Ken Carder talks about the paperweight set-up Stankard demonstrated in his flameworking workshop. Oral history interview with Ken Carder by Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, September 6, 2019, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:30.

Ken Carder: I mean, he was able to place these figures or things that he lampworked into this tray, or into the little cylinder there. And it had a—you know, you can see where the vacuum pump is attached to the bottom. And it was graphite, and the graphite was perforated with these holes of different sizes and things depending, I guess, on the complexity of the figure and the motif. And it was preheated, so it wouldn’t—the figurine or anything wouldn’t crack, so it was warmed up, so when he hit it with the hot glass it wouldn’t crack. And, you know, it was preheated. Looking at the dial there looks like it’s probably set at about four and a half, or something like that, maybe. I’m not sure. But anyways, he set it on this hot plate and preheated it, and then he took the glass and got it, you know, really hot and runny, and dropped it in there and hit the vacuum pump and it sort of vacuum packed the figure into the glass and it evacuated the vast majority of the air through the bottom. You know, it was sucked out.