The Last Three Days in Chihuly Land

The first few days at Chihuly has been pretty awesome. The people have been great, the work is satisfying, and their budget is almost comically large. It's like a kid in a candy store. Every tool/ material you need is there. The attitude in the shop is so similar to that of the Wash U art school it's uncanny. The only difference is that they have an HR department and I'm getting paid for what I do.

I've now gone through the first three days of Chihuly training. Day one I toured the building and met every person there, then promptly forgot all their names. Each department had their time (way) with me and showed me where to go, what to do, who to talk to etc. (Free sodas in the break room!) Then I was introduced to Quality Control. This is where Mock-up people like myself look at the glass on light tables and check for flaws. After that they are wired and set aside to be installed.

Day two I continued with QC. The best part was the dumpster. I got to take all the flawed pieced and huck them against the back of it. If they didn't break on the first try I'd take a long steel prod and smash em up good. I was literally asked to break Chihuly glass. Never in my life would I have thought I'd be taking thousands of dollars worth of glass and smashing it with a steel prod. Fun times.

We also had a company wide harassment lecture yesterday. It was held in the Boathouse, where the hot shop is and Dale lives. The building was cool, but the lecture was not. The woman that gave it had the worst sense of humor of anyone I've ever met. When ever the phone would ring she said "we have to pause for station identification." Dumb, but made it through.

Today I finished up the QC and Tom, my boss, took me back over to the boathouse. This time I got to meet the hot shop crew and watch them make one of these:



It was the largest, most involved glass working I've ever seen. It took about eight guy, three furnaces, three benches, and a lift to pull it off. Their coordination was mind boggling.

I spent the rest of the afternoon doing random tasks.

There is a ton to learn, but I think I'm really going to like it. There are some downsides, like the 7:30 start time, but also a lot of benefits. I've been assigned to take down the New York Botanical Gardens show in late October. That means I get to be in NYC for nearly two weeks and have a sweet per diem while there.

We'll see how the next few months pan out, but for now I'm pretty damn happy.