Browse through glassblower William Morris's website and see the different art pieces he has created with glass. What do you notice most about his glass works that's different from what you expected?

Career

Check out the work of a glassblower.

Challenge yourself to create five different art projects using different mediums and styles. Painting, sculpture, crochet, collage, etc. Is there a medium you preferred? Why? 

Day to Day

Explore different art mediums.

Find a working artist in your community and contact them to visit their studio to get another perspective of an artist's work space.

Visit an artist's studio.

Fine Artists

Create original artwork using any of a wide variety of media and techniques.

Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

Artistic

Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

Realistic

Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

Enterprising

First Interest High-Point

Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

Investigative

Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Social

Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.

Conventional

Second Interest High-Point

Third Interest High-Point

Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators

Artists and Related Workers

Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations

Art and Design Workers

Use materials such as pens and ink, watercolors, charcoal, oil, or computer software to create artwork.

Integrate and develop visual elements, such as line, space, mass, color, and perspective, to produce desired effects, such as the illustration of ideas, emotions, or moods.

Confer with clients, editors, writers, art directors, and other interested parties regarding the nature and content of artwork to be produced.

Submit preliminary or finished artwork or project plans to clients for approval, incorporating changes as necessary.

Maintain portfolios of artistic work to demonstrate styles, interests, and abilities.

Create finished art work as decoration, or to elucidate or substitute for spoken or written messages.

Cut, bend, laminate, arrange, and fasten individual or mixed raw and manufactured materials and products to form works of art.

Monitor events, trends, and other circumstances, research specific subject areas, attend art exhibitions, and read art publications to develop ideas and keep current on art world activities.

Study different techniques to learn how to apply them to artistic endeavors.

Render drawings, illustrations, and sketches of buildings, manufactured products, or models, working from sketches, blueprints, memory, models, or reference materials.

Create sketches, profiles, or likenesses of posed subjects or photographs, using any combination of freehand drawing, mechanical assembly kits, and computer imaging.

Create sculptures, statues, and other three-dimensional artwork by using abrasives and tools to shape, carve, and fabricate materials such as clay, stone, wood, or metal.

Study styles, techniques, colors, textures, and materials used in works undergoing restoration to ensure consistency during the restoration process.

Develop project budgets for approval, estimating time lines and material costs.

Shade and fill in sketch outlines and backgrounds, using a variety of media such as water colors, markers, and transparent washes, labeling designated colors when necessary.

Collaborate with engineers, mechanics, and other technical experts as necessary to build and install creations.

Create and prepare sketches and model drawings of cartoon characters, providing details from memory, live models, manufactured products, or reference materials.

Examine and test paintings in need of restoration or cleaning to determine techniques and materials to be used.

Create graphics, illustrations, and three-dimensional models to be used in research or in teaching, such as in demonstrating anatomy, pathology, or surgical procedures.

Brush or spray protective or decorative finishes on completed background panels, informational legends, exhibit accessories, or finished paintings.

Trace drawings onto clear acetate for painting or coloring, or trace them with ink to make final copies.

Apply solvents and cleaning agents to clean surfaces of paintings, and to remove accretions, discolorations, and deteriorated varnish.

Model substances such as clay or wax, using fingers and small hand tools to form objects.

Collaborate with writers who create ideas, stories, or captions that are combined with artists' work.

Provide entertainment at special events by performing activities such as drawing cartoons.

Render sequential drawings that can be turned into animated films or advertisements.

Market artwork through brochures, mailings, or Web sites.

Photograph objects, places, or scenes for reference material.

Set up exhibitions of artwork for display or sale.

Frame and mat artwork for display or sale.

Teach artistic techniques to children or adults.

