By Jennie Fitzgerald
Glass blowing might not be the typical hobby for some, but for Jake Vincent, 28, it serves as a satisfying career and creative outlet. A teacher and artist-in-residence at the Worcester Center for Crafts, Jake began glassblowing in college; although he also studied photography, textiles, and weaving during those four years, it was assisting a friend in the glass blowing studio that made him truly fall in love with it and sign up for a glassblowing internship senior year.

He calls himself a “process-oriented guy” to explain his interest in technical crafts. The challenge of these crafts excites Jake: “Things like weaving and glassblowing give you good benchmarks to measure yourself against. They’re immediate, exciting, and really difficult…once you’ve succeeded, you can see it right away.”

Jake’s creations, which include everything from lampwork to vessels to ornaments to structures and drinking glasses, speak of a creative process that resembles a kid’s in an arts and crafts class ~ very uninhibited and fearless of making mistakes. Yes, he may envision his pieces before getting to work, but they rarely ever look like the original sketch ~ or original mental image ~ when he’s finished. “A lot of times I’ll just stumble onto something really exciting. It’s definitely important to react to the work while you’re making it,” he says.

I figured it would be hard for him to let go of these pieces after putting so much into creating them, but Jake says that “…letting go can be the best part of making work. Seeing someone else connect with something that I’ve made really validates what I do. It drives me to keep creating.”

As a teacher, Jake loves that he can “play” with the glass again and experiment with his own creativity. He is inspired by the teens he currently teaches every Saturday for his Teen Glassblowing Class and looks forward to teaching more in the future. He plans to take advantage of being artist in residence and having access to various studios by experimenting as much as possible.

You’ll find Jake’s work at local exhibitions since he plans on showing his work much more, but you can always head to www.jakevincent.com and check it all out online. Who knows, you might be drinking out of one of his pieces this fall!