Made of glass and for everyone
At UM, human biodiversity is thriving. Meet a particularly rare bird in the heart of the Triolet campus: Tristan Beldi, a scientific glassblower. From ordinary Pyrex to nearly pure silica, he transforms the hardest of materials into fiery marshmallows.
With a passion for the art of fire that has never waned in his 25 years in the business, this “A job like no other”“he said. Tristan Beldi is always busy. From the fantastical visions he breathes out, with a steady, confident breath, highly useful scientific tools are born…”
Repair and Creation
From flasks and test tubes to cooling devices and micro-distillation apparatus, he works with the entire range of scientific glassware. From the indispensable Pyrex—the chemist’s go-to all-purpose vessel—to silica glassware designed for use at extremely high temperatures.
A full-time glassmaker right on campus? That opens up quite a few possibilities, explains Tristan. Quick repairs, the ability to create one-of-a-kind pieces that would be prohibitively expensive on the market, or even on-site assistance in labs for complex setups intended for research. In that case, don’t hesitate to reach out to him:
Working with the researcher to develop plans and helping to create a specific project is exciting!
A unique workshop
Who are the clients of this unique workshop? Teachers and researchers from a wide variety offields: mainly chemistry, but also pharmacy, medicine, physics… “In fact, the entire scientific community may need glassware, ”explains this enthusiast, whom even the university’s mathematicians have come to see. Their request: the creation of a “Klein bottle,” that strange, self-contained vessel, which shares some similarities with the no less strange but better-known Möbius strip.
And while Tristan’s craft occasionally flirts with artistic creation, he doesn’t mind it at all. At the request of the UM’s art and culture department, he thus participated in the Chimaera exhibition, as part of the artist residency by the Microclimax collective, creating for the occasion an incredible glass prototype: a forest of scented vases emerging from an undergrowth of fused chemistry balloons.
While these forays into the art world remain limited, the business itself is still in its infancy, predicts Tristan, whose order book is growing rapidly. Especially since the Balard Chemistry Campus project could undoubtedly further expand the community likely to use this local service.
The next project on his mind? An introductory glassblowing workshop, to help everyone get their hands dirty. With glass, of course.