By Cerissa Urry

Glass turtles, elegant pitchers, opaque plates and tinted fish catch rays of mountain sunlight, bouncing colors onto the walls of the Sundance Art Shack. Beautiful and delicate, an unknown tidbit about these creations is that they began as wine bottles and other thrown-away glass.

For the past seven years, Sundance has outsourced from Tlaquepaque, Guadalajara, for glass-blowing artisans because there are limited resources in the United States for skilled glass blowers.

In fact, as Sundance cultivated this art program, its human resources began the search nationally, but had to travel south of the border to find experts.

Jeff Orme, a member of human resources who has worked at Sundance for nine years, said they put ads in newspapers but no one responded so they looked elsewhere.

“We tried to find Americans, but didn’t succeed,” Orme said. “We traveled to Mexico to find glass blowers …” Finding qualified artists, they’ve now been with Sundance many years.

Vicente Martin Del Campo, Octavio Flores and Gustavo Calderon were found working together as friends in a factory.

“When we got here, it wasn’t an ordinary job,” said Del Campo. “In Mexico it’s a common job, like working with computers here.”

To work in the United States, they were granted seasonal visas from the government to be employed at Sundance for the purpose of blowing glass from recycled bottles to create glassware for its restaurants: the Foundry Grill and Tree Room at Sundance and Zoom in Park City.

The artisans will work at Sundance through January making animal sculptures and usable stemware sold in the gallery.

During the glass blowers’ provisional employment each year, people who visit Sundance can watch the process of glass blowing by standing on the other side of a wooden partition just outside the shack. Observers can feel the heat on their faces and smell the fire of the ovens 15 feet away.

The artisans have many years of experience — Del Campo has been blowing glass for 12 years, Flores for 16 years and Calderon is the “master,” blowing glass for 35 years.

“It takes about five years to [learn how to] make a standard cup,” Del Campo said.
On a standard glass blowing team there are several jobs that each individual fills; however, there are only three people to execute all the responsibilities.
“So we’re like three-in-one,” Del Campo said.

A unique aspect of their job at Sundance is using recycled glass, which is harder to manipulate than raw glass.

“Raw glass is worked hotter, cools slower and is easier to work with,” Del Campo said. “But instead of putting the glass in the trash, we get to make it into something people can use.”

Lucy Ridolphi, marketing manager, said it’s such an innovative program that adds to the mission of Sundance’s environmentally driven art program.

“It’s such a neat way for artists of such a caliber to tie [it] into the broader picture of the environment,” Ridolphi said. “I think it’s inspiring for people and it’s just a lot of fun.”

She said when Robert Redford saw the land Sundance is established on, he was struck by the beauty and wanted to preserve it with the vision of a creative experience for artists and people alike.

“Both visitors and lodging guests get to participate in our resort-wide recycling program. Sundance recycles cardboard, cans, paper and plastic on-site. Because recycling glass in Utah presents its own set of challenges, Sundance Resort has its own glass works kiln. Glass bottles are not only recycled, but turned into decorative art and housewares, for use around the property,” according to a news release.

Ridolphi said she thinks it’s great that they take something that is being thrown away to create art.

“These gifted artists-in-residence epitomize Sundance’s commitment to balancing a love of art and preservation of the environment into a program that creates a significant experience for guests,” said Chad Linebaugh, Sundance general manager, in a news release.

Suzanne Ruhlman, director of retail and the Art Shack Studio, said the glass blowers are always coming up with new items which end up in the gallery for retail.

“It’s a specialized skill which qualifies it as art,” Ruhlman said. “They’re passionate.”