British Society of Scientific Glassblowers (BSSG)

INTRODUCTION. The similarities between this symposium and an electric guitar led band of the 1970’s need no explanation. OK maybe it does then! It was all about “feedback”, and it was feedback, feedback feedback. No “back-chat” and the feedback was constructive, entertaining and given, (as well as accepted) in good faith. Even the AGM of one and a half hours length was made pleasurable by virtue of the interaction of members present. I kid ye not.
	REHEARSALS With a grand entrance, I managed to “bag” one of the nearest parking spaces to the front of the hotel at Stratford-upon-Avon. This was no mean feat when one considers my navigator was Willie McCormack who had enticed me around and around and around York with a tour of roundabouts on the way to Stratford! If I see one more “zeberdee” I will scream!
A quick visit to check out how many complimentary items were positioned in my bedroom was followed by dinner and meeting fellow actors or delegates keen to “tread the boards”. Having closely avoiding eviction from the lounge bar due to the misuse of a plastic carrier bag and its contents, I retreated to recharge my batteries by sleeping under my suitcase that had been left until the morning to unpack. The morning arrived quicker than I had calculated and I rushed down for breakfast with my brain following a couple of hours later.
	ACT ONE, THURSDAY 14TH AUGUST With a juggling act that would get me promoted to ring master in a circus, I supervised the exhibitor’s positions, entries for competitions arriving and the demonstration equipment. Sourcing coffee was somewhat harder in that I could always find someone to talk to which distracted me, but in a very good way. I mean these events don’t happy every day do they? Must make the most of them and it was great to see so many friends again. Is it me or is everyone getting older?
Always a difficult decision, to change into a suit before lunch or after. No problem if I had bought a suit coloured as if food had been splatter all over it but I had not. I had actually invested in purchasing a “Tesco’s” special offer suit and this was to be its first outing.
	The Mayor of Stratford-upon Avon, Councillor Mrs Joyce Taylor surprised the welcoming party by arriving five minutes early but my Scout training had prepared me for the occasion and I lit a camp fire and erected a tent! No, of course not, I jest. The Mayor was accompanied by her Consort which as her husband, Nathaniel, was perfectly suited to protect the Mayor from the torrential rain as he held an umbrella. The rain didn’t spoil the companion’s programme that sped off for a boat ride and it was a case of “water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink”. Of course that all changed later in the evening!
Following the official opening, the Mayor toured the exhibition area while the first lecture took place. This was presented by Alan Hearsum of Glass Training Limited and concerned the application of distance learning.
	The exhibitors as ever put on a fine show for the symposium and took, as one would expect, great pride in each of their own products, eagerly enlightening the Mayor and Consort of the various virtues of scientific glassware. First timers SGL had obviously thought up a clever ploy of giving away artistic glass as one kind of “business card” or promotional gift and the Mayor was pleased to receive such an item. All the exhibitors really involved themselves in contributing to the success of the symposium for which the Society is most thankful. They were:
GLASS PRECISION ENGINEERING LTD. JEPSON BOLTON & CO LTD SCHOTT UK LTD SCILABWARE SCIENTIFIC GLASS LTD.
	One highlight in the exhibition area was exactly that. Both high and light, it consisted of several glass tubes merging from a ceramic base and was the winning entry in the Flack Award Competition. Created by John Sampson, who I am glad to say, was present in setting up the device which enabled all the tubes to be lit. I say all, but in reality one or two tubes were not performing as expected and these must have been the ones I had ago at connecting. Maybe a case of a loose connection and the glass was suffering in the same!
The Mayor was very appreciative of all the artistic glassware on show, especially the entries for the charity auction which this year was being divided between a local charity helping people with disabilities and learning difficulties and The Shakespeare Hospice. The theme being “Shakespeare” was heavily interpreted in its widest possible understandings and contributions ranged form “Hamlet” cigars sealed in glass to an exact replica of a candelabra that Shakespeare used to write his plays. Yea right!!!!!
