By PercyEcholsII
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Hello Lightning Tamers!
In today’s podcast, I have Rusty Russo, who has been working and developing his skills in the area of Illuminated Glass Tubing for over 30 years in which he’s acquired an expert level proficiency in glass fabrication, vacuum tube processing, system design, and construction, leak detection, technical support, packaging design, and technical writing. He’s also a Senior R+D Glass Blower for a Boston-based start-up specializing in energy-efficient inductively coupled soda-lime light bulbs. From his beginning as a neon bender, he’s worked as a technical consultant for The EGL Co., a columnist for Signs of the Times Magazine, demonstrating artist and technical assistant for The Glass Art Society, and assistant instructor/visiting artist for various education facilities such as the Pittsburgh Glass Center, Penland School of Craft and Urban Glass.
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He currently works as a freelance technical consultant, and glass artist, conceptualizing and creating 3-dimensional sculpture using glass, light, and mixed media.
I met Mr. Russo in the summer of 2018 during the Pittsburgh Glass Center’s first Plasma Workshop taught by Wayne Strattman and Mundy Hepburn where he assisted alongside Ander Mikkelsen. In the chaos of that class, Rusty was a grounding tether to the complexities of plasma and neon, someone who was very comfortable with meeting you at your level. He’s been such a great source of information and support in regards to troubleshooting and identifying components in the manifold, and helped provided confidence and guidance in my career development in technical consultation on several jobs.
Like many of the guests on this podcast, Rusty has a rich history and knowledge, and we barely scratch the surface of who Rusty is. Treat this as it is, an introduction, he’ll talk about the origins of his interest in neon, the influence of music and martial art on his practice and teaching philosophy, and his drive toward excellence through repetition, self-examination, and refinement.
Show Notes
Music Credits
- Preview – Retro by ONE
- The introduction – Boost by Joakim Karud
- Intermission – Sunny Side by ONE
- Credits – The Process by Lakey Inspired
Contact Rusty Russo!
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What’s the intro to the plasma Series?
well, it’s a 4 chapter introduction that will provide some foundations and actionable practices on what is involved in making a plasma sculpture, so that topics like gas mixtures, manifold design, and procedures, including advanced consideration have something to stand on. Understandably the podcast hasn’t provided a way to understand plasma in a comprehensive way. But that’s why we are doing the Intro to Plasma Series. |
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Why is that?
Well, besides sharing history with neon, plasma for our uses is on the fringe of considerate study requiring interested parties to spend time reading related materials, books, and sources to make sense of it. In my first two years of learning about plasma sculpture, I had to simplify the scope of knowledge, skills, and equipment into categories just to process it. And when questions arise such as “how do you make plasma?” the question is much bigger than that person understands. And I’m not saying this to scare you from the subject, my point is to understand that learning, doing, and teaching, are all different skills and that it takes time to bring effective learning and teaching materials into existence. |
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Why am I saying all this? To encourage you dear listener to watch the Intro to Plasma series, and to ask questions. Your attention is your interest, and through it, your engagement tells us you want to learn more. We ask to provide more than just general questions, but questions that are specific. Here’s an example from a listener. “I want to learn about gas mixtures”, this could be multiple questions ranging from common gases used, filling technique, or specific recipes. So I pressed this listener for more specific questions. |
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do, dislike if you don’t, but more importantly leave a comment or dm your questions to taming lightning.
Thank You for listening to the Taming Lightning Podcast.
If you like to support Taming Lightning, please donate to the Taming Lightning x GEEX Intro to plasma series. Should money be tight, please checkout the intro to plasma series on youtube and leave a comment about what you find useful, and questions about what you like hear for current and future chapters, I’ll have links provided in the show notes.
Please share, comment, and subscribe. And as always be safe, be healthy, and be Strong, and I’ll See you next time!
–Percy Echols II, Taming Lightning
