Setting Fire to the Voynich Manuscript…

In this video I am working on a flame-worked glass sculpture, one of the pieces currently in progress in my Voynich Manuscript series. The shape of this sculpture is inspired by the manuscript’s illustration on f48r.

For those unfamiliar with the process of flameworking, I am creating a hollow glass sculpture with glassblowing, but I am not using molten glass gathered from a large furnace. Instead I am starting out with cylindrical borosilicate glass tubing, and heating it with a hand torch.

The glass tube has to be sealed closed, except for a stopper at one end through which a flexible blowhose is attached. The other end of this is connected to the mouthpiece. I concentrate the flame on the spot where I want to alter the shape, and when the glass glows red, that is the moment to blow air into the tube. This has to be done very precisely, because if the glass is not hot enough, or if not enough air is exhaled, the glass will not move. And on the other hand, if the glass is too hot, or if the air is not controlled, the glass will lose its shape and collapse, or I’ll accidentally create a hole in the wall of the glass, rendering it unworkable because it is no longer airtight. The glass will only expand in the area where it is heated, and the rest of it will keep the shape I have made, so many additions can be made before the piece is finished. Some people assume that a lot of air is needed, but that’s not the case for flameworking. It’s all about small, precise amounts of air, and the right timing. It’s as though the glass “breathes” too as its shape transforms.

There is also gravity to consider. Hot glass will begin to melt quickly, so for example when I am heating the end of a solid stick of glass, I have to keep rotating it evenly in my hand so that it remains in motion and the molten glass remains gathered at the end. The flame, too, has to be adjusted depending on how much heat I need, and it has to be aimed directly at the spot I want to heat. Because of the coordination necessary to do this without mistakes it is the type of work that one could observe countless times, yet only learn through hands-on trial and error. It is like a choreography that takes a lot of practice and I still have to practice more before I can make everything I want to make. I will probably make extra duplicates of these pieces in case during a later part of the process they crack before I can finish the piece. To minimize the possibility of cracking, the glass is annealed after shaping it. This means quickly heating the glass all over, which reduces the invisible strain in the glass that comes from stretching and unevenly heating it. If the piece is well made, it will be surprisingly durable.

I filmed this video with a didymium lens filter. This is the camera lens filter equivalent of the glasses I am wearing. This lens blocks the bright yellow glow, caused by sodium flare-off, which happens when heating glass to such high temperatures. Without the lens filter, you would not be able to see what I am doing so clearly- it would be obscured by a bright yellow glow of the flame. And similarly, I am wearing the dark glasses- didymium safety lenses, not regular sunglasses- to filter out the parts of the spectrum that would be harmful to the eyes, and also to make it possible for me to see what I’m doing as I’m working.

Beyond the process of “simply” flameworking the shape, I plan that these pieces are going to be filled with inert gases and connected to a high voltage power supply to give them a gas discharge glow, a process that comes with its own set of technical challenges. This particular piece will be the first piece in my Voynich series to incorporate plasma sculpture, a medium I am in the process of learning along with flameworking. I will be making other parts of the glass shape that will add on to this shape. They will be filled with an eerie white and green glow, rising up from a sculpted porcelain base. Later I will make another post about these other aspects of the process.