This assignment was shot for my photojournalism class
Justin Alexander, a long time fire performer, focuses on his flow as he spins his scorched fire staff behind Dew Drop Inn in Eugene, Oregon on February 6th. Alexander first started spinning four years ago when he was solo backpacking in Columbia, Missouri. While backpacking Alexander met a group of nomads who taught him how to ease his boredom by spinning a metal rod.
Experimenting with a new routine, Stephen O’Brien twirls a pair of his friend’s double fire staff just before midnight. O’brien shares that he would rather double wield because he “loves the intricate patterns he can create with smaller staffs.”
O’Brien joins fellow fire performers at Dew Drop Inn or Washington Jefferson St. Bridge Park every Thursday night to enjoy House music and practice spinning together. O’Brien started spinning LED staffs at music festivals when he was 18, but once he was introduced to fire spinning two and a half years ago he’s been playing with fire ever since
This photo story was a class assignment about Sky Glass, a glass blowing company, in Eugene, Oregon.
Bundled up in layers, Sky Cooper repairs a customer’s broken water pipe from the workshop located in the backyard of his humble Eugene home. He doesn’t mind braving the chilly winter days for the sake of his art, which just so happens to be his full-time job. Forty-four-year-old Cooper has been working as a glass blower for twenty-three years, but it hardly feels like work to him anymore. “You really don’t feel like you’re working when you love what you’re doing,” Cooper acknowledges. In his case, there is nothing else he would rather be doing.
Meticulously peering over the top of his safety glasses, Cooper adds final details to the pipe’s base using a carbon graphite rod. Because glass blowing is such a scrupulous process, it takes an experienced glass blower to produce pieces as quality as the ones Cooper makes. He mentions that Glass blowing has many safety precautions and requires very specific equipment. The glasses protect his eyes from ultraviolet and infrared lights emitting from the glass blowing process; without them, his eyes would be damaged with prolonged exposure. The shaping tool is made of graphite specifically because the mineral does not melt or stick against the molten glass.
Keeping warm by the flame of his Bethlehem torch and the heat radiating from the glass lathe, Cooper breathes air into the piece to shape it into a perfect cylinder. Between breaths he talks about how much he has improved as a glass-blower over the years. Though Sky Glass Inc focuses solely on creating products for the booming Marijuana industry, Cooper’s talent is not only isolated to making pipes. He is also known for helping fellow artists bring their designs to life by following the original sketches they share with him.
With adept steadiness, Cooper fixes a custom down stem brought in by a client earlier in the week. His left hand wields the torch’s flame against the shattered portion of the glass, while his right hand presses a damp cloth against the 6000-degree quartz to safely hold the piece in place and prevent overheating. In addition to private repairs, Cooper makes and sells original pieces to dispensaries and smoke shops locally and country-wide with the hopes that his company will eventually expand internationally while maintaining their high-quality products.
Symphonic tunes fill the room as Cooper enters the glass-blowing flow he often finds himself in after working for a couple hours. “My job is pretty relaxing, almost meditative at times,” Cooper reveals. Though there is a management side to Sky Glass Inc, Cooper is the only glassblower in the company, so he spends most of his days in comfortable solitude—an ideal situation for artistic introverts such as himself. He adds with a smirk that the seclusion enables him to binge watch any shows on Netflix and listen to his favorite music without anyone teasing him about his offbeat interests.
Janie Velarde 