistakes.
-[tapping]

There you go!
[laughs]

Just banging on it.

I ended up breaking the top off the punty,

so what's a pretty,
otherwise tight-looking cup

has this gross crusty black lump.

[chink of glass]

Good job.

I wouldn't say I'm totally confident
in my piece.

[Leah] If I did take too much of a risk

and this week I end up going home,

I feel great about going home
on a fanny pack decanter

It's a really fun end!

[Momo] Today's challenge
is to make a drinking glass

and an attractive functional decanter.

I don't know what she'll think
about the functionality of it,

but it'll definitely hold
a bottle of wine.

[Janusz] I count myself lucky
that it came together well in the end.

It's not always the case.

[Patrick] I'm fairly confident
that my design was spot-on.

[Leah] I hope the evaluator sees
something drastically different

from what a lot of other people
will be making.

[Alex] Going into the critique,
I hope the evaluators

are into seeing a decanter
that's huge and paper thin.

[Deborah] This design,

It would be cool if it went viral.
[laughs]

[Nick] This is amazing.

What is the purpose of decanting?

These older wines have sediment in.

Decanting separates the wine
from the sediment.

But for a young wine,
it's just to add a little oxygen in,

so different things open up.

So you can smell and taste
a more complete wine.

This is Patrick's.

[Emily] It's very classic.

He's actually got...

something in here.

[Emily] This creates aeration.
This is an extra add-on.

It'll get us a bit more pump of oxygen
right in the beginning.

It looks like it's got some finger grip.

My inclination would be
to pick it up here.

[Nick] Maybe you do both.

-[Emily] Try a little pour.
-[Nick] Looks like a good pour.

[Emily] That's a beautiful glass.

Here we go, Janusz's.

This looks like it's in fishnets.

This technique is called reticello,

an Italian name meaning "net."

It traps little air bubbles.

Yeah, I saw the little bubbles.

This is
an incredibly complicated technique.

That looks great!

That was legit. No dripping.

[Katherine] These are beautifully made.

I feel like I've a lot of control
over this.

[Nick] Alexander. It's huge!

[Katherine]
There's a lot of aerating going on.

[Emily] It's a bit intimidating.

-If you spot her...
-[Katherine] No kidding!

[Emily] Here we go. This is...

It's coming, very slowly.

[Emily] Wow! Oh my Lord.

[Nick] Oh! It took a pro to do that.

[Emily]
But it's leaking outside the glass, see?

So it's all over the table.

What happened there?

That looks like it's left over
from the punty.

[Emily] Yeah, unfortunate.

Okay, so this is Leah's.

Fanny pack decanter and cleavage cup.

Not much functionality...

and it's opaque black glass,

so you have no idea
what the liquid is in there.

[Nick] To be worn on your belt
as you dance the night away.

Alright, so I'm dancing here.

[all shouting] Oh!

Alright.
If this is supposed to be on your person,

this is just going to get hot and nasty,

like warm, body-temperature wine.

Alright, let's move on to Momo's.

This is very thick. I don't know
if I'd enjoy drinking from it.

I feel like there's an attempt
to put a way to hold it,

and this would sort of coincide
with my dislike of stemless glassware.

It's really thick up here,
so I can't pour it with one hand.

This is a two-hand job here.

-It's alright.
-[Katherine] Not a delicate object.

Last but not least, is Deborah's.

This does look very amoeba-like.

This could be the nucleus
and these are like the organelles,

and the mitochondria,
the cell powerhouse.

The one thing everyone remembers
from school.

This speaks to me, I love it.

[Emily] The glass is very thick.
This is really hard to hold.

I want to see you
actually attempt to pour it.

[Emily] It is extremely heavy.

When you have something narrow,
it's easier to pour,

-but you won't be able to clean inside it.
-[Nick] We've seen everything.

Let's hear from our glassblowers.

[Leah]
I think my idea's a bit too wild and weird

for our sommelier, maybe.

[Janusz] Every challenge
I'm just extremely nervous about.

[Deborah]
I know the evaluators are ruthless

and they're going to be very critical.

We asked you to create a drinking glass
and a decanter.

My general impression was that

some of you didn't think we were serious
when we said we wanted them to function.

Oh yes, that was me.

Alexander, we would love to hear more
about your work.

[Alex] My understanding is
the bigger the decanter is,

the better it is.

[laughter]

-So I think I won.
-[laughter]

[Emily] Your glass and decanter combo

leaked all over the table.

We were all caught by the part
of the punty that was still in there.

Patrick, I thought your glass
was particularly beautiful.

it reminded me of a lot of styles
from Germany and Austria.

I haven't won any challenge yet,
but I'm so ready.

-Momo.
-So there's these indentations

for where your fingers are,
for a fun, ergonomic, sensory experience.

One of my least favorite things
is to actually have to hold the bowl.

The design of your glass
forced me to do that.

-Leah.
-When you're in a club,

you can't say to the bartender,

"Can you decant that wine?
I'll come back every time I want a glass."

I wanted to create something hands-free.

As you're dancing, you're aerating
the wine in the fanny pack.

There were some challenges
in functionality.

I question if it's a decanter.
Not a lot of surface area there.

Deborah.
I identified it as an amoeba immediately.

That was fantastic.

[Katherine] It wasn't inviting
to put your lips to.

I would have liked to have seen you
punty the glass.

I thought the chances of messing
the form up were great,

with that mark
like you criticized Alex for.

[giggles]

-Don't be like me.
-[laughter]

Sorry, Alex.

Janusz.

First thing I wanted to do
was get away from clear glass.

[Katherine] The reticello was stunning
and beautiful.

The clarity is where it really fell short
for me.

I found it very distracting,
having the black.

That being said, the decanter,

by far the most functional one

-of the group.
-Thank you.

We're gonna go ahead
and talk among ourselves.

[Janusz] The only thing on my mind
is the next round.

[Leah] Art is so subjective.

Every week could be the week I go home.

Every challenge, we ask you
to push yourselves to creative limits.

One of you has produced a piece
that has really shown

artistic maturity.

Today's "Best in Blow" is...

Janusz.

[applause]

Which moves you one step closer
to the $60,000 prize package

including an artist residency

at the world-renowned
Corning Museum of Glass.

[Janusz] I'm just extremely relieved.

All that stress was a waste of time.

Your piece was elegant
and the functionality was exquisite.

I got lucky.

[Nick laughs]

He's the only one that's won twice now.

Unfortunately, one of you
did not blow us away.

Your glass and decanter lacked
the refinement we were looking for,

and the functionality
just really wasn't there.

I'm sorry to say,
the glassblower leaving the hot shop is...

Leah.

Hugs!

[Patrick] Sorry to see you go.

To be really honest,

I probably wouldn't have done
anything different.

I'm really proud of staying
my creative self.

I've only been doing this for seven years,
which is such a tiny amount.

I'm just at the start,

so it's really exciting
to see where it'll go.

[applause]