Some slave over a hot fire and make elegant meals, others slave over burning hot metal, creating structures and sculptures as memorials or centerpieces.
However, senior Kyle Patterson creates bowls, roses, vases, and much more with melted glass and an oven heated to 1500 degrees. Patterson has been blowing glass for about a year and a half, and has become “one of the best, if not the best at Paly,” according to fellow glassblower, Senior Peter Stucky.

As Patterson explained what he called the "simple steps? to make glass pieces, just imagining it caused me to break a sweat. Moving from the scalding ovens to the bench, and then back to the ovens, the entire time trying to manipulate the cooling piece, that will be impossible to manage if you don’t work fast enough as the glass cools back to room temperature. As if that were not enough, you have to turn this mound of dripping glass into a bowl, or a vase, just with your lung capacity, and a few differently shaped, and sized, tong-like tools.

Patterson became interested in glass blowing sophomore year as he watched the advanced art student’s struggle with the expanding, and hardening glass. Patterson caught the bug, and since then hasn’t been able to be pulled away from the melting glass. Every day he turns his ideas into glass, whether it is helping some of the beginners in basic ceramics, or working on his own ideas, and creations. “He is very focused,” Patterson’s co-worker and teacher Anthony Alfaro said. “He comes in before school and makes pieces or he does it during class, but everyday he is doing something with glass.” Patterson is in overdrive right now trying to make a variety of pieces for his college portfolio. He is planning on going to an East Coast school and has applied to Rhode Island School of Art and the Massachusetts Art Institute.

But for Patterson, it?s a lot more than just building a strong portfolio. “I’m consistently trying to make the best piece and forcing myself to get better and better,” Patterson said. “I force myself to make the best pieces because I will never be happy until I do.”

Patterson walks through the tedious process one more time, pointing out the numerous injuries that can come. Back problems, eye irritation, numerous burns varying from minor hair loss to blisters, as well as joint problems are just some of the many injuries that can come with blowing glass. He has only experienced burns, however if he blows glass long enough he knows that he will soon receive more than a burn because everyone he has worked under and learned from has been injured.

Patterson explains the process of glassblowing, which is long and tedious. First you gather glass by dipping a heated mental rod into the glass furnace. This rod has a place at the other end of it, where you blow to give the glass the shape that you want. This is by no means an easy task, as you need one person to help blow, one to shape, and one to turn the glass. Possibly even another person to help hold a shield to prevent burns. Help like this, preventing burns, is how glass blowing is more than just art. “It has a lot of valuable lessons in it, it can really teach you to work as a team,” Patterson said. “If you don’t have people around that you trust and want to work with, then it will be a lot harder for you in the long run.” Next comes the molding process, where you stick the gathered glass that has been blown out, and the rod into the furnace multiple times to get it hot enough to blow out and construct the piece. “Good glass blowers have a sketch book and the follow it, Patterson does just that,” Alfaro said.

The arts are so impressive because creating and manipulating pieces is never an easy task, let alone becoming inspired and dedicated to the piece. Patterson gets inspiration for his pieces from many different things in life. “I get my pieces from music a lot of the time, or I just see something and become inspired,” Patterson said.

Once the piece is molded to the desired shape, the glass is transferred to another rod. When the glass is on the first rod it is really being created backwards. When the transfer occurs you attach the rod to what will be the bottom of the piece and begin to create the opening of the glass piece.

Confusing as this sounds, it actually is a relatively simple process except a scolding glass that may cool too fast, and be impossible to mold.

Glass blowing has not only been a great experience for Patterson but has also helped raise popularity in the art department. Many students have been intrigued to take ceramics and some day maybe follow in Patterson’s footsteps.