Glassblower finds freedom through work
‘Show me
and I can
do it,’ Stolp
tells profs
Story and Photo
By PATRICK SULLIVAN
Of the Emerald
“After you get to know the glass
it becomes a friend and it won’t
hurt you, even if it’s broken,” says
Siegfried Stolp, the new glass
blower hired by the Science Ser
vices Department at the Univer
sity.
Stolp, a 44-year-old German
immigrant to the United States,
has 15 years experience as a
glass blower. Last September he
answered an advertisement
placed by the University in Glass
Blowers Society magazine. He
began work Jan. 16.
Stolp's job is to supply science
classes at the University with
handmade glass apparatus for
experiments. The equipment he
makes is specifically suited for the
experiments and is not available
through supply houses.
Sitting at his workbench, Stolp
puts on a pair of heavy duty sun
glasses and ignites his 10-inch
long cannon-like torch. He adjusts
gold knobs near its base that con
trol the mix of hydrogen and ox
ygen. A pointed blue flame bursts
out a foot or more.
Today his work is stacked to his
right. A pile of calibrated glass
tubes rests with a note from a
chemistry professor; “Please
Fix.” Each tube has a ragged tip
that Stolp will soften by rotating it
Siegried Stolp was hired by the University Science Services department in January to supply science
classes with handmade glass apparatus for experiments.
in the blue flame. Then he’ll roll the
tip on an asbestos mat and the
tube will be ready for more exper
iments.
Other days Stolp works from
diagrams provided by science
professors. On a bench near the
door of Stolp’s workshop stands a
pair of glass spheres neatly con
nected by a short glass tube. (To a
layman, it’s a glass barbell.) More
tubes hang like arms from the top
sphere. (To a scientist it’s the per
fect piece for an experiment.) A
week ago the structure was just
felt pen on scratch paper, until
Stolp began work on it.
Objects that demonstrate the
rigid exactitude of science aren’t
the only ones that fill the work
shop. A glass pipe sits on short
curly legs on top of Stolp’s file
cabinet. He explains the pipe as
something he did to “show off” for
a group of students who toured
the workshop recently.
Ten years ago he made 25 of
the pipes that have a potbelly bowl
and a long stem with a lip for easy
gripping by the smoker’s teeth.
The pipes were for his “mother
in-law in Florida who said she
could sell them if I made them. I
think she has a lot of them left in
her house,” grins Stolp.
In mid-February Stolp was wor
ried about his value to the Univer
sity. "I was new and wanted to
prove my skill, but no one came in.
I just cleaned up and sat around,”
he moans.
Last week the science services
department sent out a notice that
told the science departments the
new glass blower was ready to
work.
“Now professors just come in
and say, Can you do this' and
show me what they want. I say,
Yes, show me and I can do it.’,’ ”
says Stolp with a smile that cracks
his entire face.
The glass blower happily ac
cepts work. He says, “It’s no good
to sit here, — I want to work with
the glass. I’m not a faculty
member who drops everything
when the bell rings. In glass blow
ing you can’t leave a hot piece (of
glass). You know I will work until
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the job is done. I m free to do my
job.
Stolp has a good reason to ap
preciate his freedom.
He grew up in Berlin, East Ger
many, where he attended Hum
boldt University as a science stu
dent from 1953 to 1956. Accord
ing to Stolp, students were force
fed “Communist doctrine.”
“You were forced to express
yourself in front of people with
stuff you didn’t believe.” Stolp
compares the feeling of political
indoctrination to being “told to call
a green apple red."
After three years “I couldn’t
stand it anymore. I simply got on a
subway for Frankfurt (West Ger
many). If the police didn’t see you,
you made it. There were not
enough to check everyone.”
Safely in Frankfurt, Stolp got a
job at a pharmaceutical company
as a lab technician. Six years iater
he decided to leave Germany and
“see the world” before he got too
old.
He landed in New York City in
1962 and promptly applied for a
security clearance so he could join
the U.S. Air Force. While waiting
for a response from the Air Force,
Stolp got a job at Fisher Science
Company, where he learned the
basics of glass blowing.
"At Fisher I found the work I’d
like to do for the rest of my life.”
The Air Force approved Stolp's
application (18 months after he
applied) but he turned down the
offer.
In 1966 he left Fisher Science
Company and began work at the
State University of New York at
Stony Brook as an assistant glass
blower in the science department.
While working there he applied to
the University.
Stolp, who heard Eugene was a
“beautiful place with nice people"
from a colleague in New York, is
eagerly awaiting the arrival of his
wife and two daughters. They will
join him in Eugene after selling
their home in Rocky Point, New
York, on Long Island.
Freemesser
prints shown
in Carmel
Photographs by the late Ber
nard “Bernie” Freemesser will be
exhibited at the Friends of Photo
graphy gallery in Carmel, Calif,
through April 23.
Freemesser, a professor of fine
arts at the University, died Dec. 18
at the age of 51. He was held in
high regard in the professional
field of photography.
The memorial exhibit will in
clude color and balck and white
contact prints made by 8 by 10
negatives.
70 Films From 20 Countries
MARCH 17—APRIL6
Movie House
Northwest Film Study Center
Cinema 21
See the Sunday March 12 Oregonian
for complete festival program