Blown Away (2019–…): Season 2, Episode 4 - Force of Nature - full transcript

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

-where ten exceptional glassblowers...
-[blowing]

...push themselves to creative extremes.

Because if they can survive...

-[Cat] Guys!
-...our fiery competition...

-[Nao gasps]
-[glass breaks]

...they'll win
a life-changing prize package.

That's, like, the ultimate dream.

[Nick] Now, seven remain...

Whoops! [gasps, groans]

...battling the clock
and the sweltering heat of our furnaces.



I'm Nick Uhas. Prepare to be...

Blown Away.

Glassblowers, welcome back
to the hot shop.

New challenge, new day.

It's another challenge.
It's another one. Yes!

It's go time, and I'm ready to rock it.

The United Nations says 2020

is the make-or-break year
for climate change.

As glassblowers, we are painfully aware

of the amount of fuel that's used
to run the furnaces and glory holes.

That's why it's important
that each piece we make

is meaningful and worth the toll
that it takes on the environment.

Using your own personal connection
to nature,

we want you
to create a piece of hot glass art.



Your finished pieces
should be an inspiration

for people to think about the environment

and to make the changes that they can
to protect our planet.

[Nick] Our guest evaluator today
is the executive director

of Pittsburgh Glass Center,
Heather McElwee.

[applause]

Heather's passion for nature
and dedication for change

can be seen
in the strides Pittsburgh is taking

to reduce energy consumption
in their studio.

There is a lot of soul
in Pittsburgh Glass Center.

It's one of the best in the country.

Like most of you, I started to spend
my non-hot shop and studio time

in the great outdoors.
It's where I recharge.

I'm a huge nature enthusiast.
Have been all my life.

I live in the Pacific Northwest.
I love the environment there.

Today, we wanna see pieces
that are inspired by nature,

full of meaning and hope.

Use your art to stir emotions in others.

You'll have four hours
to complete this challenge.

Your final work will be evaluated

based on your design, concept,
technical skill and overall presentation.

[Heather] And as a bonus prize,

Pittsburgh Glass Center would love
to offer the winner of this challenge

a five-day residency in our studio.

-Whoo!
-All right.

It's such a cool prize.
I definitely wanna win.

But for one of you,
this next piece will be your last.

Whoever doesn't blow us away
will be asked to leave the hot shop.

You have four hours on the clock.
Your time starts... now.

Hmm.

[Brad] I'm gonna be making
some tall trees.

But the catch is that
they're gonna be balancing

on a tiny little point here.
Now that I have a daughter,

I definitely think
about the environment differently.

My two-year-old daughter,
she's super cute.

She sings "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"
every hour.

It's hard to leave
my wife and daughter behind.

[Cat] I am making a plate
of deforestation.

As someone who's been a vegetarian
for 18 years,

this challenge speaks volumes
about my personal interest.

[Chris] I'm making a small piece
of a broken-off iceberg

that's going to be kind of packaged.

So, that gives the effect of it
being, like, something you could buy.

I just wanted to think about preserving

that kind of beautiful jewel-like iceberg
wrapped in plastic.

[Elliot] The best thing about glass
is that it can be recycled and reformed.

So, I'm making
a dung beetle rolling a ball

of sort of squashed up vessels.

There's detail
and then there's destruction.

It's gonna be a sculptural installation

based on nature and the infinite.

So, it's a... a reminder that nature is

both delicate and strong.

[Andi] I wanna convey the idea
of second life for an object.

I want it to be kind of a happy message.

Hopeful.

[furnace fires up]

[laughing] Look at this.

I think everyone
is really starting to feel the toll.

[groans]

It's a physical toll doing this every day,
but it's also, like, an emotional toll.

There's so many ways
these things can go wrong.

I'm ready for this one. I'm excited.
I have a lot left to prove.

Let's blow glass.

I haven't won a challenge yet.
The competition is stiff.

This'll be it.

It's pretty impressive, the level of skill
in some of the people in the room.

It's like, there's
some really incredible glassblowers here.

Chris Taylor is someone
that's been around for a long time.

[Chris] As close as I was
to being eliminated last time,

I'm now ready to turn it up to eleven.

That looks great.

I'm just gonna be a lot more aggressive
and take a lot more risks.

[Heather] And then some
of the younger artists.

I mean, now really up-and-coming.

-And very accomplished.
-[Kathrine] Yeah.

So, this is a bun,
so I'm gonna go to the gray.

My piece is gross-colored fast food.

Beautiful.

Because fast foods are gross.
It's plastic to me.

Looks like a top bun!

Amazing.

