Alfred Zeilberger is used to being precise.
For Zeilberger, a machinist by trade, a 1,000th-of-an-inch tolerance can make the difference between a part being used and tossed out. All the metal pieces he makes are meticulously prepared before being fused together using a liquid metal spray.
Then there is more grinding and polishing to finish an item. No single step can be skipped, no detail ignored.
But all this is changing for Zeilberger. A new wave is swiping through his life. It's one he admits is flipping everything he learned upside-down positively.
"I have a lot more freedom," Zeilberger said, while sitting at a table brimming with sheets of colourful glass.
Instead of metal machine pieces, Zeilberger now fusing glass. His transformation from machinist to artist started with the proper caution Zeilberger implemented most of this life. It was accelerated when he met a woman in Squamish, fell in love and for the past two years, the now-married couple has called this town home.
"After I met Teresa my life basically changed completely," Zeilberger said. "My life used to be very structured. Now it has become quite unstructured."
Teresa's artistic flair has opened up a new world, he said. Unlike sports, art was never a part of Zeilberger's life growing up. He happened across glasswork in Whistler, where he took a workshop. With the support and encouragement of Teresa, when the couple moved here, Zeilberger opened a gallery and has pursued the art form full-time.
Zeilberger took to it quickly. As an artist, Zeilberger said he has more flexibility. He can fuse different colour pieces together and each will maintain its original colour. Once a glass plate or piece of jewellery comes out of the kiln, there is no grinding and polishing, Zeilberger added.
Zeilberger's glass necklaces and earrings look as though they are drops of coloured syrup. In some pieces, Zeilberger adds silver or gold foil trapped between the fused glass. He toys with geometric shapes. Sometimes, when Zeilberger is in the midst of creating jewellery, the glass scraps inspire future work.
"I am exploring this medium of glass work and applying me previous knowledge [in metal work] to help make some unique pieces," he said.
Currently, Zeilberger is now working on bigger pieces - large plates and table tops. He is looking to collaborate with artist woodworkers. The thing about being an artist is that you are creating something that has potentially never been created before, he said; there is a bit of a mystery in what you are creating - an unfolding - transforming thought and feeling into form. This seems to require logical and intuitive thought simultaneously, Zeilberger noted. Art is an exploration into one's self and into the creative process that we all share, he said.
Zeilberger is enjoying the challenges his new life path is throwing at him. He's excited to see where it will take him.
"Art, I find, takes time," Zeilberger said. "It is not something you can force. You have to pour heart into it."
Zeilberger's gallery is located on the corner of Main and Third avenue at 37896 Third Ave. For more information visit www.alfredzeilberger.ca.
