Prism Glassworks hosting Finnish glassblower this week
TROY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – Artwork varies between different cultures but one thing all art has in common is its ability to capture emotions. Some people make art for fun but others have made a living doing what they love, like two glassblowing artists who will host a demo in Troy.
“Every time you light the torch it’s exciting. Every time you get to put glass in the flame and melt it and manipulate it, it’s always an exciting thing. No matter if it’s something you’ve done a thousand times or something that you’re trying for the first time,” said Prism Glassworks Owner Phil Sundling.
He’s been blowing glass for 26 years and has been at this location in Troy since 2010.
“It’s a pretty tight industry, pretty tight community. You get to know each other pretty well through trade shows or other events. We do an event here every month for Troy Night Out where we bring in a different artist to do a demo for the public. We kind of bring our art and try to showcase it to the public cause a lot of people don’t really know what it is we do,” said Sundling.
This month you’ll find glassblower Erno Kettunen, who is from Finland and goes by the Instagram handle @PolteGlass
“And I started as a self-taught and I’m part of this generation of glassblowers who learned this skill from the Youtube,” said Kettunen.
He said being at this studio is a full circle moment for him because the first time he saw someone working with borosilicate glass it was a video of Sundling.
“It was his show I saw. And this feels so insanely crazy to just be, right now, here. After all these years. Like that’s where I basically saw first time this type of glassblowing and now I’m here at the studio,” said Kettunen.
He showed me some of the pieces he admires the most from some of his favorite glassblowing artists who hosted demos at Prism before him.
Sundling offers different types of glassblowing lessons to the public.He said the most popular class is hosted on Saturdays, $180 per person for a two hour session.
“But they’re always having a good time, they’re always laughing and giggling. we do a lot of couples and they get really competitive, ‘your’s looks better than mine’ or ‘you’re faster than me’. it’s not a race guys, you’re just here to have fun,” said Sundling.
Kettunen will be at the main bench hosting a live glassblowing demonstration this Friday from 5:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. at Prism Glassworks 225 4th street, Troy, NY 12180. Sundling said they’ll be offering 30% off that day for their Black Friday special.