Video Transcript

Cupboard:
Hi, this is John from the Cupboard in Cincinnati Ohio, with another addition of the Cupboard’s Artist Insights. We’re in Las Vegas with Scott Murphy who’s going to take us on a little inside look at the journey from learning glassware blowing to becoming one of the great artists, and some of the dangers along the way. Scott, tell us what motivated you to be a glassblower.

Scott Murphy:
What motivated me was I was working a regular 9 to 5 job. I was manufacturing mechanical seals for the seal industry. It was a corporate atmosphere. I came down with some arthritic problems, and they weren’t really very understanding for me, and they were giving me a hard time when I wasn’t able to come in because I was dealing with pain, so I just got sick of it, sick of dealing with that job, sick of dealing with the mentally, the lack of understanding, and the corporate mentally in general.      

I’m an artist and I’ve always felt that I should pursue my career as an artist, or my life as an artist. I felt a lot of my talent was being wasted where I was working because I was just putting parts together. I wasn’t creating. I wasn’t developing. I wasn’t doing what I feel like I should be doing as a human being. I wasn’t providing more than I can to the world.

That’s why I joined my friends here at, Original Glass, to contribute my creative abilities and my skills to help everybody grow.

Cupboard:
Scott, how long have you been blowing glass wares?

Scott Murphy:
I originally started blowing glass part-time when I lived out in Vannies. I was making production work. All I made were spoons. I didn’t make anything heady. I made the same product over and over and over and over again. I made thousands of them. I worked 4 hour days, every single day of the week. I stopped because I had to move for another job that I had got that I thought had a better opportunity. After working that job for 4 years, and occasionally blowing glass … I had a little studio at my house, but I wasn’t doing it professionally, I wasn’t constantly producing. Just recently I quit my job to start blowing glass again. I’ve been doing it again for about 4 months. It’s not like riding a bicycle. There’s a lot of [chuckle 00:02:31] relearning that you have to do.

Cupboard:
With relearning are there any new techniques you come up with in the process?

Scott Murphy:
Absolutely. Absolutely, and that is what I was going to go in to. In the process of relearning I’m coming up with new processes, new ways of blowing glass, because the older techniques are a little bit more difficult right now. I know I’m going to get them back. I know I’m going to be able to handle the bigger heavier stuff, and I’m going to start cranking out the heady piece. I’ve got some fabulous ideas and there’s a lot more to come. 

I have what I have now. Right now I’ve got these little finger dabbers that I’m making. Mostly with my career now … before I did the production, I did the production. I’ve made thousands of production pieces. Now I’m going to focus on the artistic side and also management. I’m helping everybody at the shop. I’m helping getting orders out. I’m helping dealing with customers, and also perfecting my skill in that aspect as well.

Cupboard:
We all know that glassblowing can be dangerous. You have a pretty creative analogy to describe that danger.

Scott Murphy:
I like to liken glass to a relationship with a woman. This may be misogynistic to some people, but it’s romantic as far as I’m concerned. Sometimes with glass, you’ll make beautiful things. Everything will flow gorgeously. It’ll do exactly what you wanted it to, and you’ll make beautiful things together. You’ll make gorgeous masterpieces that you’ll be proud of, and other people will love, but there are times when glass just falls apart on you. It’ll cut you, it’ll break you, and it will burn you, [chuckle 00:04:12] and leave you empty-handed.

Glass is somewhat of a masochistic career to pursue. It’s a bit masochistic, but I’m somewhat of a masochist, so it’s okay. [Chuckle 00:04:26]

Cupboard:
The Cupboard once talked to you about this piece right here. Is there a motivation behind this piece?

Scott Murphy:
This piece is just an awesome piece to smoke out of. You’re able to use a minimal amount of water. Some processes you want to use a minimal amount of water, because you want to create a lot of diffusion, and you want that water to spread out and create a lot of surface area to create that filtration. We have these2 discs in here that through each hole breaks the water up and creates smaller bubbles to create more surface area, to filter more of that smoke, to pull out the heavier molecules so that you’re not ingesting that. That’s what that does. This has 2 different processes where it basically obliterates the water and knocks it around, and makes more bubbles. That’s what those disk diffusers are for. They also call them disk perks.