	A quick dash to the conservatory was accompanied by raised voices due to the rain bouncing off the plastic roof was creating thunderous sounds without the need of real thunder. It was here that the Mayor showed off her skills at blowing glasses as did the Consort. Both blew a bulb at the end of a tube and I just imagined them carefully carrying them home to compare who was the best shape and size. Previous to this Willie McCormack produced as if by magic a swan out of the flame, rather like a rabbit out of a hat and any similarities between a rabbit and Willie’s swan is, I am sure, purely co-incidental!
Perfect timing saw the chauffer return, with obligatory car and umbrellas to whisk the Mayor and Consort off to another function, (bet it won’t be as hot as ours!!!!). I managed to relieve myself of a suit, replacing it with ASGS shirt and jeans. Reason being I was going to be talking of my recent experience in attending this year’s American Scientific Glassblowers Society symposium in Atlantic City. However before me were two wise men, (could I be the third???), Richard Atkin from Scilabware and Jeremy Bolton of Jepson Bolton. Richard gave a very useful and practical update on the recent change of ownership and its effects of Barloworld, which is now known as Scilabware. Jeremy spoke of his recent venture in launching an EBay shop which by all accounts is set to grow and grow. Maybe it will be only a matter of time before we see the BSSG Journal collection being sold on this auction
	web site! Thankfully all the technical gremlins decided to stay at home and laptops with connections to projectors worked fine. This was due to the very helpful staff of the hotel who coped so well with my irrational impatience that I am sure they must have had hospital health care training
During the evening, most delegates found time to eat, in-between drinking and bidding for loved objects in the auction. A fantastic sum of £530 was raised and we even had one telephone bidder. I only hope it wasn’t a wrong number. The bidding reached a fever pitch as heckling was mistaken for bidding and with no age barrier enforced bids were being accepted from the under one year old segment of the audience. Many scratches of noses resulted in glassware going home to places they only dreamed off. Even “gate-crashers” Chris and Linda Pittock who had booked accommodation for one night opposite the symposium hotel turned up especially for the auction and obviously celebrate the opening of the purse.
	ACT TWO, FRIDAY 15TH AUGUST As a curtain raiser for the BSSG AGM and to contain the excitement of said event, delegates were treated to the launch of the BSSG DVD library. The words “launch” and “lunch” are very similar so it is easy to appreciate how one could be forgiven for turning up and expecting to see plates of food. There was plenty of information to digest however, in the shape of visual displays of working with dichoric glass. Oh how so glad am I that I found out how to work the DVD player. Once again the hotel staff came to my rescue and found that elusive missing lead. I thought wireless and mindless being one and the same. Obviously one can be easily remedied.
As mentioned before the AGM benefited considerable from good interaction of members and with some just attending for the AGM alone it makes me as Chairman really appreciate the effort that a lot of people go to. I was still Chairman at the close of the meeting so I suppose that is a result. We did get some useful contact details for Sections and I hope this will assist the Hon Secretary in his quest to improve communications within the Society. What we have yet to resolve is the lack of a replacement Treasurer. Dan has done an excellent job during his term of office and I am sure before next year we will have a person identified though our network of volunteers.
	During the morning, a few bangs were heard; coming from the conservatory area and it wasn’t the rain as the weather was glorious. This was appreciated by the companions who were on their day tour of the area. That’s the weather not the bangs! A touch of history and culture and will be reported later and separate to this rambling. The noise I refer to was that familiar to many glassblowers, burners backfiring and so it was that that was the perfect backdrop to an afternoon of demonstrations. .
Before that however we had a double act of a lecture by Drs Duncan Harding and Dan Wood. Cleverly arranged in the programme to appear before a short presentation on lathe maintenance I switched this around to keep delegates on their toes. Peter Hardt from Herbert Arnold gave an insight on his company’s approach to visiting customers to carry out lathe maintenance and answered many questions on alignment and levelling, which during symposium is quite common to see so much more misalignments than anything else
