USC alumnus Tom Lockart builds shop off skill learned in university class
Walking through the doors of the One Eared Cow Glass gallery on Huger Street is like entering an entirely new world, stepping outside of the ordinary and crossing the threshold to a realm where vibrant, psychedelic colors intermingle beautifully with splashes of texture and shapes.
The room is filled with strikingly vivid blown glass pieces; hanging light fixtures dangle delicately from the ceiling; kaleidoscopic Christmas ornaments adorn a wire tree, and glass shelves house a variety of bowls, wine glasses and perfume bottles.
All this color lies in stark contrast to the back of the gallery, where another set of doors leads to a concrete studio stocked high with hotter-than-the-sun ovens, metal rods and molten chunks of glass. It is in this studio that One Eared Cow owner and cofounder Tom Lockart handcrafts these one-of-a-kind pieces on a daily basis.
A USC graduate, Lockart originally became interested in glass blowing when the university’s art department began offering the course as an elective when he was a student. Now, having been a successful glass artist for the past 20 years, Lockart said he had no expectations when he signed up for the class.
“We saw that the art department was offering this course in glass blowing,” he said. “So, it was just one of those things where we were like, let’s just take it and see what happens.”
After graduating, Lockart and his soon-to-be business partner Mark Woodham moved to Bishopville, S.C., where they set up a makeshift studio (rent-free) in a barn to hone and practice their craft. Shortly after came the idea for what would eventually become the One Eared Cow gallery, which officially opened in 1991 and is now celebrating 20 years of business.
And if you’re ever curious about how the Cow got its name, visitors need to look no further than the gallery’s front desk.
“We literally spent a few months trying to come up with some sort of fictitious name for our gallery. We tried combining our names and all sorts of different things,” Lockart said. “One day we just looked up, and there was this wooden cow head with one ear we’d hung above the door. We always wanted to have a memorable name, so that was just it. And that’s why we keep it on the front desk.”
Soon after, Lockart moved out of the barn and into the Huger Street studio where the One Eared Cow resides today, crafting new pieces daily to display in the gallery or for customers who special-order a piece.
Although the gallery offers a wide array of blown glass crafts in a multitude of colors, Lockart said the best-selling items are typically those that are more “gift-oriented,” such as the hand-blown ornaments, decorative pieces or the jewelry pendants.
However, One Eared Cow also offers some other unusual pieces, including outdoor landscape lighting, garden décor and even sink basins, all of which have the distinct touch of passion and craft that has always made the studio so unique. And if a customer is interested in more than just shopping, the gallery has a more hands-on option: classes are offered for new students right in the studio.
Looking at many of the gallery’s offerings, it is often hard to imagine how the painstaking details and rich swirls of color could have all begun simply as hulking 2,300-degree chunks of molten glass in a furnace. But this is exactly how it works, with each heap manipulated, cut, pulled and blown into an original work of art using metal rods and an assortment of other tools.
Lockart said the process can take up to two hours, not including oven time, and that one of the craft’s most difficult aspects is that it is impossible to start a piece without seeing it through until the end.
“You can’t really step away from a piece once you’ve started it because it’s such a continuous process of pulling and molding,” he said. “Sometimes it’s hard work, and because we know what goes into it, we as artists forget the mystique and the beauty from an outside perspective. So I always try to keep that in mind when I’m working on any type of piece.”
Having worked in various medias throughout his art career, Lockart said there are many things that set glass blowing apart as a craft. First of all, the material itself is a major component, as there are many factors that can change the path of your piece once you get started and things begin shifting in the heat. But Lockart also said that this is one reason the art is so powerful.
“The material itself can come out as many different things. It can be very sculptural or very commercial depending on what you do with it,” he said. “And we’re always looking for the next big project to make stuff that’s out-of-the-ordinary and unexpected while still thinking about what we want the final product to be.”
The One Eared Cow Glass gallery and hot studio is located at 1001 Huger Street and is open Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, visit their website at www.oneearedcow.com.
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