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By
John Newton – Assistant Managing Editor
Jim White pounds away at
an iron rod inside his Ole Village Blacksmith Shop in the Heritage
Center, molding it into brackets.
Meanwhile, David Gappa
gently molds a ball of molten glass at his Vetro Glassblowing
Studio, creating a beautiful globe with flower petal ends.
When one meets the
other, a beautiful partnership is formed, combining the strength of
iron with the delicacy of glass to form a wall oil lamp – one of
several items created by a growing partnership between the two
unique Grapevine shops.
Both Mr. White and Mr.
Gappa work in professions that are thousands of years old, making
the partnership even more special.
“It’s really been quite
interesting because (Mr. White) basically is doing something that’s
been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, and so are we,” said
Laura Hayes, Vetro’s marketing director. “So that makes it very
interesting, putting two ancient forms together at this day and
time. But it works quite well.”
Mr. Gappa owns Vetro and
works with Laura Hayes’ husband, Gary, as the Barton Street
business’s primary glass blowers.
Mr. White said having
both ancient crafts in the same location is not an everyday
occurrence.
“It is very unusual,
really, to have something like that,” Mr. White said. “It’s kind of
[neat] how the glass blowers and blacksmiths have evolved through
the machine age, and now we’re into the computer age, and they still
have a place in the marketplace today.”
Mr. Gappa said his
studio and Mr. White have just started to work together, saying
their working relationship is in the “prototypical” stage. The
first project was a wall-hanging oil lamp that Mr. White made iron
brackets for.
“But the sky’s the limit
right now,” Mr. Gappa said. “We’re just in the process of looking
at hiring some people [to do glass blowing] and hopefully we’re
going to start pursuing some of these ideas.”
Those ideas include
making knives with iron handles and glass insets, iron tables with
glass components, and more lamps.
Not only has each shop
developed a working relationship with the other, each shop has also
developed a strong respect for the other’s work.
“People who are able to
do blacksmithing are few and far between.” Ms. Hayes said. “People
who are able to do the hand-blown glass are few and far between, -
same scenario. So for both of us to have ended up in the same city
has actually been a boon to both of us, I think.”
She listed numerous
similarities between the two ancient crafts, including the use of
large amounts of heat, handcrafted nature, same crafting technique,
and use of raw materials.
“Glass, in its original
state, is sand,” she said.
Mr. Gappa sees
differences in the way the iron art and glass art are created.
“His would be a much
more aggressive form of art, actually pounding the [material] into
shape,” he said. “Whereas, our form would be perhaps more
delicate. We almost have to move with the glass more so than I
would think he would (with iron). He kind of forces his shape to
happen, whereas our shapes often tend to take their own form.”
Ancient Art
Mr. Gappa said
historians attribute the founding of glass to the Phoenicians, who
would make bonfires on the beach that would last for days. The
fire’s coals would take in enough heat to raise the temperature to
1500-2000 degrees and solidify some of the sand into glass.
From there, glass making
was used by the Egyptians.
Over the years, certain
metals were found to cause colorations in the glass, including gold
(red color), cobalt (blue), and silver (green, blue). Now,
small-time glass making is more of an artistic venture than
practical, Ms. Hayes said.
Mr. White said
blacksmiths made bronze hatchets and knives in the Bronze Age, and
swords and armor in the Iron Age.
“Sometimes the school
kids ask me how long blacksmithing’s been around,” he said, “and I
say, ‘Well, kids, if you think back to the Roman soldiers’ days, the
blacksmiths made the spears and swords, and repaired the chariots.
In the colonial days, the blacksmiths made the ship anchors, and
chains and the hinges for the colonists.”
Now, Mr. White and
fellow blacksmiths make smaller items, like pots and pans, or tools
and railings.
Blacksmith Meeting
A number of blacksmiths
converged on Vetro Saturday afternoon during the monthly meeting of
the North Texas Blacksmiths Association in Grapevine.
Mr. White said he wanted
the regional club to see Mr. Gappa and Mr. Hayes at work.
“I’ve always tried to
schedule this so we could maybe go up to the glass blowers and see
them work their glass work for the guys,” he said.
The glass blowing duo
normally works Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6 to 10 p.m. and
Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Neither one does it for a living,
Mr. Gappa is an architect and Mr. Hayes an environmental manager.
Mr. Gappa said the glass
blowing studio closes down over the summer months, giving everyone
who works there a chance to rest, and he and Mr. Hayes a chance to
recharge their creativity.
“It gets a little too
warm in Texas for our bodies,” he said with a chuckle.
One major project the
studio hopes to complete this summer is the building of a new
furnace. Ms. Hayes said the plans are being researched right now,
and Mr. Gappa and Mr. Hayes hope to build it by hand.
Visitors are always
welcome at the studio during operating hours, Ms. Hayes said.
She said ever since
Vetro was written about in the December issue of Southern Living
magazine, people have been flocking to the studio from all over.
She said one lady took off a Thursday afternoon and drove up from
Austin just to sit and watch the intriguing glass making process.
She said there have been
large crowds watching Mr. Gappa and Mr. Hayes work on weekends.
Spectators are always invited to stop by, she said.
“We’ve always had an
open door policy whenever we are there and we’re working.”
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