	The Norman Collins Memorial lecture was most suitable presented by Dan and Duncan and I for one felt we were really lucky to have them agree to appear. The subject revolved around the use of scientific glassware for air sensitive compounds and really was absorbing. If there is one thing that lampwokers love better than glassblowing it’s messing around with hose connectors, spanners and cylinders. That’s a lie of course, just show me a flame and watch me go
We saw Willie, Stephen Wilkes, Fred Morse and Bob Martin all show off their skills. Oh, and I did a little coil winding, the triangular version with flat tubing. Apparently some of the members watching had not seen coil winding before and I bet they wont ever see coil winding like that again for along time. Well maybe until the next symposium. Fred gave a very comprehensive and professional show of making a stopcock, while Stephen Wilkes explained how he was going to make three items in three minutes. He was obviously demonstrating his piece work skills and I did hope that wasn’t going to see his glass work in pieces. I didn’t as someone distracted me. Must have been the hi-vis waist coat that I was wearing as part of the risk assessment uniform. Bob completed the afternoons work with a Pegasus but to me it looked like a horse with wings!
	FINALE So with a nifty tug of bow tie, braces and buttons, and that was just the ladies, we all headed for the cocktail reception in anticipation of the exciting night a head. Yes it was time for the Annual Dinner!! This time our guest of honour was the Deputy Mayor of Stratford-upon-Avon, Councillor Mrs Jenny Fradgely and the Consort, which again was in husband duties since that is his role and Ian being his name. Great name eh?
The top table, for once was evenly balanced with the after dinner speaker, Paul Levent, making the number of diners to be eight. As a ventriqulist it was fortunate that he had two dummies thus keeping us all on an even keel. Of course dummies were a rarity at the Annual Dinner! The presentation of Awards went by as a quick flash. This may have been due to the large amount of mirrors on the walls of the room combined with the many cameras clicking away. Lee Mulholland of Southampton University collected his AD Wood Cup and Willie McCormack from Glasgow University accepted the Barloworld Cup form Richard Atkin who had explained about the name change of the trophy to it being known as the “Quickfit Cup” in future.
	John Stanyon won the Literary Prize, the Lucy Oldfield Cup and Harry Butler was awarded the Thames Valley Trophy for his contributions to the Society over many years. For her support to the Society over a number of years Jenny Turnock was presented with a certificate, ( made of glass, naturally!). Alan Howell received a cut glass bowl donated by Plowden and Thompson for his winning entry in the Auction competition. The Deputy Mayor presented the Flack Award for the artistic competition to John Sampson but as John was not present at the Dinner the Award was accepted on his behalf by Stephen Ramsey. Finally I had the immense pleasure of presenting the Chairman’s Rosebowl to Michelle LePinnet for all her help and support she has given to the Society both individually and through he husband Paul.
ENCORE Saturday morning saw me finish a half mile jog with thirty press-ups then I woke up from that nightmare! The final demonstration was by Sally Carver, better known as Red Hot Sal and it was this title that partly explained why such crowd had gather to witness Sally show her skills. Bead making is such an absorbing craft isn’t it? Of course it’s far more than that, it is an art and there are several at the top of their profession such as Sally that really push what one can do on a mandrel. Similar to the coil winding that was shown the previous day the glass flowed seemingly effortless around the metal.
	In truth there isn’t much similar at all, bead making using coloured high expansion glass and have you even tried to flow a liquid around a bead? One aspect did interest both delegates and companions alike were the use of an oxygen generator instead of a cylinder. I could just see what was going through some people’s minds, “Hmm bead making in the kitchen, just like bread making but without the r. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh
Mmmmmmm That's why they call you "Red Hot Sal"
As Chairman of the BSSG I closed the Symposium and passed the flame to myself as being Chairman of committee who is organising next year’s symposium in Clydebank, near Glasgow, Scotland from September 10th-12th. I look forward to seeing everyone who was at Stratford in Scotland where we can continue where we left off here.