[upbeat music playing]

[Andi] Just hold it, just like that.

[Brad] So, I'm making trees,

but they have to balance,
and that's the catch.

I haven't made anything like this before.

This is the base.
It's what it's gonna balance off of, so...

I gotta get the form right.

I'm essentially learning
how to make these during the challenge.

If it doesn't balance, falls apart,

breaks, it's a total write-off.

[mid-tempo string music playing]

[Cat] Go ahead. Give me a puff.

Winning the last challenge was wonderful,
but that was last challenge.

Like, up until this point, I was like,
"Why am I here?"

Youngest, least amount of experience.

I'm just a little farm girl
from New Jersey who likes fire.

Ready?

-[man] You got it?
-Got it.

[metal clanks]

[Nick] Since this challenge
is about the environment,

are we gonna see a lot of,
like, doomsday clouds and...

scary dark things?

I hope not.

Blow.

The challenge is very in-depth.

You've got to make a piece
which has to do with climate change,

but full of hope.

I mean, I think sometimes,
too much data, too many facts,

starts to get overwhelming.
It shuts people down.

They don't know.
"How can I make a difference?"

Versus the more positive approach.
That, I think really motivates people.

[Cat] My soul is really in this challenge.

I'm an organic gardener.

I compost everything.

I have more houseplants
than any one human should ever have.

[Mike] I really like this challenge.

I'm feeling like if I can execute
all the parts that I wanna make,

then it's gonna be really cool.

Ideally, I would love
to have 300 or more components

for this piece. Leaves, grass, vines.

I want to arrange them
to make an infinity sign.

By the time it all comes together,

it's gonna have a nice, powerful message
for the future.

I have two kids.

I'm trying to teach my kids
that they need to be

at one with the environment.

Okay, go start another one.

[Nick] Well, that looks like a burger.

That's a pretty
convincing-looking cheeseburger.

[Nao] I think this is good.

All right. Top. Yeah.

[Katherine] What Elliot's working on
looks pretty time-consuming.

[Heather] Yeah. It does.

I am sculpting my dung beetle's body.

Making an insect is really hard.
It's got a certain amount of legs.

It's got a certain amount of body parts.

The legs are like two segments.

You take a little blob of glass,
split it in half and fold it out,

and then add a little bit of detail.

If you understand the heat properly

and how to work it, you can stretch it out

by putting a few little nicks
into the side

to create these little spikes
as you stretch.

Okay. Next one.

Lovely.

I'm making a broken-off piece
from an iceberg.

I am supercooling
the outside of it, so it will

spontaneously crack naturally.

Okay, flash.

And when it's not doing that,
I'm taking a hammer to it.

Okay. [laughs]

That looks fun.

Oh. It's all right.

It's not the worst thing that it fell off

because it can get super cold
and hopefully,

it breaks off more naturally.

[Cat] Chris smash!

Chris is an artist.
Like, artists gonna art.

[Chris] Iceberg making here, right?
Totally normal.

What are some of the issues
with glassblowing and the environment?

One thing in the studio here
is that we have electric furnaces.

-Oh, yeah.
-So, the electricity could come

from renewable sources.

At Pittsburgh Glass Center,
we take the waste heat from our furnaces

and it actually heats our hot water
in the building and the building itself.

Certainly recycling
as much as possible, too,

so all the clear glass can go back
into the furnace, get used again.

Doing every little bit that you can
makes a difference.

[Andi] This challenge speaks to me.

My studio is built
with an eco-consciousness.

I'm hoping my piece
can inspire change just by

creating a reminder for people
that our resources are limited.

The mushrooms
are representing nature taking over.

With time, nature will figure it out.

Mushrooms have been found
to actually help break down plastics.

So, I've got two colors, olive brown

and then an iris yellow,
which is gonna reduce to gold.

A reduction flame is gas-rich
and oxygen-poor.

It will pull the metals to the surface,
and it makes the glass look metallic.

I'm pretty happy with how it looks.

[calm music playing]

[Nao] All right! Second project.

It is a French fry container.

Then they are the French fries.

[Andi] I look over my shoulder,
and Brad, he's got, like,

the most amazing piece of glass.
It looks like a TV antenna almost.

Go straight up and down again.

You know, I've purposely avoided
trying to make a replica of trees

-but more, like, minimal and abstract.
-[metal clanks]

I want them to be tall trees.

I want them to have a presence.

-That looked great.
-Not so bad. It turned out all right.

[ominous music playing]

And, hold right there.

-That's good.
-[metal clanks]

[Elliot] Lovely.

Piece is looking fantastic.

It's shiny. Its legs are nice and thin.