Acrylic paintbrushes

Alcohol lamps

Angle grinders

Artists' fountain pens

Artists' palette knives

Artists' palettes

Ball mills

Bevel tools

Brazing tools

Bush hammers

Bust armatures

Camera lenses

Ceramic bead bars

Clay cutters

Clay mixers

Computer data input scanners

Detail carving tools

Die grinders

Digital calipers

Digital hydrometers

Digital pyrometers

Digital scales

Digital thermometers

Digital viscosometers

Dipping tongs

Drying cabinets

Dust masks

Edging tools

Electric kilns

Electric potters wheels

Electric saws

Encaustic scrapers

Encaustic spatulas

Enlarger timers

Extruder dies

Fettling knives

Figure armature systems

Gas kilns

Glass kilns

Graduated measuring cylinders

Hand chisels

Hand glaze mixers

Handheld clay extruders

Handlemaker tools

Head armatures

Heat resistant gloves

Kick wheels

Kiln carts

Kiln oxygen probes

Kiln ventilation hoods

Laptop computers

Lens filters

Linoleum cutters

Loop tools

Mat cutters

Metal inert gas MIG welders

Mold knives

Oil paintbrushes

Oxyacetylene torches

Paint spray guns

Personal computers

Photo enlargers

Photo quality computer printers

Photography tripods

Plasma cutters

Pneumatic chisels

Pot lifts

Potter's ribs

Pottery cleanup tools

Pottery duster brushes

Pottery kilns

Power sanders

Print squeegees

Printing tongs

Processing trays

Protective safety glasses

Pugmills

Raku kilns

Raku tongs

Remote firing flashes

Riffler rasps

Round hole punches

Saber saws

Sandblasting guns

Sculpting thumbs

Sgraffito tools

Shielded arc welders

Single lens reflex SLR cameras

Slab mats

Slab rollers

Square hole cutters

Stationary lighting systems

Steel rasps

Stone carving chisels

Stone carving knives

Stone saws

Strobe flashes

Sumi paintbrushes

Tablet computers

I was on the welding team and we were making really big pieces for Rome, Chicago, etc. I was the only girl basically in the building and it was a real difficult situation. It put a lot of stress on me as far as not making my own work, being the only woman there.

Glassblower/Owner

The road-trippers try their hand at spinning molten glass with glassblower Jessica Schimpf. The world isn't looking for you, she says, you have to go out and find it--she left a big-time welding gig to follow her dreams. In Texas, the team interviews Austonites on the street and goes for beignets and palm readings in New Orleans before hitting crowd-powered T-shirt purveyor Threadless in Chicago.
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Make it Your Own

I went to school for welding design, pouring metal, and working in the foundry and all these crazy things. I thought it was like everything. So I ended up working at the worlds biggest studio, we made the biggest sculptures. I was on the welding team and we were making really big pieces for Rome and Chicago and California and [CROSSTALK] >> How old were you at that point, or? >> 22, 23 and I was the only girl basically in the building and it was a really difficult situation. I think it put a lot of stress on me as far as not making my own work, being the only woman there, getting sick everyday from the fumes of the welding. And there was this moment I remember just thinking like this is not me, this is not what I want to be in my life. I really just had to drop everything and start over and just move and I just explored. And I took some time off and I was doing my thing, traveling out here to Colorado and just kind of experimenting with different processes. I ended up blowing glass and trying it for the first time and falling in love. It was like that was it, that's my life you know. It changed everything for me. >> Coming out of school, you must have had a lot of determination to just, like cuz a lot of people, I think take kind of like a backseat, but you just went out and got that. >> Yeah, that's kinda of, how this company came to be. I was making beautiful art work and getting no where until I actually walked into those shops and said, you need to buy my work, and here's why. You know, you can't find anything like it in the United States, let me give you a free sample. >> What do you think you've learned about life through the process of glassblowing? >> Everything. I mean, it's kind of a very holistic thing for me. It incorporates everything, it's a way of life. Glass is more about being able to slow down. During college I was so fast and wanted to make a lot of work. Glassblowing is a little bit different, where you kind of step back a little bit and you assess what needs to be done. I think that awareness really changed my life significantly. It's really interesting too, because I started to notice that the most beautiful work that I was making is when I'm kinda removed a little bit. I'm almost like in the routine and I don't even really know what I'm doing. It just kinda flows. And you have the moments where it's really calm you just go with it, finding music in the art. The biggest thing that I've learned is with glass, it's always about your intention. When I tend to think that it's gonna go well and I put really positive energy into it, it comes out well. I always tell people if art is your passion, music, any type of artistic process, you make it. You define it. The world is sitting there. They're not looking for you, you're searching for it. The best experiences I've ever had have been that leap of faith where you're like, you know what, screw it, I'm just gonna go for it. If you don't give it a try you'll never know. That's my favorite thing in physics is the quantum leap. It's the statement that everything in the universe works a certain way but for some reason something counteracts and that's life, that's human nature. We're in this structure and we have a routine and then all of a sudden you're like, I want to move to Colorado, oh my god. And it just ignites 10,000 things for you. I think the best route is doing what all of you are doing, just traveling. Seeing what you like, finding those niches. I think that's kinda the key. 

