BEE KINGDOM GLASS FIRES UP SOME COLOURFUL ARTWORK
Items range from utilitarian to whimsical figures, such as penguins
Every morning, Tuesday to Friday, Ryan Marsh Fairweather waits an hour at Velvet Cafe for his glass studio to warm up. His business partner, Phillip Bandura, is the tech-savvy one who usually leaves the media to Fairweather.
“He’s responsible for turning on the studio,” Fairweather said. “I’m the email guy.”
Their furnace stays on constantly, but the reheat station has to be turned off at night because it constantly spews out fire while active. They even decided to cut back their hours to reduce energy costs.
“It should add up to quite a bit of savings,” Fairweather said.
Bee Kingdom Glass specializes in low-volume glassworks with vibrant colours and creates everything from artful utilitarian pieces like a drinking glass, to whimsical figures, such as its penguin col- lection. It focuses on making art rather than trying to compete with factories that make standard glassware.
“When people are buying our artwork, they’re buying our story,” Fairweather said. “We kind of just do our own thing.”
Fairweather first got into glasswork while he attended the Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD). Fairweather said he had chosen a random course on glasswork and became fascinated with how he could turn a molten puddle into solid glass.
“It was kind of an accident.” Bandura became interested in glasswork during high school when his mother signed him up for a night class. He also attended ACAD, where he met Fairweather during their second year. They soon became friends.
After graduating, both continued their education at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Wash. Artist Dale Chihuly and patrons Anne Gould Hauberg and John H. Hauberg founded the school in 1971.
“It’s kind of the birthplace of the contemporary glass movement,” Fairweather said.
Artists like Chihuly, who was an inspiration to Fairweather and Bandura, brought the art of glasswork from Italy to the United States during the ’70s.
“It’s still a pretty young thing,” Fairweather said.
Returning to Calgary, Fairweather and Bandura decided to open their own glass studio with artist Tim Belliveau in 2004. They moved into the house of Bandura’s grandmother, who recently moved into a home, and converted the property to fit their needs.
“We had to expand the garage in a few different directions to make room for equipment,” Fairweather said.
Bee Kingdom Glass finally got off the ground in October 2006. The studio got its name because everyone here has to busily work in close quarters with each other, like “a colony of bees.”
Fairweather said the actual process for making glass is pretty simple. They buy a batch of glass, melt it in the furnace and shape it with tools.
“You’re using heat to manipulate the glass.”
Blowpipes are used to make hollow glass objects such as cups. Glass must also be held over the reheating station for the glass to hold its form while staying malleable enough for more shaping to be done.
There are multiple methods for colouring glass. For example, molten glass can be rolled round in crushed coloured glass, causing it to melt into the clear glass.
Depending on the size and complexity, their products can cost between $30 and $3,100. It takes around 20 minutes to make a simple glass object, but some complicated gallery pieces need three people working for three hours straight.
“We often get private commissions from those who want something special,” Fairweather said.
Although glasswork is potentially dangerous, Fairweather and Bandura know how to manoeuvre themselves around the hot equipment.
“It’s just something to be wary of,” Fairweather said. “You’re probably going to burn yourself on metal more than you’re going to burn yourself on glass.”
Belliveau left Bee Kingdom Glass to further his education in Montreal and now works closely with 3D printing. Fairweather and Bandura remained, but they are considering moving to somewhere more accessible to the public.
But before that, Fairweather said he wanted to focus on the business side and continue to self-promote. They currently do demonstrations for the public. For more information, go to beekingdomglass.com
“We’re very social. We’re not introverted artists at all.”