Glass Art Magazine

http://www.GlassArtMagazine.com Glass Art TM • May/June 2016 • 27

“There’s no greater reward than making a connection with students or seeing them
make a connection with the material. One of my lessons early on was not to judge a book
by its cover. I had a student who was also a beauty specialist with really long nails. Though
I was skeptical she’d even be able to blow glass like that, it turned out that she was not
only full of creative style but also wonderful at handling a pipe. And she never broke a
nail! Students come in all shapes and sizes and should be given every opportunity to learn
and develop with their material. I’ve been teaching for 28 years and am still amazed at the
potential of my students.”
Influenced by Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová, Erwin Eisch, and Italo
Scanga, whom he met and worked with at Pilchuck early in his career, Schmid places a lot
of emphasis on drawing in his glass classes. “Drawing helps bring about communication
between materials and ideas.”
In July 2016, Schmid returns to the Pittsburgh Glass Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
to co-teach a class with Ben Johnson called Glassblowing: Beyond the Book. He is also
working on plans for pre- or post-conference GAS workshops in Corning, New York, in
June 2016. The rest of the summer he offers private instruction in his Bellingham studio.

The New and Improved Glass Mountain Studio
In the summer of 2015, Schmid and Enos left their studio after the better part of two
decades. It had been pieced together bit by bit, starting with a 30-pound electric furnace that
was eventually converted to gas, not based on cost savings but on heat capacity. Schmid
also built a 100-pound-capacity furnace that is still used today plus a small glory hole and
a decent-size annealer.
Mireault had already started building a glass studio on his mushroom farm before a
friendship with Schmid blossomed. Mireault’s 27-year-old son Noah was interested in
glassblowing, and eventually Schmid gave him and Mireault’s younger sons Sam and Ben,
ages 9 and 6 respectively, glassblowing lessons. According to Schmid, “That started this
really phenomenal relationship.”
Schmid eventually found a place to live directly across the street from his old house, but
there was no room to build a hot shop. Mireault, who owns six acres on Mt. Baker Highway,
offered his land as a place to build a hot glass studio. In addition to owning and operating
Bellingham Plumbing and Heating, Mireault runs his organic mushroom farm, and his wife
Anne has an egg and poultry business on-site as well.

Outside the Hot Shop, with a view that overlooks

the Coastal Range of British Columbia.

Nortel

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Glassworking

Burners, Torches and

Glass Wet Cut Saws

MINI MILON

BENCH BURNER

UNITORCH

HAND TORCH

RED MAX

BENCH BURNER

Surface Mix or Premix Topfire

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Bench Burners

Major • Midrange Plus

Minor • Mega Minor • Midrange

Red Max • Rocket

photography: dougbaldwinphoto.com

Hand Torches

Multimix • Unitorch

Twinfuel • Ranger