Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

In the third-season premiere of Netflix’s glass-blowing competition series “Blown Away,” streaming Friday, John Sharvin of Morningside does not get a winner’s edit.

With twinkly music playing under his interview segments, it’s more of a can-this-goofball-make-it-past-the-first-episode edit. But, viewers may be surprised.

Sharvin, studio manager at Pittsburgh Glass Center in Garfield, said he entered the competition as an underdog.

“That first episode, I was like, man, what the heck did I get myself into here?” Sharvin said. “I struggled that episode. It was so hot, and things just didn’t go well. I didn’t make good work. It was not good. I knew it.”

Sharvin, 33, said “Blown Away” gave contestants no time to settle into their new workspace on the show’s set in Hamilton, Ontario.

“I like getting used to a space first, and, especially when making art, it’s very challenging to walk into a brand-new space with a brand-new assistant that you’ve never worked with,” he said. “They’re throwin’ so much stuff out right at the get-go. And you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re starting?’ … I was just not comfortable the entire time. That was the biggest challenge.”

Sharvin said he applied to “Blown Away” after a difficult year when his fiancée broke up with him and he lost all of his remaining grandparents.

“I was a little bit lost in the world, and I figured why not try something kind of stupid,” Sharvin said.”I had to change something, and this seemed like it might be a good way of making some change happen.”

He also saw going on the show as a way to get his artwork seen by a larger audience.

“Most in the glass community know me as a technician first, the guy who builds you the doohickey you need or fixes the equipment,” Sharvin said. “I wanted to show I also make artwork. I think it’s not bad, and I wanted to show as many people my artistic side more than anything else.”

On “Blown Away,” Sharvin mentions his mid-college switch from studying engineering to a career in the arts. He said he initially pursued studies in nanotechnology engineering because he excelled at math, but quickly found it “really boring.”

“I always enjoyed doing ceramics and doing stuff with my hands. I like building stuff,” Sharvin said. “Glass scratches that itch for me of being very mathematical because I have to build a lot. You have to make your own tools and figure out how to make them work, even in the glass shop. Also, there (are) steps involved, but you have to put creativity behind the building. And it was a really great blend of both sides of my brain. And it was really hard. I really like challenges. So doing something that was really hard for me was really good for me.”

He also values the teamwork required.

“The amount of community that is needed to actually make your work really drew me to it,” Sharvin said of glass-making. “It’s very team-oriented. I always work with a partner or in teams of three. And you get to play with flame throwers and gooey lava all day. It’s amazing.”

Sharvin transferred from Purdue University to Ohio State University, graduating in 2012 with a bachelor’s of fine arts with a concentration in glass. After a few years working at Hawk Galleries in Columbus, Ohio, near where he grew up, he began as a technician apprentice at the Pittsburgh Glass Center in 2014. Sharvin builds and repairs equipment and facilitates making glass. But he doesn’t always have time to blow glass himself.

“If I blow glass, I do it here at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, so I have to come back to work to make artwork, which is daunting some days,” Sharvin said, noting he did try to blow more glass before he left to film “Blown Away” in late September 2021.

Selected to be one of 10 contestants vying for $60,000 and a residency at Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N.Y., Sharvin gets judged in one episode by his Pittsburgh Glass Center boss, Chris Clarke, PGC’s director of operations. (Heather McElwee, the Randi L. Van V. Dauler Jr. executive director of PGC, was a guest judge in the show’s second season).

“He’s my most direct boss and, yeah, it was kind of intimidating,” Sharvin said. “Blown Away” does not disclose their relationship in Clarke’s episode.

“That’s the glass world in general: We all kind of know each other. It’s not a very large world, so it’s impossible not to run into someone you know in the field. Going into the show, I knew three of the other contestants pretty well.”

PGC will host a free “Blown Away” watch party and glass-blowing demonstration from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday. It is open to the public.

Sharvin will depart PGC at the end of July to pursue making glass full time. He sells his creations, including barware and ornaments, on his website at johnsharvin.com. He also accepts glass artwork commissions.

“I have a girlfriend who also blows glass, and we’ve been working on some new projects and we have some shows coming up,” Sharvin said. “I only get into the shop (to blow glass) once every two weeks right now, but that will change pretty soon when I can get in there three to four days a week.”

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