Jake Baker on the Glass Arts

Jake Baker, 27, once traveled to the tiny Italian island of Murano – and after observing the Venetian glass artists at work, he said he quickly became obsessed with the glass arts.

A Grand Strand native, Baker was later talking with some friends about this obsession, and one of them told him that there was a glass artist in town – Chad Samson, owner of Beach Beads & Glass Studio in Surfside Beach.

“I started hanging out up there in January 2014, and that February ended up taking a class from him,” said Baker.

Flash forward: Baker said he became Samson’s apprentice for about half a year before becoming a teacher’s assistant. About a month ago, Samson opened a new venture called High Tide Glass Studio, directly across from Myrtle Beach Harley-Davidson – and Baker is his shop mate, renting out his own station while continuing in his duties as teacher’s assistant.

High Tide Glass Studio [www.hightideglass.com] is an open space, giving people the opportunity to see the creative process firsthand in a working studio. It also offers glass blowing classes.

“We don’t do the glory hole/crucible like your offhand glass arts, but we are doing a lot of what is considered lampworking [defined as he process of sculpting glass by twirling thin rods of colored glass over a gas-oxygen burner] – more of the sculptural aspect,” he said.

As a teacher’s assistant, Baker helps out with larger groups of students.

“We do an hour long make it-take it class,” he said. “It’s a crash course and you get as much hands-on with it as you want.”

This includes creating a piece alone or allowing the artists to step in and shape it for them.

Owner Samson said that the store is set up to be a working studio on all things glass - mosaics, electroplating, cold working, fusing and slumping, stained glass, etching and carving.

Baker said the studio produces a lot of what he calls wearables.

“That would be your pendants, necklaces and rings – but we also do memorials,” Baker said. “If you had a loved family member or a pet, you could actually bring in the ashes and we can add it to the glass.” This is known as remembrance art.

Baker is happy to be renting a station at the studio because of the interaction.

“For the first six to eight months, I had a little mini studio in my house, but it gets a little lonely working by yourself – so being able to actually have someone to work with and bounce ideas off gives you a sense of community,” he said.

Currently, Baker is doing a lot of what he calls fuming.

“The glass comes in either rods, tubing or what is known as frit – which is crushed glass,” Baker said.

“I take a small piece of pure .999 gold or silver and introduce it to the base of the flame, and actually cause it to splay across the glass,” he said, adding that this is trapped with clear glass. “All the fume that is not trapped is burned off, and what was trapped with the clear glass gets you a lot of color.”

Baker said he is in the studio as much as possible.

“It’s all practice – finding a new technique and spending hours doing it until you get to a point where – I wouldn’t say perfected it – but you have got enough of an understanding to move on to something else,” Baker said.

High Tide Glass Studio will have a presence at the upcoming Mythical & Medieval Fest this weekend.

“We are talking about having one or two torches and a couple of tables with all of our wares,” he said. “We’ll be doing demonstrations – trying to get people to come in and take classes and get a glass community going down here.”

Decompression time for Baker will not stray from the glass arts. A multi-state road trip with Samson is in the works for next month.

“We’re traveling to a bunch of different studios and meeting up with different artists,” he said.

And he plans on continuing this glass odyssey.

“It is something I want to pursue and hopefully get to a point where I am able to teach at some of the big venues in the glass industry,” Baker said.

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 3:52 AM with the headline "Jake Baker on the Glass Arts."