Glassblowing with Stephanie Preston

All of us at some stage in our careers have used scientific glassware – but how do those intricate and often beautiful shapes come to be? We spoke to scientific glassblower Stephanie Preston and learn it really is a hard as it looks…

 Who first introduced you to the technique of glassblowing?

My first experience of bending glass tubing was in Wakefield, in a teaching workshop run by Richard Wheater and Julia Bickerstaff. They introduced me to glass within one of their 'Neon Taster Workshops'. I knew then that I would form a special relationship with the material.

Tell me some interesting properties of glass

Glass is a liquid and very fragile. It is inert, versatile and holds most of his strength in its outer shell. Fused silica or Quartz glass melts at around 2000°C and it has superior optical and thermal properties due to its purity, thermal stability and composition – it finds use in semiconductor fabrication and lab equipment, lenses and fibre optics. But we mainly use borosilicate or better known as Pyrex for most of our laboratory apparatus creations.

Explain the glass-blowing process. How does it work?

To create scientific glassware is a very dedicated process. The time window of being able to modify it, after heating it up to melting point, is very short. It starts, with finding the correct flame for the job in hand and then heat glass tubing evenly by turning it either by hand or with the help of a lathe, until it has a certain colour and consistency. Then either by a gentle blow of breath or the use of gravity, the glass is manipulated into a new shape. It is very methodological. Each step takes exact preparation and timings.

What equipment do you have to use?

I use bench burners and various sized hand burners. There are facilities for cold working techniques including cutting, grinding, edging, polishing and drilling. Our glass manufacturing workshop, is packed with state-of-the-art glassblowing equipment including three lathes, sandblasting machinery and three annealing ovens which fire up to temperatures of up to 680 degrees centigrade to stress-relieve glass ware.

How long did it take you to really master the technique?

That has yet to be found out. I am only new to this field and have achieved good progress on the methods and techniques necessary to create intricate glassware so far. It's a long journey but I am learning from one of the best and most experienced in the field. Award-winning Chief Scientific Glassblower, Paul LePinnet, who operates from his laboratory at The Heath Business and Technical Park in Runcorn.

A Fellow of the British Society of Scientific Glassblowers, Paul won the Norman Collins Award in 1983 for making the incredibly complicated ebulliometer – a multi-layered vessel used in the late 1930s to accurately measure the boiling point of liquids by measuring temperature of the vapour. The glass creation was made from an old drawing belonging to ICI and is now a test piece for a Master glassblower. Paul also won the David Flack Award for artistic merit in 2006.

What were you doing before you were offered the role at The Heath?

My professional path, lead via the arts into this very rare area of manufacturing scientific glassware. I am German and have a family background of engineering. My grandfather has invented patented level measurement devices. I was working with neon lights for the last few years and attended various intensive training courses on the subject. One of them being held at Lycee Dorian Polytechnics school in Paris. The only remaining government supported school that trains scientific glassblowers in the world. After finishing my training over there, I was recommended to Paul LePinnet. Next to my artistic creative career that has lead me to working with glass, I have managed several businesses and project managed large funding budgets for the arts, in the past.

How did it feel to be offered the position?

I feel incredibly honoured to have been offered this role. It is a big chance to learn a wonderful intricate skill.

You’re joining just four other women who are qualified to produce scientific vessels, why do you think there’s so few females in the field?

There are far more women in the artistic field of glass art. The main factor is that there are not many access routes to train scientific techniques. There are some apprenticeships but they only very rarely become available. I get the impression that within my work environment, most female chemists are foreign, the British ones are mainly lab technicians or in lower paid jobs. I reckon, it all starts with the school uniform. Let women wear trousers too if they want to. Promoting more gender equal learning is essential. Highly specialised manufacturing is still largely a man’s world in the UK.

What’s your favourite item that you’ve created by glassblowing?

A fractional distillation column filled with ignited red neon gas.

What’s the most difficult item you’ve ever made?

I am currently challenging myself to create a graham coil condenser. A piece of tubing with a coil sealed internally a bit like a ship in a bottle.

There’s a shortage of glassblowers in this country, do you intend to spread the word?

A lot of specialised glass manufacturing companies in the UK disappeared over the last 20 years. The government has been aware of this for some time but there were no real attempts made as yet, to prevent skills like scientific glassblowing to slowly disappear. I am envisaging various plans to spread the word to the future generations either by bringing in science school classes for demonstration sessions in glass blowing, all the way to considering creating a centre for training or offering work experience. I am currently looking for investors or government support to improve access to education in this well needed field.

If anyone wants to find out more about scientific glassblowing, you can contact the British Society of Scientific Glassblowers via their website www.bssg.co.uk or for more information about our design and fabrication service for specialised scientific glass-based apparatus, contact me at SOG Ltd http://www.sog.ltd.uk We have significant industrial and academic experience in vacuum systems, gas handling rigs, and fabrication and repair of laboratory scale apparatus.