Jane Bruce talks about why she’s drawn to glass. Oral history interview with Jane Bruce, March 22, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:55.

Jane Bruce: Because it’s magic. It’s a very—you know, it is a unique state of—it’s a unique material, it’s actually classified as a unique state of matter. And there isn’t anything really like it, I don’t think. It’s like trying to make something from honey when you’re working with molten glass, you know, and it’s just a magical material. And it’s very frustrating and it’s very difficult and that’s, I think, what keeps people involved with it, because it’s not an easy—no material is easy. I mean, you know, potter friends of mine would say, ‘Well, it’s the same with clay,’ and it probably is, but—I mean, I tried clay. I love clay; I mean, if I hadn’t been a glass artist I probably would have been a potter, because both of those materials are malleable, they’re pliable, it’s not like taking a piece of wood that’s solid. And I’ve done—you know, my undergraduate degree was actually in industrial design, so with specialization in space design, but we had to do metal, wood, ceramics, you know. And the first project in wood when I was an undergraduate was to make a toolbox, so we made a wooden tool box. I can cut a dovetail. But it’s not like something that is, you know—with clay and glass, particularly with glass blowing, you’re using your—your hands are more involved in a way, you know, you—it’s through your hands much more than anything else.