Award-Winning Runcorn glassblower Paul Le Pinnet, who is renowned for his skills in moulding molten glass into intricate shapes for cutting-edge lab experiments, has been made a fellow of The British Society of Scientific Glassblowers.
Award-Winning Runcorn glassblower Paul Le Pinnet has been made a fellow of The British Society of Scientific Glassblowers.
Le Pinnet, who received the honour during a celebratory dinner, is renowned for his skills in moulding molten glass into intricate shapes for cutting-edge lab experiments.
Cchief scientific glassblower at SOG Ltd., based at The Heath Business and Technical Park in Runcorn, Le Pinnet said: “I spend my days playing with glass and bending it into strange shapes to create unique pieces which enable chemists, physicists, and biochemists to carry out vital research. It is challenging and enormously rewarding.
“To be made a fellow by the society and get a pat on the back from my peers is just amazing. It was totally unexpected and I am incredibly honoured and moved by the accolade.”
Le Pinnet is one of only 200 people in the UK to possess the skills to create intricate and precise glassware vessels for research scientists, a profession that he entered by pure chance.
In fact, he said: “In my early days as a trainee chemist at Unilever, I broke so many glass vessels that it got to the stage when the resident glassblower got fed up and said if you are going to break the glass you may as well learn how to mend it. He taught me how to manipulate glass and I just loved it.
“I discovered I was better at glassblowing than being a chemist and jumped ship. I am now 65 but cannot see myself giving it up. I am nowhere near retiring.”
Le Pinnet’s lab at The Heath is packed with state-of-the-art glassblowing equipment including three lathes, cutting machinery and annealing ovens which fire up to temperatures of up to 680°C to stress relieve the glass over a 24-hour period.
Delicate pieces are delivered to clients personally within a 30-mile radius of The Heath. Others need to be carefully wrapped to ensure they do not break in transit for delivery to his more than 150 clients around the world.