William Gudenrath discusses what drew him to glass. Oral history interview with William Gudenrath, March 22, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:15.

William Gudenrath: I got a—for, for Christmas or a birthday—no, it was Christmas. I was given by my father a chemistry set. Back then, a chemistry set was this box full of miscellaneous chemicals that included the chemicals to make gunpowder, by the way. I don’t think they do that today. And it also had three pieces of glass tubing about 8 or about 9 inches long, 5 millimeters in diameter, soft glass, soda lime glass. And there was this little weenie alcohol lamp. And the instruction manual said you were supposed to blow air through the flame to make a hot spot, there was this little blow hose thing, and then soften the tubing on the other side. And I still, to this—I mean, like it happened yesterday; I have a horrible memory, I remember everything. It just plagues me [laughs] all the time. But I vividly remember that like it’s happening now, the first moment I saw that glass tubing soften. And it was a transformative experience and I still am amazed by it. So when you say the videos are amazing and all that, I think it’s amazing too. I just still can’t believe when I gather a gather of molten glass that this all happens, and then it winds up being this fragile thing. You know, it’s all totally amazing still. I’ll never get over that.