Serge Lashutka’s ‘Passion of the Glass’

For nearly 30 years, local artisan extraordinaire Serge Lashutka has been mastering the craft of glassblowing, and this Sunday, he will open up his Kagawa Street home for the first time to sell a range of his handcrafted works of art, including bowls, paperweights, tumblers and one-of-a kind objects. ‘Years ago, I told my wife, ‘I have a mistress. Her name is glass,” Lashutka, 62, only half-jokingly told the Palisadian-Post. He and his wife, Pat Heim, have been married since 1983. ??At Lashutka’s sale, visitors will find his Venetian line, traditional glass and murrini cane inspired by the works of Italian masters. They can also examine his Sea Foam work, which he said attempts to capture ‘a foaming, bubbling wave breaking in ocean surf. These are used as a room accent, under-lit, to create a calming glow of light.’ His Red series captures beautiful variations of the color, from crimson to blood orange. And then there is his Palisasdes series, inspired by ‘the changing sky of where I live. Each day, the sky changes and offers a different combination of colors as light bounces off clouds and the Pacific Ocean.’ ‘I like going down to the glider area on the Via bluffs and looking at the sky’the shape of the clouds and the swirls of color,’ continued Lashutka, a Palisades resident since 1982. ‘I love the different combinations, from the sunsets and the ocean. We’re lucky to live here.’ ??The glassblowing craft, he emphasized, requires ‘very physical work and it’s incredibly mental. You have to also stay very loose. It’s kind of a dance. If you reheat it too much, it will be too fluid, it’s not going to work. If you don’t reheat it enough, it’s not going to move. If you have two colors, they’ll take the heat differently. A black will take the heat quicker than the white.’ ??Emotions can dictate the outcome of a glass-blowing session. ??’If you’re not calm, if you’re not focused and not sure of what you’re trying to do, it won’t work well,’ Lashutka said. ‘You’re dealing with the chemistry of glass, the chemistry of colors. When you add color, you add complexity, you add different heating temperatures and so forth.’ He cites his Turbulent Colors collection, which he likens to ‘comfort foods.’ ??He also creates commercial vessels such as drinking glasses and tumblers, ‘another discipline that I like to do. They’re very quick, about 10 to 15 minutes.’ He has given them as gifts to friends over the years, which means that people either expect to receive such Lashutka creations, or if they visit his home for dinner, they might go home with one by evening’s end. ??’I’ve kind of dug that hole myself,’ he said, laughing. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Lashutka is of Russian descent and majored in international studies at UC Berkeley. He lived in Kauai while serving in the Navy, where he worked as an intercultural relations specialist, helping Americans successfully adjust to new cultures (in places such as Vietnam, Japan, Micronesia and Italy) ‘so they could perform their jobs, often as advisors to other country’s navies.’ Following his service, he returned to Berkeley and pursued a master’s degree in business. The Navy experience had prepared him for a post-college career as a consultant specializing in team building and organizational development for such employers as Union Bank, Kaiser Permanente, Unocal and Pacificare. In essence, Lashutka’s attraction to glass began in the early 1970s when friends gave him a gift made of Portugal blue glass. The present from Sandy Wong and her husband, Tony Rose, was essentially a simple decanter, but it got Lashutka wondering how the object was made. So he took an evening class at USC with instructor Don Hartman. Today, YouTube is awash with videos of artisans walking prospective glassblowers through the process, but back in the dark ages, prior to the Internet, ‘it was difficult to find books on how to do the steps,’ Lashutka recalled. ‘I could only find three such books on how to do the process.’ His growing passion led him to Paul Harries’ Inglewood studio, originally founded in 1979 by a potter named Rich Nicholson, where Lashutka still practices his craft. ‘To come in there and to use the studio is quite an honor,’ Lashutka explained. ‘It’s much bigger and better now. There’s a 500-pound glass furnace and it’s very industrial.’ Harries’ hot shop is one of 20 such studios in the greater Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. As a master artisan, Lashutka is constantly updating his skills. It’s this very piecemeal aspect of the journey that he values the most. ‘This process is all about learning and community. You can not be effective by yourself. To put it a different way, just as during centuries before, glassblowing is an art best handed down from generation to generation; a fluid, evolving art shaped by the wisdom of more experienced artisans.’ He mentions his friend Kevin Chong, a San Jose-based glassblower who once made a simple observation that profoundly improved Lashutka’s technique. ‘He noticed that during my process, I stopped abruptly and it threw my piece off center. Working with people like Kevin, I can vicariously learn from his experience and become a better glassblower.’ In addition, Lashutka has taken a class in Pittsburgh with Randy Walker, an assistant to master glassblower Billy Morris, and last summer he traveled to Corning, New York, where Corning Industries subsidizes one of the premier courses of the genre, attracting students from around the world. In Lashutka’s opinion, the American contemporary glass movement, which emerged in the early 1960s, is ‘hands down the most amazing experience. In Europe, it’s been stultified. There’s not much new stuff going on aside from a great mastery of old techniques.’ Making a living as a glassblower is not easy, and, in fact, the now-retired Lashutka said that his years as a corporate consultant has enabled him to keep going. At Sunday’s sale, Lashutka intends to offer something for everyone. His work will range in price from $10 to $300. Tumblers will run between $15 to $22; bud vases will cost $30 to $50; and assorted other vases will be priced from $25 to $300. Developing his craft has made Lashutka in tune with his artistic calling. ‘If we’re out around town and there’s glass in the window, I’ll stop to take a look at it,’ he said. He laughed as he recalled a time when he was in the South of France, picnicking with his wife in the countryside next to a junction where three rivers converged. Slowly, through the aural fog of streaming water, Lashutka’s ears detected something unusual. ‘I heard this sound,’ he said. ‘I turned to my wife and said, ‘There’s a glass studio up there.’ Sure enough, there was a one-man studio, and here’s a guy in the middle of nowhere practicing this 2,000-year-old tradition of glassblowing and he’s keeping it alive.’ And you might say that Lashutka is doing the very same thing here in the Palisades. Serge Lashutka will hold his home sale on Sunday, June 14, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1024 Kagawa. Contacts: (310) 459-4709 and serge@sergeglass.com. Also visit: sergeglass.com.