INTRODUCTION.

The similarities between this symposium and an electric guitar led band of the 1970’s need no explanation. OK maybe it does then! It was all about “feedback”, and it was feedback, feedback feedback. No “back-chat” and the feedback was constructive, entertaining and given, (as well as accepted) in good faith. Even the AGM of one and a half hours length was made pleasurable by virtue of the interaction of members present. I kid ye not.

REHEARSALS

With a grand entrance, I managed to “bag” one of the nearest parking spaces to the front of the hotel at Stratford-upon-Avon. This was no mean feat when one considers my navigator was Willie McCormack who had enticed me around and around and around York with a tour of roundabouts on the way to Stratford! If I see one more “zeberdee” I will scream!

A quick visit to check out how many complimentary items were positioned in my bedroom was followed by dinner and meeting fellow actors or delegates keen to “tread the boards”. Having closely avoiding eviction from the lounge bar due to the misuse of a plastic carrier bag and its contents, I retreated to recharge my batteries by sleeping under my suitcase that had been left until the morning to unpack. The morning arrived quicker than I had calculated and I rushed down for breakfast with my brain following a couple of hours later.

ACT ONE, THURSDAY 14TH AUGUST

With a juggling act that would get me promoted to ring master in a circus, I supervised the exhibitor’s positions, entries for competitions arriving and the demonstration equipment. Sourcing coffee was somewhat harder in that I could always find someone to talk to which distracted me, but in a very good way. I mean these events don’t happy every day do they? Must make the most of them and it was great to see so many friends again. Is it me or is everyone getting older?

Always a difficult decision, to change into a suit before lunch or after. No problem if I had bought a suit coloured as if food had been splatter all over it but I had not. I had actually invested in purchasing a “Tesco’s” special offer suit and this was to be its first outing.

The Mayor of Stratford-upon Avon, Councillor Mrs Joyce Taylor surprised the welcoming party by arriving five minutes early but my Scout training had prepared me for the occasion and I lit a camp fire and erected a tent! No, of course not, I jest. The Mayor was accompanied by her Consort which as her husband, Nathaniel, was perfectly suited to protect the Mayor from the torrential rain as he held an umbrella. The rain didn’t spoil the companion’s programme that sped off for a boat ride and it was a case of “water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink”. Of course that all changed later in the evening!

Following the official opening, the Mayor toured the exhibition area while the first lecture took place. This was presented by Alan Hearsum of Glass Training Limited and concerned the application of distance learning.

The exhibitors as ever put on a fine show for the symposium and took, as one would expect, great pride in each of their own products, eagerly enlightening the Mayor and Consort of the various virtues of scientific glassware. First timers SGL had obviously thought up a clever ploy of giving away artistic glass as one kind of “business card” or promotional gift and the Mayor was pleased to receive such an item. All the exhibitors really involved themselves in contributing to the success of the symposium for which the Society is most thankful. They were:

GLASS PRECISION ENGINEERING LTD.
JEPSON BOLTON & CO LTD
SCHOTT UK LTD
SCILABWARE
SCIENTIFIC GLASS LTD.

One highlight in the exhibition area was exactly that. Both high and light, it consisted of several glass tubes merging from a ceramic base and was the winning entry in the Flack Award Competition. Created by John Sampson, who I am glad to say, was present in setting up the device which enabled all the tubes to be lit. I say all, but in reality one or two tubes were not performing as expected and these must have been the ones I had ago at connecting. Maybe a case of a loose connection and the glass was suffering in the same!

The Mayor was very appreciative of all the artistic glassware on show, especially the entries for the charity auction which this year was being divided between a local charity helping people with disabilities and learning difficulties and The Shakespeare Hospice. The theme being “Shakespeare” was heavily interpreted in its widest possible understandings and contributions ranged form “Hamlet” cigars sealed in glass to an exact replica of a candelabra that Shakespeare used to write his plays. Yea right!!!!!

