Laguna Beach Artist of the Week: Marcus Thesing Turns Blobs Into Beauties

When Marcus Thesing tells you how much he enjoys playing with fire, believe him.

The furnace temps in his Laguna Canyon glassblowing studio run around 2,100 degrees, and the furnace is never turned off.

And when Thesing tells you he's “playing,” believe that, too. You can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice, as he gathers a small blob of molten glass from the furnace and spins it for an hour into a 26-inch-wide collector bowl that will eventually sell for $750.

Playing, indeed ... he’s having a ball.

WATCH VIDEO OF THESING AND HIS ASSISTANT CRAFTING A GLASS BOWL BY CLICKING ON THE VIDEO TAB TO THE RIGHT --->

"Sometimes I think about a real job with a freeway commute," Thesing says. "I studied computer graphics and I could do that ... but no way.”

He cites master Italian glassblower Lino Tagliapietra as an influence. Lino spent time with local glassblowers and advised, “You gotta luv the glass ... if you no luv the glass, you do nothing.”

And Thesing luuuvs the glass.

“Technology takes the lead in glassblowing,” he adds. “If you can’t master the technology—and not everybody can—you simply cannot do it.”

Aside from dealing with the 2,000-plus temps, you have to handle molten glass with perfect timing, an agile focus, and the strength and stamina to take it from blob to beauty. In the eyes of most, it’s a gift that simply can’t be faked.

“But if you can do it,” Thesing smiles, “you speak to the glass, and the glass speaks to you.”

Thesing grew up with a father who was a sculptor, and three dimensional art became an early focus.

“At 14, I pushed my friends’ faces into mud and then did plaster castings, forming masks to hang on my wall,” he reminisced. ”They were a little dirt-smudged.”  

At the same time, he and his dad hiked around California, he surfed, and took geology classes. Thesing knew Earth’s creams and browns, the ocean blues, and the textures of rocks. Now those colors and textures are in his fluted bowl series in his gallery, with names like Terraform, Ocean, Midnight Desert and Black and Tan.

He took every art class available at Orange Coast College and was looking for that next direction when he met Laguna Beach glass master , who invited him “to step up and gather the glass.” 

Thesing was hooked.

Twelve years later, after three years as an apprentice and nine years working with Barber, a particularly successful season at the Sawdust Art Festival signaled his next move.

In 2003, he set up his own studio in Wildomar. For three years, he drove back and forth, but he eventually grew tired of the commute, and the Inland Empire heat that made glassblowing difficult.

That led to a link-up with Gavin Heath, another accomplished local glass artist.

Thesing and Heath discovered they had complementary work schedules. They also built much of their own equipment, which could cost as much as $40,000 if it were all purchased. The glass process, which traces its roots to the ancient Egyptians, revolves around the furnace, the marver (a steel slab used to add a skin to the glass and shape it), the glory hole (used to reheat the glass between shapings), the work bench and the annealer (used to gradually cool the finished piece down). See Glassblowing.com for more terms and techniques.

It was riveting watching Thesing and his assistant one recent afternoon as they swung the molten glass from the furnace to the marver to the bench to the glory hole and back, using wet newspaper “blocks” to shape the glass.

Dripping with sweat and flushed from the heat, Heath, who was observing Thesing at work, paused. “In the 17 years I have been doing this, I have had to learn patience, too. There are moments when a half-finished piece of glass can crash to the floor.”

But not that afternoon.

Slowly but surely, in a little over an hour, a fluted crème bowl, streaked with color, bloomed from the fire. The look of pure concentration on Thesing’s face was a story in itself.

The story goes on. Thesing is in this year's Festival of Arts, a juried competition, where he is in the top 25. The Sawdust Festival is a second home. He lives in Laguna Canyon and skateboards over.

Thesing relishes the Sawdust atmosphere. “Someone will see a bowl of mine,” he says, “then watch me sweat and strain to blow the glass, and the sale is made!”

This year, he has Palm Springs/Palm Desert, Beverly Hills and San Diego on his glass tour calendar. Then a small vacation will happen in the fall.

“I may work hard 30 days in a row," Thesing says, “but then I take time off. I'm my own boss.”

Where will this glass trek lead? Thesing pins it. ”I will be blowing glass as long as I can walk.”

He pauses.

“Of course, you sell a lot, you keep all of your equipment going, you blow more glass. Well, you know.”

But he grins when he says this. And you just know ”he luvs the glass.”

Click here to access Marcus Thesing's website.

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