All right. Hands underneath, please.

-Whoop.
-[gasps]

[Elliot] Crap!

[grunts] Bollocks.

I can't process what's just happened.
I'm just in shock.

That is the worst thing that could happen.

I gotta do all the legs again.

Put it on the base again.
So, yeah, a lot of time.

Everybody's watching.

When you start to get stressed,
you start to move a bit more drastically.

Chances of, like, hitting something
and knocking it off

become more, you know, so...

And I feel pretty stressed.

[groans]

Keep blowing.

And stop.

Heat it up as hot as you can get it.
I want to do this as quick as possible.

Oh.

I had a feeling
that was gonna happen. Garbage.

I got impatient. [chuckles]

And with my brute animal strength,
I went right through the glass.

It's hard when I feel frustrated
in the hot shop.

Like, you can feel yourself,
like, getting anxious.

I'm gonna do that hole
a little bit differently.

[grunts softly]

Nice. Okay.

[metal clanks]

We are in business.

[upbeat music playing]

[Mike] Right now,
I'm using the flat cane that I pulled

to make blades of grass.

I didn't have much chance
to look around at other people's stuff,

but it seemed, like,
mediocre in contrast to what I was doing.

-Ready.
-[man] Stick it in?

[Chris] Yeah.

While I'm, like, trying to blow things up,
Mike's working with jewelry.

-[Mike] Hi, Katherine.
-[Katherine] Hi, Mike. Looks like you're...

-Got your lampworking station set up here.
-Yeah, do you like that?

I guess I'm all torch all the time.

I wanted a lot of the components
to be hot-worked

and manipulated in... Oops.

...into shape.

Uh, that was a... mistake,

but I'm not letting anything
go to waste here.

In the idea of the challenge,
I'm trying not to waste anything.

I'm picking up
all my broken pieces off the floor

and finishing them
into a workable component.

[Katherine] I will leave you to it.

-Good luck.
-[Mike] Thank you.

[Brad] I got one tree that might work.

These other ones, they keep breaking.
They keep cracking.

I'm just having doubts
about my design choices.

-[metal clanks]
-[Brad] That one broke?

[woman] It cracked, yeah.

[Cat] How's it going, Brad?

Ah. It's all right.

The perfectionist in me has to, like,
sit off to the side.

And the guy who's like,
"Just get the stuff done,"

has to get it done.

-[Cat] It looks really cool.
-[chuckling] Thanks.

[intense music playing]

[torch fires up]

[sings notes]

We're nearly there.

-[whispering] Yeah.
-Again!

I knew I'd get it right the second time.
You can't make that mistake twice.

That's just ridiculous. [chuckles]

Nice and gentle.

There's one hour left, everyone.

-One hour.
-Aah!

-[Chris] I'm not worried.
-[Brad] I got three trees done.

Two, I like.
One, I'm... [grunts dismissively]

So I'd like three, maybe four.

I have to make a couple trees.
I have to make a fork.

I love to make hands.

That's, like, my favorite thing to do.

So, I'm pretending that this fork
is just an exaggerated hand.

-Go ahead and give that a little heat.
-[Nao] This is going to be a pizza.

Some of the detail I want to get on...

I'm thinking torch frit
to make it look like a cheese.

And pepperoni makes it look like a pizza.

All right, looks good.

I will cut so that it will look
like one slice is about to lift up.

I wanna give it a little bit movement.

I feel really good about this.

I have couple more components to make,
but we will see the time.

[clock ticking]

[Elliot] Off. Lovely.

[metal clanks]

I'm gonna be trying
to hammer out some bottles,

hammer out some wine glasses.
I need to make an awful lot of things.

We're just making a ball of crap next.

Doesn't really matter what it is
as long as it's, like,

a functional blown piece of glass.

[Heather] I'm pretty sure that we saw him
making a goblet earlier.

-[Katherine] And a bottle.
-[Heather] I'm kinda curious

to see how all these elements
are gonna come together.

[Elliot] Literally take them out,
squish 'em on.

You're not trying to make it look nice.
Just make it look squished.

It's gonna be tricky.

Sort of like when you see,
like, a car get crushed.

Okay, s-stick it on first.

Okay, that's great.

I didn't take into account
just how far away my pickup kiln was.

It's a large piece.

Each time it gets harder
because the piece is getting more heavy.

Run back to the door now. Go.
Beat me to the door.

-[glass breaks]
-Oh!

The sweat on my hands is
causing the iron to slip.

[chuckles] That is absolutely massive.

If this piece breaks,

then I'll just have a bug
and some broken glass.

All right, everybody, 30 minutes left!

