The Americus Hot Glass Craft Beer Festival was held April 5, organized by Americus Mainstreet. North Hampton Street was blocked off to make room for the festivities and live music. The pavilion for Lenny’s Farmer’s Market was remade into a temporary glass studio, with artists from far and wide demonstrating their craft. Stalls with volunteers handing out beer flanked the building, with a large tent for premium guests in the back.

The mobile furnaces emitted an orange glow as glassblowers took hollow rods called punties and dipped them in the molten glass, blowing through the opposite ends to form expanding molten bubbles. Rods were then rolled back and forth to ensure an evenly distributed piece, with various tools creating unique elaborations.

Arthur Wilson was one of the demonstrators, a graduate of Georgia Southwestern, who went on to display his skills on the Netflix show Blown Away. Chuck Wells, professor of glass blowing at GSW, was also on the scene. “We’ve rounded up a bunch of glass artists, and they’re coming from all over, really, the Southeast, and I would say 80% of the artists have come through GSW’s glass program in a variety of ways.” For many of the glassblowers, the event serves as a reunion, with former students reconnecting with teachers and meeting new students in the program.

Well’s predecessor, Ralph Harvey, was also on hand to for the demonstrations. Harvey headed the glassblowing program at GSW from 1976 to 2002, coming in seven years are the program was formed. While he had experience as a professional potter and jeweler, glassblowing was one field that was entirely new to him. He decided to take a fake-it-till-you-make-it approach.

Harvey recalls the excitement of his students at having a new glass blowing instructor. He made an excuse that he was too tired to glass blow and asked them to show off their skills. Harvey watched carefully, then snuck into the studio that night. “I blew two pieces. The first piece didn’t have any air in it, it just blew up, and the second piece was okay.”

He was able to keep one step ahead of classes every day. “If you do stuff long enough, and your life depends on it, you get pretty good at it.”

Despite so many years of experience, Harvey still finds new things to marvel at in the craft. “It’s strange, because you continue to learn as you work. About six months ago, I was making a piece and I did this move, and I said, ‘How come I couldn’t have figured this thing out 20 years ago?’”

He also finds plenty to inspire. “You learn everything from everybody.” Harvey believes everyone is an artist, they only require enough experience to form the skills to express it.

Harvey also shared what was most rewarding from all his years of teaching. “Seeing somebody that’s totally clumsy turning into a ballerina, or a ballet dancer.”

Valerie Robertson staffed a stall full of various creations, including gnomes, flowers, mushrooms and sea life. Her husband, Kelly Robertson, has a studio in Lawrenceville which offers weekly classes for those with a range of skills. He’s also a former student of Harvey.

Robertson described the challenges involved in running a glass blowing studio. “To keep doing it, making enough money to get by, having enough people to make the work that you want to make.” Robertson describes glassblowing as a team sport. “You can always make small things by yourself, but if you want to make more elaborate things, you have to have people around that you trust.”

Nathan Nardi has Decatur Glassblowing studio, and has worked with glass a little over 24 years. Their work ranges from corporate awards, drink ware, lighting, and various forms of sculpture.

He gave some of the challenges he had to overcome to master glass. “It’s a very tricky material to work with and it takes a lot of years to get the basics.”

Nardi enjoys playing with color and patterns in his work. He showed off one vase filled with crisscrossing patterns, which he estimates took him around 90 hours.