A quick dash to the conservatory was accompanied by raised voices due to the rain bouncing off the plastic roof was creating thunderous sounds without the need of real thunder. It was here that the Mayor showed off her skills at blowing glasses as did the Consort. Both blew a bulb at the end of a tube and I just imagined them carefully carrying them home to compare who was the best shape and size. Previous to this Willie McCormack produced as if by magic a swan out of the flame, rather like a rabbit out of a hat and any similarities between a rabbit and Willie’s swan is, I am sure, purely co-incidental!

Perfect timing saw the chauffer return, with obligatory car and umbrellas to whisk the Mayor and Consort off to another function, (bet it won’t be as hot as ours!!!!). I managed to relieve myself of a suit, replacing it with ASGS shirt and jeans. Reason being I was going to be talking of my recent experience in attending this year’s American Scientific Glassblowers Society symposium in Atlantic City. However before me were two wise men, (could I be the third???), Richard Atkin from Scilabware and Jeremy Bolton of Jepson Bolton. Richard gave a very useful and practical update on the recent change of ownership and its effects of Barloworld, which is now known as Scilabware. Jeremy spoke of his recent venture in launching an EBay shop which by all accounts is set to grow and grow. Maybe it will be only a matter of time before we see the BSSG Journal collection being sold on this auction

web site! Thankfully all the technical gremlins decided to stay at home and laptops with connections to projectors worked fine. This was due to the very helpful staff of the hotel who coped so well with my irrational impatience that I am sure they must have had hospital health care training

During the evening, most delegates found time to eat, in-between drinking and bidding for loved objects in the auction. A fantastic sum of £530 was raised and we even had one telephone bidder. I only hope it wasn’t a wrong number. The bidding reached a fever pitch as heckling was mistaken for bidding and with no age barrier enforced bids were being accepted from the under one year old segment of the audience. Many scratches of noses resulted in glassware going home to places they only dreamed off. Even “gate-crashers” Chris and Linda Pittock who had booked accommodation for one night opposite the symposium hotel turned up especially for the auction and obviously celebrate the opening of the purse.

ACT TWO, FRIDAY 15TH AUGUST

As a curtain raiser for the BSSG AGM and to contain the excitement of said event, delegates were treated to the launch of the BSSG DVD library. The words “launch” and “lunch” are very similar so it is easy to appreciate how one could be forgiven for turning up and expecting to see plates of food. There was plenty of information to digest however, in the shape of visual displays of working with dichoric glass. Oh how so glad am I that I found out how to work the DVD player. Once again the hotel staff came to my rescue and found that elusive missing lead. I thought wireless and mindless being one and the same. Obviously one can be easily remedied.

As mentioned before the AGM benefited considerable from good interaction of members and with some just attending for the AGM alone it makes me as Chairman really appreciate the effort that a lot of people go to. I was still Chairman at the close of the meeting so I suppose that is a result. We did get some useful contact details for Sections and I hope this will assist the Hon Secretary in his quest to improve communications within the Society. What we have yet to resolve is the lack of a replacement Treasurer. Dan has done an excellent job during his term of office and I am sure before next year we will have a person identified though our network of volunteers.

During the morning, a few bangs were heard; coming from the conservatory area and it wasn’t the rain as the weather was glorious. This was appreciated by the companions who were on their day tour of the area. That’s the weather not the bangs! A touch of history and culture and will be reported later and separate to this rambling. The noise I refer to was that familiar to many glassblowers, burners backfiring and so it was that that was the perfect backdrop to an afternoon of demonstrations. .

Before that however we had a double act of a lecture by Drs Duncan Harding and Dan Wood. Cleverly arranged in the programme to appear before a short presentation on lathe maintenance I switched this around to keep delegates on their toes. Peter Hardt from Herbert Arnold gave an insight on his company’s approach to visiting customers to carry out lathe maintenance and answered many questions on alignment and levelling, which during symposium is quite common to see so much more misalignments than anything else

The Norman Collins Memorial lecture was most suitable presented by Dan and Duncan and I for one felt we were really lucky to have them agree to appear. The subject revolved around the use of scientific glassware for air sensitive compounds and really was absorbing.

