Arts Alive San Antonio

By JANIS TURK, Contributing Writer

It’s a bright bluebonnet-filled spring Saturday in the Texas Hill Country, when I stop outside San Marcos Texas to visit Tim de Jung and watch him at work in his Wimberley Glass Works glass-blowing studio.

When I arrive, Jung, a fun-loving Canadian-turned-Texan, known for his blown-glass art, says he’s going to be busy for a “hot moment,” though he lets me—and a group of other interested folks—watch him It’s work.

With a long hollow metal rod, Jung removes liquid glass from a furnace heated to 2,400◦ Fahrenheit. The clear molten glass has the consistency of hot, gooey honey, dripping and oozing as Jung quickly twists, turns, manipulates the fluid glass before dipping it into another fiery furnace of 2,100◦. The heat alone gives the clear glass the illusion of being the color red. After the master blower takes the tube and blows air into the rod until it reaches the glass at the end, creating a bulbous shape, he rolls the hot blown glass over a surface scattered with colorful crushed glass pieces, which he will then heat again and place into the furnace again and again. It’s almost magic to see the colors and materials change as they bend to his breath, his will, and his skill.

Using metal and wooden tools to work on the shape and using air blown through the tube to create the size of the piece, Jung then continues to take the piece in and out of the furnace. With gasp-worthy, baton-twirling-like rotations, he allows gravity to stretch and bend each piece. His hot handiwork creates unique shapes, sizes, and colors in blown glass. When the piece is finished, it is placed in a hot kiln-like oven where it will slowly cool for the next 24 hours or more.

As the glass blowing demonstration comes to an end, Jung answers questions from the crowd and encourages young girls to dream big and do what they want in life, reminding them that it was a woman who created the heat-resistant material used to make the gloves he uses when touching the glass and placing it into the cooling oven. This material has also been used on NASA’s lunar spacecraft.

The studio where we sit offers a viewing area with stadium seating, where Jung and other artists offer interesting and informative glass blowing demonstrations, free of charge, throughout the day.

During these humorous and educational 10-15 minute demonstrations, Jung briefly discusses some of the 2,000+-year history of glass and glassblowing, dating back to Egyptian and Roman civilizations, while also making jokes about being careful not to burn himself. “I hate it when my flesh starts smelling like a rotisserie chicken,” he quips, adding, “I think people best remember things when they’re told with a touch of humor.”

The studio viewing area is ADA equipped, and all ages are welcome. Sometimes there’s even a gallery scavenger hunt available on request for children. Even small lap dogs are welcome to watch the demonstrations. The process is amazing to behold.

After the demonstration, Jung walks with us back into to the Wimberley Art Glass showroom. There, the art pieces he’s created—be they vases, plates, paperweights, sculpture pieces, or pendant lamps—seem even more incredible to behold once we’ve witnessed the art, skill, and time required to make each utterly unique piece. In the showroom, myriad colors and shapes of glass come together, to create a light-flooded wonderland.

Jung explains that as a young man he was first inspired by the sunset as seen through the ice buildup on railings one winter at Niagara Falls. Since then, he’s been developing his style using the play of light through the colors and textures of glass.

In 1991, Jung came to Texas on vacation and fell in love with the Texas Hill Country. Within a year of his visit, he purchased property, and soon opened Wimberley Glassworks. Today, he is the sole owner of the studio and works with a team of four full-time glassblowers. Wimberley Glassworks custom lighting and art installation designs are featured in luxury and commercial properties throughout Texas and the nation.

It’s hard not to be “blown away” by the beauty of his creations.

FUSED GLASS

Since I am in the area, I also stop just up RR12 about a mile from Wimberley Glass Works to visit Silo Gallery + Studio. Worth an entire article on its own (and we hope to bring that to readers soon!), this remarkable studio offers a different kind of glass art medium: fused glass.

Silo Gallery represents more than two dozen very talented artists specializing in 3D art forms, including bronze, Raku pottery, wood, and warm glass pieces such as fused, draped, slumped, cast and mixed media glass works. Stop and tour the 4,000 square-foot studio (the largest purpose-built warm glass studio in Central Texas) to discover all the features that make their studio, gallery, and classroom space unique, and learn how warm glass is created. You can visit with the kind and knowledgeable owners and staff in the showroom for architectural and home accessories – such as windows, glass top coffee tables, screens/partitions, sconces, and much more. A second studio on the property adds another 2,000 square feet of artists’ working space. While there, stop and rest at a refreshing grotto with two waterfalls and a koi pond.

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Wimberley Art Glass is closed on the days of Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s and Easter, as well as on Mondays and Tuesdays weekly. Gallery Hours are Wednesday through Sunday weekly 10 a.m. to 5p.m., and glassblowing hours are Thursdays through Sundays, weekly, at 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.  Guests are also invited to relax and sit out on a patio under the oaks. There you can view the latest outdoor blown glass art installation, the Glass Menagerie, grown from the creative minds at the Glassworks. Just drive north on Interstate 35 to San Marcos, take exit 202, and head six miles west on Ranch Road 12 toward Wimberley: 6469 Ranch RD. 12, San Marcos, 78666; 512-393-3316, https://wgw.com

Silo Gallery + Studio is open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday and Monday 10 a.m.  to 4 p.m. SILO is closed ‍on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.; 7990 Ranch Rd. 12, between San Marcos and Wimberly, 512-444-6494l classes offered: www.siloglass.com/classes-schedule