BE BLOWN AWAY BY NETFLIX STAR ELLIOT WALKER
They call him “Best in Glass.” We’ll find out on April 30 when Elliot Walker, Netflix Series “Blown Away” Season 2 Winner, comes to Pittsburgh Glass Center (PGC).
Anyone who saw the glassblowing competition on Netflix that aired in January 2021 and is available to watch now knows that Walker can sculpt almost anything in glass. Rising to meet every Season 2 challenge, some of his creations included a perfume bottle shaped like a whale, a hat and matching tie, a human spine with lungs, and a cartoon character named Mr. Noteworthy with a telescope as a head. He also had some tragic mistakes and breaks during the 10 episode season.
The public is invited to a free open house with Elliot Walker to watch him in action creating hot glass art and to learn about his process and his experience on “Blown Away” on Saturday, April 30:
Glassblowing demonstration with ongoing Q&A 10am-12pm
Interview with Elliot Walker 1:00-1:30pm
Glassblowing demonstration with ongoing Q&A 1:30-4pm
PGC Executive Director Heather McElwee, Blown Away guest judge, will also join the conversation. The event is free and wheelchair accessible. A sign language interpreter is provided. Get details online.
Shown here: Elliot Walker on the set of the Netflix Series “Blown Away” sketching a dung beetle (left)."Blown Away" resident evaluator Katherine Gray, host Nick Uhas, and guest evaluator Sunny Fong from Project Runway trying on a glass hat made by Elliot Walker. (right) SOURCE: NETFLIX
Blown Away Season 2
In the Netflix series Blown Away, 10 master artists turn up the heat in glassblowing sculpture challenges for the chance to win $60,000 in prizes and the title of champion. In the competition's ultimate challenge, the two finalists create an immersive gallery experience, and one is crowned "Blown Away" champion.
In Season 2 Episode 4, PGC Executive Director Heather McElwee was invited to present the day’s challenge to create hot glass art that inspires people to think about the environment and make changes to protect the planet and conveys a message of hope. Walker won the challenge that day sculpting a dung beetle rolling a large ball of recycled glass objects. The prize for the day was a 10-day residency at PGC.
During his residency at PGC in April, Walker will be working on and testing out a new series he wants to develop with the broad title of “Corpus Infinite” based on and developed from previous works.
Shown here (left to right): Elliot Walker hot glass art as inspiration for his residency at Pittsburgh Glass Center.
1: Cogito Ergo Sum 2021 (made in Elliot Walker's studio, developed from the original sculpture from Blown Away), photo by Simon Bruntnell
2: Aftermath Victuals 2021 (Acquired by Mus Verre, France 2022), photo by Simon Bruntnell
3: Psuchophysical Chemistry 2017, photo by Simon Bruntnell
SOURCE: ELLIOT WALKER
About Elliot Walker
Elliot Walker is a sculptor who has been working with molten glass for 15 years. He runs his own studio in the Red House Glass Cone in Stourbridge, England, a region that was the center of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution.
Learn more on Instagram
@ewalkerglassart
@blowfish_gallery
“The inspirations of my work are varied and wide-ranging, but come mostly from classical sculpture and painting.
I am a dedicated experimenter with my chosen material and constantly try to challenge myself and the audiences of my work to abandon many preconceptions of the material.
My sculptural style would be considered figurative as I do attempt to accurately represent my subject of interest, but my use of glass as a material is always at the heart of my conceptual focus and creates an ambiguity or surrealism in the works.
Sculpting in molten glass is known as the 'Massello' technique and working in this way requires extreme dexterity, speed and precise temperature control. The process itself is very physically and mentally demanding. Once you begin a piece you are obliged to see it through to the end in one session.
You are exposed to temperatures of over 1000 degrees centigrade and the process of coaxing a complex form out of the liquid glass is unlike working with any other material. The pieces are not cast, carved or ground into shape, but modelled from a cooling liquid so that, until the very last second, the sculpture is a moving living entity, frozen in time as the glass cools," said Walker.