Event: Velzeke 2015 & 2017 (OMD)

One afternoon in 2015, and again briefly in 2017, I witnessed an amazing event. The place was Velzeke, the venue the Provincial Archaeological Museum, or rather the shack next to it, housing what has long been the only wood-fired glass furnace in Europe. The time was the annual Heritage Day (Open Monumentendag) - which in Velzeke happens to span the whole weekend, and actually also the week before, which is used to gradually fire the furnace to its operational temperature of 1100 °C. It rained on both occasions. On neither of those, the rain came close to detracting from the experience. I admit I've always had a deep respect for true artisans. People who possess a deep (technical) understanding of what they do, a refined sensibility for how their finished work interacts with our senses, and the skills to materialise that vision meticulously. As such, my admiration applies equally to musicians, composers, directors, photographers, visual artists, architects, designers, master chefs, etc. and yes, also to those whose "products" are perhaps more easily taken for granted in the consumption centered society we live in today, such as e.g., furniture makers, sculptors, smiths and ... glass blowers. With an ease that only betrays their mastery of the craft, a select group of glass blowers from as far back as the US and Japan, were dipping their blowpipes into the pots of searingly hot molten glass, working their magic, and (re)creating the most intricate glass cups, beakers, vases, oil lamps etc., ranging from ancient Roman to delicate Venetian designs. Do visit the Velzeke website, it contains links to the pages of the glassblowers (http://www.pam-ov.be/velzeke/activiteiten/glasoven) I finished working on the 2015 gallery some time after the event, and while I very much liked the realistic tones and colors of the images, as I started out on the 2017 shots, it quickly became apparent that the latter came closer to portraying the prevalent conditions. As this had only partly to do with the composition and chosen subjects, I went back to the original files and gave them a slightly warmer white balance, and a tiny bit more saturation (especially the close-ups). Can you feel the heat?