If there is one thing that lampwokers love better than glassblowing it’s messing around with hose connectors, spanners and cylinders. That’s a lie of course, just show me a flame and watch me go

We saw Willie, Stephen Wilkes, Fred Morse and Bob Martin all show off their skills. Oh, and I did a little coil winding, the triangular version with flat tubing. Apparently some of the members watching had not seen coil winding before and I bet they wont ever see coil winding like that again for along time. Well maybe until the next symposium. Fred gave a very comprehensive and professional show of making a stopcock, while Stephen Wilkes explained how he was going to make three items in three minutes. He was obviously demonstrating his piece work skills and I did hope that wasn’t going to see his glass work in pieces. I didn’t as someone distracted me. Must have been the hi-vis waist coat that I was wearing as part of the risk assessment uniform. Bob completed the afternoons work with a Pegasus but to me it looked like a horse with wings!

FINALE

So with a nifty tug of bow tie, braces and buttons, and that was just the ladies, we all headed for the cocktail reception in anticipation of the exciting night a head. Yes it was time for the Annual Dinner!! This time our guest of honour was the Deputy Mayor of Stratford-upon-Avon, Councillor Mrs Jenny Fradgely and the Consort, which again was in husband duties since that is his role and Ian being his name. Great name eh?

The top table, for once was evenly balanced with the after dinner speaker, Paul Levent, making the number of diners to be eight. As a ventriqulist it was fortunate that he had two dummies thus keeping us all on an even keel. Of course dummies were a rarity at the Annual Dinner!
The presentation of Awards went by as a quick flash. This may have been due to the large amount of mirrors on the walls of the room combined with the many cameras clicking away. Lee Mulholland of Southampton University collected his AD Wood Cup and Willie McCormack from Glasgow University accepted the Barloworld Cup form Richard Atkin who had explained about the name change of the trophy to it being known as the “Quickfit Cup” in future.

John Stanyon won the Literary Prize, the Lucy Oldfield Cup and Harry Butler was awarded the Thames Valley Trophy for his contributions to the Society over many years. For her support to the Society over a number of years Jenny Turnock was presented with a certificate, ( made of glass, naturally!). Alan Howell received a cut glass bowl donated by Plowden and Thompson for his winning entry in the Auction competition. The Deputy Mayor presented the Flack Award for the artistic competition to John Sampson but as John was not present at the Dinner the Award was accepted on his behalf by Stephen Ramsey. Finally I had the immense pleasure of presenting the Chairman’s Rosebowl to Michelle LePinnet for all her help and support she has given to the Society both individually and through he husband Paul.

ENCORE

Saturday morning saw me finish a half mile jog with thirty press-ups then I woke up from that nightmare! The final demonstration was by Sally Carver, better known as Red Hot Sal and it was this title that partly explained why such crowd had gather to witness Sally show her skills. Bead making is such an absorbing craft isn’t it? Of course it’s far more than that, it is an art and there are several at the top of their profession such as Sally that really push what one can do on a mandrel. Similar to the coil winding that was shown the previous day the glass flowed seemingly effortless around the metal.

In truth there isn’t much similar at all, bead making using coloured high expansion glass and have you even tried to flow a liquid around a bead? One aspect did interest both delegates and companions alike were the use of an oxygen generator instead of a cylinder. I could just see what was going through some people’s minds, “Hmm bead making in the kitchen, just like bread making but without the r. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

Mmmmmmm That's why they call you "Red Hot Sal"

As Chairman of the BSSG I closed the Symposium and passed the flame to myself as being Chairman of committee who is organising next year’s symposium in Clydebank, near Glasgow, Scotland from September 10th-12th. I look forward to seeing everyone who was at Stratford in Scotland where we can continue where we left off here.