Sarah Band: Spooky Scientific Delights

North Carolina glass artist, Sarah Band, is inspired by science, anatomy, and creepy stuff. As a sculpture major at San Francisco State, her ambition to create a large kaleidoscope led her to her first encounter with glass. Sarah was hooked as soon as she saw someone blow out molten material.

In a craft medium like glass, the blower needs a strong understanding of chemistry. Sarah explains the process of using different metal oxides to create various glass colors. She also highlights the intersection of science and art in her work, drawing inspiration from scientific discoveries and her upbringing in a family of physicists. Both science and art begin with observation and the desire to learn about the world.

Sarah does two types of glass blowing: furnace and flameworking. The furnace glass is the traditional Venetian style with long metal pipes and a big hot furnace. Flameworking is the process of bending tubes of glass over a flame. The more skill a glassblower has, the thinner they can blow out the glass and the more colors they can use. Colors are challenging because they heat up at different rates. There are no breaks when creating a glass work of art; the artist is constantly reheating and turning the glass so it doesn’t explode.

Visit Sarah’s web site at: https://www.sarahaband.com/

Mentions:

• Cat Viera (@catvierapottery), teacher at the North Carolina Pottery Center (Seagrove, NC): https://ncpotterycenter.org
• Sawtooth School for Visual Arts (Winston-Salem, NC): https://www.sawtooth.org
• Starworks Gallery/Studio (Star, NC): https://www.starworksnc.org