Thanks for reminding me.

Rock 'n' roll.

[Chris] That's great.

I'm really glad that everybody's busy

that they can't see
that I'm doing the French pull,

because it's time to pull away
from the pack.

Take your time in there.

The French pull can pull
a membrane of glass up slowly

like a plastic sheet.

It's still elastic.

Yeah, go for it.

And you can control
how thick that glass is

by how quick you pull it up.

Go, go.

It looks exactly
what I had hoped it would look like.

Beautiful.

Ooh. I'm like, "What's that?"

What the balls are you doing?

You wanna start to heat that up?

[Elliot] What is going on?

I've read about this technique,
so it's beautiful to see it.

Trying something like that, pretty nuts.

I'm really glad it was getting
to the other competitors.

I'm doing exactly
what I need to do to win this challenge.

From now on, we'll call it
the Chris Taylor French pull.

[yelling] Eleven minutes!

Eleven minutes, everybody.

[Mike] I'm feeling rushed now.

I got a lot of components left to make.
I'm so slow.

If I was at home
working on this sculpture,

I would use four weeks, not four hours.

Okay, get a one-gather dip
as fast as you can and frit it up.

I feel like we didn't get enough done.

Clock is ticking down.

Glassblowers, get your pieces
in the annealers.

-[Nao] Time is running out.
-Crunch time.

Sorry.

[Brad] I think I'll be okay.

Can you hold it there? And turn it.
Turn it down.

[yelling] Cool down!

A tree. I just have a couple more
little things to do.

[laughing] Wow! That was awesome.

-Nearly there.
-[Nao] Beauty.

-[Brad] Got it?
-[woman] Yep.

-Nice.
-[Elliot] Go.

-[Brad] Clear a lane.
-[Cat] Coming through.

[Andi] Here you go. Whoop.

[chuckles] Good catch, Alyssa.

Closing.

Woo-hoo! [laughs]

-Great job, girl!
-Yay!

[Nao] That was awesome!

[introspective piano music playing]

[Cat] For this challenge,
we were asked to create

a piece of art that inspires people
to think about climate change.

[Elliot] The dung beetle is representing

nature has a way of recycling everything.

[Chris] It looks exactly
what I had hoped it would look like.

It's an iceberg for sale.

[Andi] I checked off all the boxes,

and I made something completely stunning.

This is how I see the world,
and I think it's a beautiful vision.

[Nao] We eat the processed food
because it's easier.

And I want to bring the awareness
how that is damaging to the nature.

[Brad] The hope in my piece
is that the environment,

while obviously very fragile,
that it can come back.

Nature is here before us.

It'll be here after us.
We're the caretakers in this moment.

[Nick] I'm speechless, actually.
Just kind of taking it all in.

[Katherine] Yeah, there's a lot
of different approaches here...

-[Heather] Technically and aesthetically.
-[Katherine] Yeah.

In that, it gives me hope

that maybe there's lots of different ways
we can approach preserving the planet.

[Nick] This is Brad's piece.

-[Katherine] I'm gonna...
-[laughing] Oh!

-[Heather] Oh, my gosh.
-That is as much as I wanna touch it.

-[Heather] I'm getting the fragility part.
-[Nick] Oh, yeah.

[Katherine] And maybe that in itself
is a statement.

[Heather] From a technical standpoint,

I wish that it was maybe a little less
kind of clunky and awkward at the bottom.

[Katherine] I would agree.

I feel like there's a few details,
like even maybe this

coming to a nice taper up at the top
would kind of help.

I'm not exactly sure if this hits hope.
Maybe a little bit more on the fear side.

[Nick] This is Nao's piece.
The cheese looks pretty real.

I didn't really like the pizza
with the slice kind of missing from it.

I'm not sure that I'm seeing the hope.

-[Katherine] There's a little humor in it.
-[Heather] Definitely.

And maybe the levity kind of helps.

[Nick] This is Mike's piece.

This is in the shape
of an infinity symbol.

[Heather] I do really like
the way that the colors play,

both transparent and opaque.
I think it really does make the piece pop.

Yeah, I'm pleasantly surprised, honestly.

I feel like we've seen
a lot of things of Mike's

that have a very particular aesthetic,
and this doesn't have it.

-I think this is Mike's best piece.
-I would agree.

This is definitely the most hopeful piece
that we've seen so far.

[Katherine] I think he nailed it.

-[Heather] Me, too.
-[Nick] Yeah.

This is Cat's piece.

Cat's platter is serving up the lesson

that animal agriculture
is the leading cause of deforestation.

I really love the environment.

I'm not sure I'm totally seeing
the connection to deforestation.

