Playing With Fire

Eric Goldschmidt has been working with glass for the past 20 years, but he started as a candlemaker. After witnessing glassblowing, however, he became intrigued by the process which led to him to take classes from master glassblowers at The Corning Museum of Glass. Later, he had the opportunity to assist artists in Italy, Germany, and the Czech Republic. Glass presents a number of unique challenges as a molten material, but also as a substance that changes, that moves with temperature, expanding and contracting at different rates. “It’s a lot like trying to tame an animal,” Eric says. “Glass is alive and moving and you have to come to an agreement with it, learn its needs, its wants, and work around those to get what you want.” He enjoys competing with himself and with the material. “I want to know it all, to soak up every aspect of the material. The more you know,” he admits, “the more you realize you don’t know.”

Watch Eric and other glass artists challenge themselves during the daily flameworking shows at The Corning Museum of Glass.