A Glass Master Displays the Art of Conservation

By Eviana Hartman
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, December 16, 2007

N early 2 million tons of glass ended up in landfills in 2005, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Erwin Timmers is doing his part to change that practice.

The sculptor who works with recycled glass is part of a wave of green artists who not only use salvaged materials -- which has been done through the ages -- but also incorporate messages about sustainability and the downsides of consumerism into their work.

We chatted with the 43-year-old Dutch-born artist, who is the co-founder and studio director of the Washington Glass School and Studio in Mount Rainier, about creativity, sustainability and the ways the two can meet.

How did you start working with glass?

I went to art school in California, and I always made sculptures with some lighted component, mostly using recycled metals. Glass always seemed like a natural addition. After I moved to Washington . . . I found that I was more intrigued by the glass. It wasn't being used by everybody else.

Have you always been conservation-minded?

I've always had a big concern for the environment. I went on nuclear protest rallies when I was a teenager. I grew up in Holland. It's a bit of a different society, and I think that also shaped my way of dealing with it. It's a small country with limited resources. You just try to live according to your means and possibilities. In the winter, if you leave a room, you turn off the light and you turn off the heat.

What kind of statements about the planet does your work make?

I have a 4-year-old son and a 1-year-old daughter, and they will have to live in what we leave behind. Some of the pieces kind of focus on seeing the world through the future generation's eyes. My son has a little camera he took some pictures with; I kind of manipulated some of the images and translated them into glass. I took a voice recording of him saying "Help," took the sound wave and made that into a 3-D glass piece. I don't want to be overtly recycling; I don't take bottles and stack them up. The message has to be subtle.

How do you make your pieces?

It kind of depends on the glass that I get. Since it's all recycled glass, I'm never quite sure how it's going to react. Some is tempered glass or safety glass; when you break it, it smashes into a million pieces. If I tried to heat it, it would smash, so I pre-smash it, arrange those pieces into a pattern and melt them back into sheets or castings in a kiln. With standard glass, sometimes I cast it into a mold or sometimes I cut it into pieces and arrange it into patterns.

What do you teach at the Washington Glass School?

Since last year I've been teaching a glass recycling class. A lot of people have been wondering what to do with old pieces of glass but didn't quite know what to do with them. We get really creative; there's no set path for what you have to do with these things. It's totally open to your imagination.

I also teach metal classes mostly geared toward the technology of welding, and recycling odd objects that you have in your house. A lot of people have stuff sitting around that they like: an old light, a toaster, just odd stuff. What we do here is change them into something funky. Before I was working with glass I turned all sorts of metal stuff into lights: old plumbing fixtures, old mufflers, old office chairs, old gate bits.

You've created some noteworthy public sculptures with your colleagues. Where can people see them?

One big project we did was the courtyard of the EPA building [Ariel Rios Building, 12th Street between Constitution and Pennsylvania avenues NW]. It was a very nice way to go about it, to have everything all tie in together. The sculpture we did there was part of a big water-recycling effort using runoff water from roofs. . . . They did the whole courtyard with plants or items that were somehow recycled. We did the signage for those items using numbers out of old recycled agricultural items: old plows and shears and stuff like that. We chopped them up and made numbers out of each one.

The other notable one is the Prince George's County Courthouse [14735 Main St., Upper Marlboro]. The old courthouse burned down. . . . The roof was the part that was salvageable, so they asked artists to come up with ways to reuse copper. Copper is one of the few metals you can infuse into glass. We used it in recycled glass tiles, and they're now hanging outside one of the courtrooms in the new expansion.

What about glass makes it a good art material?

It has a fascination that is hard to describe. It's very hard, yet it looks fragile and delicate. What I often do is I kind of make a point out of showing that juxtaposition. A lot of sculptures make it look like the glass is being stretched out.

How do you feel about all the attention the green movement is getting?

I've been doing this for decades now, but now all of a sudden there's a lot more interest from art collectors and galleries, and also architects and designers. We're at a point in our lifetime in our society where we really have to start making a change in the way we interact with our environment. Minimizing my impact, making a statement through art and talking about it, that for me has become the most important focus. . . . It's like this blossoming of something I've been working on for so long. To finally get other people to see it the same way and to get some recognition for it -- I'm psyched.

No Pane, No Gain

Inspired? Erwin Timmers and his Washington Glass School colleagues teach others to make green masterpieces. Their next round of classes -- from a Beginner's Glass Lover's Weekend ($300) to a Polaroid Emulsion Transfer Workshop ($220) -- starts in January; for more information, see http://www.washingtonglassschool.com. Timmers also will be giving demonstrations at Baltimore's American Craft Show from Feb. 22 to 24 (Baltimore Convention Center, 1 W. Pratt St., 800-836-3470; $14, ages 12 and younger free.

-- E.H.