You know, if there was a knife
instead of a spoon, that might help.

But how cool is this? You can see
the rings in the tree stumps.

[Katherine] It's very involved.
It takes a lot of time.

I think it paid off
'cause they look really great.

Again, the hope.

-Where is the hope?
-Yeah.

[Nick] This is Elliot's work.

[Katherine] I think the dung beetle
is amazing.

Very ambitious in the hot shop.

I almost feel like
you can see a goblet right here

with the stem
and then coming down to the foot.

[Katherine] To me, that's the message
of hope here with working with glass.

There is an aspect
that is environmentally friendly.

Yeah.

This is Chris's work,
and the title is "Nature as Commodity."

Katherine, is that plastic or glass?

It is glass.

[Heather] From across the room,
I definitely thought

that these were wrapped
in cellophane or plastic wrap.

[Nick] The foam tray is
also deceivingly foam.

And the ice. Like, it looks real.

Chris has this ability
to replicate these other materials

in glass very, very convincingly.

Incredible.

[Nick] This is Andi's work.

I like where she's going with this idea.

[Nick] I love the texture
and the colors of the mushrooms.

And I love that you immediately understand
what the bottles are.

You got the sense
that these are the mushrooms

that grow on the side of trees.

But as you do get up close,
they are a little bit awkwardly applied.

I would've expected things
to be a little bit more skillfully done.

But I do feel that there's hope
in this piece.

I think this whole thing
was about inspiring hope.

[Katherine] Uh-huh.

Some just did not.

Right. And I think that's important
to keep in mind.

So, I would like to talk to the artists
to find out where the hope is.

[suspense music playing]

[Cat] I don't think people really win
two challenges in a row.

But I might win this one again.

I wanna either be number one
or I want to be eliminated.

We asked each of you
to create a piece of glass art

inspired by nature
that would motivate change.

[Katherine] We were really impressed
with the range of approaches.

I personally really appreciated
that you all tackled different issues.

[Heather] I was really impressed
with the variety of techniques

that all of you used
to really bring your message across.

I think some of you
were more successful than others

on conveying the element of hope
in your piece.

-Brad.
-Are you happy

with the way that it turned out?

I was learning as I was making it.

These aren't things I know how to make,
so there's some issues that

don't stand out, but I know they're there,
and you guys probably know they're there.

Nao, tell us about your use of color.

I wanted to make it, like, not too far
from the original fast food,

but gross enough for people to feel, "Ew."

We need, like, really strong visual impact
to create the change of our behavior.

-Thank you, Nao.
-Thank you.

Chris, we'd love to hear more
about your piece.

I took my son to Iceland last year,

and we went to a place
called Diamond Beach,

where you can find
car-sized fragments of icebergs.

The idea of being a tourist
and going to see that

also has a kind of cost, I think.
Unintended cost.

Technically, there's a lot
of really virtuosic elements.

I'm not totally sure we felt
like there was an intrinsic sense of hope.

It almost seems like
this was nature parceled up

and ready to be sold
to the highest bidder.

Thank you, artists.
Please give us a moment to discuss.

I might win.

Please, please, please be me.

[Brad] I hope the evaluators see
that I took a huge risk,

even if it isn't as refined
as I would like it to be.

[Nao] To be honest, I didn't really focus
on the hope part.

That could send me home.

[Nick] Thank you for waiting.
We appreciate your patience

and all the effort
that you put into your pieces.

There was one artist
who perfectly expressed

the fragility of nature and infused hope.

In doing so,
they won themselves a bonus prize

of a five-day residency
at the Pittsburgh Glass Center.

Today's Best in Blow goes to...

Elliott.

-[laughs]
-Congratulations.

Thank you.

That's amazing. Cheers.

I'm doing pretty well. But I need
to look up where Pittsburgh is. Yeah.

My American geography is
pretty limited. Yeah. [laughs]

Oh. That's great.

Having to decide who goes home
is never easy,

but there was one artist

whose connection to nature
just didn't connect.

The person who did not blow us away is...

Brad.

Aw, man.

-[Elliot] Sir.
-Good job, man.

[Nick] Please say your goodbyes
and exit the hot shop.

[Brad] You know, it's disappointing,

but it's gonna be nice to go home
and see my daughter and my wife.

-Best of luck.
-Same.

[Brad] Even though it didn't work out,

I still proved to myself
that I belong in this game.

Ultimately, that's what I wanted.

[Nick] Congratulations on making it
to the final six.

Go get some rest, and we'll see you soon.

Oh my God, I just want another chance.

-I need a win.
-Bring it on. Let's just do it.