Deborah Czeresko with strongman Skitch Manion (standing) in a pre-blowing planning session at Wheaton Arts in a still from their YouTube video.
Deborah Czeresko’s fourth, and largest-yet gargantuan Christmas ornament project is, in her own words, “an estrogen-conceived, testosterone-driven, high-octane-embodiment of unquenchable virility, with life-affirming allure.” Blown at the studios of Wheaton Arts, in Millville, New Jersey, during the last weekend in November, the creation of the epic ornament brought together a 15-person team hand-picked by Czeresko. Together, they attempted to break the previous year’s record with the help of Skitch Manion’s brute strength; a larger furnace door than last year; and the teamwork required to handle approximately 60 pounds of glass on a pipe.
Captain Skitch.
For Czeresko, the project is a way to transform the banal kitsch of Christmas (which she says are “often like playing a broken record”) into something with real meaning, pushing herself and her team to create something so grand, so outsized, so massive that it takes all their collective energy and skill to realize it. Every year exceeds the results of the one before, an annual ritual against which one can measure their increased skill and strengthened connections. Especially in these recessionary times, it’s nice to know that some things are still expanding. “The ornament continues to grow annually, and not even a global economic collapse can deflate it,” says Czeresko, whose ambitions for the project are only broadening. “My dream is bring the ornament world wide and to make it more grand, a big holiday event to benefit charities. I also would love to hang it on the Rockefeller Center tree.”
The “new world record” of 36-inches in diameter is unofficial, and will not appear in the Guinness Book of World Records because it does not have a glass-specific category, Czeresko explains (Guiness lists the largest ornament as a 13 1/2-footer made of steel). But the glass ornament project is more than simply another entry in the record books. As she sees it:
It’s not a competition, but rather an experiment to see how big an ornament can be made using pure glass blowing techniques, meaning nothing automated or mechanized. The overall goal is to go as raw as possible in the handmade process, using only the basic tools of glassblowing along with human muscle, sinew, perseverance and determination. There are specific rules that must be followed: the finished ornament must be spherical and made entirely of glass including the hanger loop, it must be assembled using hot techniques, the ornament must hang correctly when completely cooled and no mechanical or automated methods can be used, it cannot be blown with compressed air, it must be gathered without mechanical aids like yokes or chariots, a steering wheel cannot be used for turning, it cannot be blown into a mold, and the team cannot exceed three handheld torches.
Managing the gathers, in particular, is a herculean challenge, and the job of Manion, “a modern day John Henry figure” Czeresko credits as part of her inspiration for the project. “Like the folk hero he was willing to risk life and limb for the ornament,” she says. “He wanted to pit himself against limits of the strenuous act of blowing large glass, like John Henry against the railroad.”
View an edited film of the event below:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj5UX_4YtEk]
The team for 2009 included Deborah Czeresko, Skitch Manion, Andrew Newbold, Sam Geer, Hank and Joon Murta Adams, Meagan Biddle, Carmichael, Ben Wright, Kathy Mchoes, Emily Mcbride, videographer Stephen Paul Day, and others. An article about the event appeared in a local newspaper.