| Jim Graper |
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Born on Oahu, Jim has lived on the Big Island since 2004. He has always been interested in the arts, claiming that it all started when an aunt bought him a toy version of a potter's wheel. This led to ceramics classes all the way through college. After college, he moved to Maui where he worked for a visual arts center, the Hui No'eau in Makawao. There he furthered his art education by taking classes in photography, woodworking, printmaking, ceramics, and watercolor painting. The opportunity to work in glass was not available there, so he started "hanging around" the glass shop in Makawao. "If you hang out long enough, glass blowers put you to work." It was at Hot Island Glass that he apprenticed under Chris Richards and Chris Lowery. "Working with glass is a constant learning process. Glass is always cooling down, so it goes through this change from a honey consistency to a solid mass that cannot be formed. It is this change that makes it so challenging." Several different techniques are used when working with glass, including blowing, sand casting, fusing and torch work. The time involved in making a piece may be two to three days, sometimes longer. After being made, the hot glass goes into an annealing oven. The oven brings the temperature down from 850 degrees F to room temperature, after which some pieces need to be finished on a diamond wheel and / or beveling wheel. Because of the high cost of glass blowing equipment, Jim built his own furnace, glory holes and ovens. "I am inspired by the beauty around us, in the islands, and want to share it through my glasswork with others." |
