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Dr. Andy Hudson's review of Thomas Chapman's liquid colors; frozen in space In this 46 minute videotape Thomas Chapman demonstrates three hot glass techniques: an uplift handkerchief styled footed bowl, a 25 foot long piece of solid cane, and a 'Point of Departure' solid glass cane-filled sculpture. Tom not only provides informative narration throughout the demonstrations but provides many insights into the 'privilege and pleasure' of working with molten glass. He provides lessons in the aesthetics, design, history, techniques, and the joys and heartbreaks of making art glass. The tape is intended for a general audience interested in the techniques of blown and hand-formed glass. It is also of great interest to beginning and advanced glass blowers. Just watching the tape and seeing Tom's studio was an education for me, and I've been blowing glass for over 15 years. His studio is the result of his visits to over 100 glass studios all across the US. It is without a doubt one of the most compact and convenient one-person studios ever built. His shop layout, tool locations, shielding and fan locations, automatic rollers, padded floors, break-off barrel locations, pipe warmer, pneumatic door operations, three headed rolling yoke and punti marver combination, and even an air-powered sofietta are all designed for maximum comfort and to save time and effort. The ideas gained from just seeing his studio make the tape worth the price. In addition to all this Tom flawlessly executes three techniques with step-by-step narration explaining not just the techniques but pointing out all the critical points and 'moments of truth', as he refers to them. In each piece he emphasizes controlling the glass temperature, design elements, color interactions, and the many adaptations he makes as he works unassisted on what are typically two-person pieces. Tom's 'Uplift' Series of Fazzaletto vessels are created in a dazzling riot of jeweltone colors as handkerchief styled footed vessels. His demonstration takes one bowl from its first gather, to adding transparent gold ruby color and gold topaz frit (small pieces of crushed glass). He uses a pick to blend the solid color and a pair of tweezers to impart a Van Gogh like starry night twisted effect in the frit. He then develops the bowls shape, adds a gathered clear foot, puntis the piece and adds a lip wrap before spinning out the final shape. After knocking the piece off he fire polishes the punti mark before putting it away in the annealer. Next Tom forms a transparent blue-green piece of cane by applying transparent color over opaque white and encasing it in two gathers of clear glass. After sticking a pulling rod to one end he uses a small clip on his work bench to hold one pipe while he pulls the other pipe to create a piece of cane over 25 feet. He then lays the cane on a pair of break-off ladders he has built especially for making cane unassisted. In his final demonstration Tom creates one of his signature 'Point of Departure' solid glass sculptures using multiple canes including solid blue, purple, red and gold canes, a dichroic accent cane, and a white latticino (twisted) cane. The canes, picked up hot from the annealer, are covered in several layers of clear glass and then heated precisely to the point of stretching without dropping off the pipe. Tom then deftly swings and manipulates the final shape of his sculpture elongating and twisting it into liquid stripes of color, which seem frozen in space. This physically exhausting, obviously joyful experience, best demonstrates why Tom refers to his art as the 'passion and privilege' of working with glass. Dr. Andy Hudson is an educator, glass blower and artist living in Columbus, Ohio where he is also Associate Director of Medical Education for the Ohio State University College of Medicine. Andy is one of three co-founders of Glass Axis Studios (Ohio's only not-for-profit, public-access glass studio), and is a founding member of both Roy G. Biv and Acme Art Co. not-for-profit galleries. He has been involved in videotape production since 1970 and has produced five glass demonstration videotapes of his own.