Choices

Confidence

Dedication

Desire

Goals

Passion

Interview

I went to school for welding, design, pouring metal, and working in the foundry, and all of these crazy things, I thought it was everything. And there was this moment, I remember just thinking, this is not me, this is not what I want to be in my life. I really just had to drop everything and start over and just move, and I just explored. And I took some time off and I was doing my thing, traveling out here to Colorado, and just kind of experimenting with different processes. I ended up blowing glass and trying it for the first time, and falling in love, like that's it, that's my life. 

Transitions

Jessica Schimpf Highlight

Coming out of school you must of had a lot of determination to just, because a lot of people I think take kind of a back seat but you just went out and got that >> Yeah, that's kind of how this company came to be. >> I was making beautiful artwork and getting nowhere until I actually walked into those shops and said, you need to buy my work and here's why. You can't anything like it in the United States. Let me give you a free sample. 

Determination

Leave School Determined

I grew up playing music, I still write songs. Right now, I'm like three years out of college and I'm a musician, and I'm a swim coach, and I'm a lifeguard, and I work for a health, so I have jobs. >> Of course. >> But not like a career. >> So now I'm kinda taking this Summer to explore and see. >> Nice. >> Where that leads me. >> I was the same way. I started off writing music my whole life and having eight thousand billion jobs and then getting amazing jobs, losing those jobs. It took probably four years of failure. Seriously, every day of working at low end jobs, getting paid absolutely nothing and then doing this out of my own pocket and kinda paying for it. But then, it's interesting, I think the more that you believe, the more successful you become. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, it takes time though. 

Failure

Hard Work

The More You Believe The More Successful You Become

Can you talk more about your relationship with glass [INAUDIBLE]. >> Sure, I see it as not only my passion, but my business. I want it be something that thrives and continues to go on in the future. I want to reach audiences that haven't seen this kind of work before. The business plan is structured into three different things, your craft, marketing and being the spokesperson for a company, and sales. That's really what it comes down to. And I don't know, you just have to make it your own, you really do. A lot of the artists that I see, especially in Denver, they're incredible but they don't know marketing. And that's kind of my secret, I think, it goes hand in hand. Marketing and sales, I mean you do have to pitch yourself. Like recently I walked into this amazing gallery, and I just walked in, and I was talking with the owners and I pitched a solar show. And they would have never found me. It was always me contacting other people. So, if you want something bad enough, I think definitely go after it. 

Planning

Glass Business

What do you think you've learned about life through the process of glassblowing? >> Everything. I mean, it's kind of a very holistic thing for me. It incorporates everything, its a way of life. Glass is more about being able to slow down. Cuz during college I was so fast and wanted to make a lot of work. Glassblowing is a little bit different, where you kinda step back a little bit and you assess what needs to be done. I think that awareness really changed my life significantly. 

Self-Reflection

Glass Blowing

Was it hard to leave home? >> My family kind of thought it was a joke at first and when it came down to the last couple days my parents were really upset about it. My dad, I remember he was crying, and he was like I can't believe I showed you Colorado and now you are going. He was a little bitter about it. But I said dad this is my life and if I don't do this now. I'll never know if I don't take that chance and if I don't experience something different and push glass and I'm gonna stay in the same space and I don't want to do that. 

Family

Focus

Leaving Home

For me, success lies in, did I try my best today? If I lost every single piece, did I at least try? Did I really put in my best effort and did I feel like it was worth something? Did I learn something today? And I think as an artist that's really important, otherwise you become a perfectionist and you kind of get lost in your work and you start to become somebody else. So for me I try to stay grounded. And success is really just having moved out here and starting something that's different that's catching on. And being able to share my passion with other people and being able to do this full time is like the biggest thing in my life. 

Jessica Schimpf

Glassblower/Owner

Videos

Jessica Schimpf

Milestones

Education

Career

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

My work combines:

Art

Entrepreneurship

Being Creative

Hurdles

Challenges I Overcame

Other

Interviewed By

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