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MIT presents 5th Annual "Great Glass Pumpkin Patch"
September 23-24
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For Immediate Release: August 30, 2005
Contact: Mary Haller
Director of Arts Communication
MIT Office of the Arts
20 Ames St., Rm E15-205
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 253-4006, e-mail haller@media.mit.edu |
Cambridge, MA....It's a bumper crop you won’t want to bump too hard. The MIT Glass Lab’s fifth
annual Great Glass Pumpkin Patch will sprout September 23-24, 2005 on MIT's Kresge Oval, 48 Massachusetts Avenue
(in front of MIT’s Kresge Auditorium) featuring over 1,000 unique, one-of-a-kind, hand-blown glass pumpkins and
gourds.
The Great Glass Pumpkin Patch begins with a preview reception (no sales) on Friday, Sept. 23 from 5-8 p.m. On Saturday,
Sept. 24 between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m, visitors of all ages are invited to stroll through the “pumpkin patch”
and purchase their favorite autumnal orb. In case of rain, the sale will be held on Sunday, Sept. 25.
The glass pumpkins were created by students and instructors in MIT's Glass Lab, where members of the MIT community
learn and practice the art of glassblowing.Proceeds from this event benefit the Lab, an art program connected with MIT's
Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Pumpkin-making is overseen by glass artist Peter Houk, currently in
residence at the MIT Glass Lab.
For more information--including an illustrated step-by-step description of "How We Make a Pumpkin," see
http://web.mit.edu/glasslab/sales_pumpkin.html,
or call (617) 253-5309.
Color images are available.
Glass Pumpkin Questions and Answers
How hot is the glass while it's being worked?
Between 1,000 and 2,000 degrees.
Where do the colors come from?
For a solid color, the artist first picks up a small piece of densely colored glass on the blowpipe.
Then he gathers clear glass over the color and starts a bubble. The color becomes a "skin" on the inside
of the piece. When the glass is thin enough, it looks as if itís made from solid colored glass. The mottled
and spotted colors are created by picking up colored glass frit (crushed color) after gathering the clear
glass.
How do you put the ěribsî in the glass pumpkins?
When the glass is still thick, the artist blows it into an "optic mold" which makes thick and thin
ribs in the glass. As the piece is blown larger, the ribs remain in the glass.
How long does it take to make a pumpkin? How many people does it take?
Each pumpkin takes between 15 and 30 minutes, depending on the size and amount of color. Making
all the pumpkins takes almost a whole year: from January to October. Glassblowing
is a team activity. Teams of three or four artists are used to make the pumpkins.
Pumpkin Factoids
- 7 Time in minutes to make a simple pumpkin
- 60 Time in minutes to make a large complicated pumpkin
- 6 Number of MIT glassblowers making pumpkins for the sale
- 3 Number of people involved in making one pumpkin (teams work in sets of 3)
- 1,000 Number of pumpkins to be made for this year's sale
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- 5 Number of hours it took for the pumpkins to sell out last year
- 12 Number of pumpkins that got broken during last year's sale
- $25 Cost, in dollars of least expensive pumpkin
- $500 Cost, in dollars, of most expensive pumpkin
- $70,000 Amount, in dollars (gross, before expenses), taken in during last year's sale to benefit the Glass Lab
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