Watching someone thrust a skull on a stick into a hole glowing at more than 1200 degrees in the name of art seems strangely ancient.
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But rather than carrying a complex message about mortality or memento mori, it's just the example Martin Janecky chose to showcase his glass-sculpting technique to an appreciative group of artists at the Canberra Glassworks.
Janecky moves effortlessly between the red hot "glory hole" furnace and bench while he works on the piece in the hot shop.
He and technical assistant, artist Brian Corr, barely speak, appearing to guess each other's next move while juggling the glowing orange orb which, like magic, gradually morphs into a skull with each one of Janecky's tweaks.
It's easy to see why the Czech artist appears to be so at home in the hot shop.
The 35-year-old was born into a family of glassmakers and started blowing glass at just 13 when he was working in his father's factory.
"I had no other choice [but to follow the family tradition], I didn't pick glass – the glass picked me," he says.
"I started working in the factory just blowing glass into moulds making hundreds of pieces a day and I was always sculpting on my breaks as a hobby."
Self-taught skills
Since then despite little formal training in the craft, his natural talents and hard work has paid off with the artist carving out a name for himself in the world of glassmaking which has allowed him to travel the world passing on his skills to 600-odd students over the years.
"The factories really gave me the foundations of how to work the material, I learnt by just working all the time and travelling and working with other people which is a great experience," he says.
"I really learn from the people I teach as well.
"At the time I was ready for some [formal art] education… glass is such a specific material – you have to really work with it all the time – and none of the universities in 1998 had a glass program where I could be by the furnace able to create and try things.
"So I decided to travel, learn and study on my own."
Janecky has been blowing glass for 22 years but prefers the freedom of sculpting which he began 10 years ago.
He now uses an innovative technique of sculpting both the inside and outside of the blown glass.
"It's more natural for me, it's a more expressive way because I make figurative work," he said.
"I blow, blow, blow to do some basic shape then open a hole with a piece and go inside with different tools and push things around… it's fun."
Taking the heat
After years working with glass he's got used to the heat of the hot shop.
"I have a harder time being in the summer sun outside," he laughs.
"I have great assistants always, like Brian Corr, so they do all the hard work, I just play."
Janecky's figures, inspired by vintage circus performers, are eerily life-like yet strangely deathly.
But he insists there are no deeper messages behind his work.
"I'm not really a deep message kind of guy," he laughs. "I'm always just making, figures and heads and trying to put some soul into it. I just make things I like to make."
Janecky is based in Prague but does most of his work in the US.
While his dad has now swapped glass for beekeeping, his three brothers have all continued the family tradition.
It's his first stint in Australia. After workshops at the Jam Factory in Adelaide and the Canberra Glassworks, he will work at the ANU.
"A lot of artists and friends who I know from around the world love this place [the glassworks] and want to come back here," he says.
He likes taking a break from his own work to teach.
"As I teach I try new things and I'll be back in the studio in October," he says.
"I don't want to make my work all the time… you get kind of isolated you have some assistants but it's nice to get out in the world and meet new people and share."
Martin Janecky will give a talk and demonstration at 10am on Saturday, September 12, at the Canberra Glassworks.
