Since its beginning, some of the greatest makers of glass art travel to Pilchuck each summer to teach. In 1971, Peet Robison , a glass artist destined to become a Santa Fean and one of the Canyon Road Studio glass blowers, assisted Chihuly in building Pilchuck and began his glass studies at the first session of the Pilchuck experimental workshop. Since 1968, Santa Fe quietly has become a mecca for glass media arts. For nearly 20 years, Canyon Road Studio was a training field for honing the craft and learning the associated activities of studio construction, retail, wholesale and educating and working with the public who came to watch the extraordinary process of creating art glass. The open-air studio on Canyon Road was a challenge to all who worked there.
Hot glass is all about temperature . . .
Glass is a self-selecting medium. It requires a certain constitution and temperament to stand up to the 1100-2000 degree furnace temperatures . . . When working a hot glass piece, there is no putting it down to think about its form or direction. Pipeblown glass is always cooling, therefore solidifying. While being worked it is subject to gravity, stressed by the manipulation of tools, and needs to be reheated to keep it fluid and pliable.