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Arts & Entertainment

Laguna Beach Artist of the Week: John Barber

Longtime Laguna Beach glass artist proves there's no business like blow business.

Curious patrons crowd around the large glassblowing demo booth each summer at the Laguna Sawdust Festival, where John Barber has plied his trade for the past 25 years. Anticipation builds as the master glassblower creates something uniquely his own, often eliciting plenty of oohs and aahs from the audience. He’s so good now that he routinely makes it all look pretty darn easy.

Only it just ain’t so. Glass art-making can be a nerve-wracking process, one where the glassblower’s will and patience are tested in front of an orange-glowing furnace that reaches 2,000 degrees. The pressure intensifies while preparation, timing and trust mean everything in order to get it done right.

“For people to truly understand what it takes to make a single piece can be an eye-opening experience,” he says. “Did you know that stemware is one of the hardest things in the world to create? It requires teamwork (using an assistant or apprentice) and a lot of non-verbal communication. You have to almost intuitively react to each other and make quick decisions in the short time it takes to make, for instance, a goblet. Either you nail it or you don’t. There’s no room for in-between.”

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Barber is now an accomplished, influential glassblower who has made a living working out of his home-studio on Laguna Canyon Road since 1988. His glass creations—mainly tabletop work ranging from stemware, bowls, vases, and some sculptures—have influenced a generation of new blowers, many of whom have apprenticed under him, including Gavin Heath, Marcus Thesing, Pete Lanigan, and Mike Panetta, among others. Barber and his wife Rebecca also co-founded the Studio Arts Gallery in Laguna Beach five years ago to help support and showcase local artists’ works.

Barber has refused to rest on his laurels by taking his work into the public art realm, such as an installation commissioned by the called Eternal Sunset. He created the work using an ancient glass casting technique known as pate de verre (paste of glass). The 32-foot-long glass mural rests at the hotel’s entrance, depicting a Catalina Island sunset view. The commission also included two 46-inch-tall illuminated urns named Eucalyptus Lanterns, which are placed on pedestals near the resort property’s entrance.

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Barber’s journey towards success, however, was not without its initial trepidation to even enter the arts.

He grew up a bit intimidated by the family of artists around the Barber household. His mother and three sisters were all good painters. In fact, really good (emphasis his). So rather than attempt to follow in their creative footsteps, Barber’s preferred path took him away from the arts and into racing go-carts around the country with his father for about 10 years.

In fact, since the age of six, Barber’s dream was to be a Grand Prix racecar driver. But that dream faded after a couple of his close friends were killed in racing accidents, events that spurred Barber to look inward.

“I realized that there’s got to be something else that I’d be interested in, and good at,” Barber recalled. But like most 19-year-olds, he had no idea what that something else was. That is, not until 1970, when he went to visit one of his sisters in Germany. It was during this extended trip abroad that Barber’s life would change forever.

The transformation began when Barber accepted an invitation to tour several glass factories in a small Bavarian village near the Czech border. Owned by family-friend Erwin Eisch, the Eisch Glass Factory for Glass Designs was the one that lured Barber in for good.

“I visited Mr. Eisch one day and when I saw these intensely focused workers blowing glass, I just went, ‘Wow, this is exciting stuff,’” Barber recalled with that sense of wonder still intact. “I felt like I could do that, or at least learn to do that. The canvas wasn’t flat like a painting. It was round, and part of the three-dimensional world that I was comfortable working in.”

Barber spent two valuable years under the tutelage of Eisch, who Barber calls one of the grandfathers of the American studio glass movement to emerge in the late-1960s. Eisch is considered to be one of the first to sculpt glass as a form of art rather than strictly function.

Barber next attended a Bavarian trade school where they taught design, engraving, etching, painting, and all the different ways to decorate glass. He would later apprentice under two American master glass artists, Harvey Littleton and Dale Chihuly.

While our times keep a changin’, the tools of this trade really haven’t much over the years: Two-sided jacks, diamond shears, gathers, marving (steel tables). They’re old school and dependable as long as they’re in the right hands. For all the masters in this chosen filed, there is no substitute for hard work and dedication to the craft.

“There are no shortcuts,” insists Barber. “You have to develop the skill and technique over a long period of time. In Europe, there’s usually a 20-year apprenticeship required before you can reach the status of master. It’s important to learn from others so ultimately you can develop your own unique style ... one that respects your influences without being a slave to them.”

Just as Barber absorbed all he could from his glassblowing predecessors, he generously gives back. A dozen aspiring artists have gone through his apprenticeship program and have their own careers now. He’s fostered a sense of camaraderie rather than competition amongst himself and his students. So what qualities does he look for in his apprentices?

“Well, for starters, I require at least a three-year commitment,” he said. “Beyond that, you need coordination and dexterity, because it’s physically challenging work, even exhausting at times. Being cocky and tenacious are good attributes to have, too ... a bit of swagger. And finally, you have to want to be in front of that furnace.”

Having the ability to thrive under pressure doesn’t hurt any, either.

Interestingly, Barber suggests that his memorable go-cart racing days in some ways prepared him for becoming the master glassblower he is now.

“I think going down the raceway at 100 miles per hour taught me how to focus; and how to act and react quickly to whatever happens,” he said. “Glassblowing is the same kind of experience, really. It’s an action-reaction process where there’s no stopping until you reach the end ... either of the road or that piece of art you’re creating in the moment.”

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