At first I saw a sign that said no photography and I was devastated, but then I found out that only pertained to the tourists who walked in and watched. So I was allowed to take pictures during my session. However, I also wanted to do a good job so I had to pay attention and follow instructions and be careful, so I couldn't photo-document every single moment. Another guy took a few pictures for me, and I would try to grab the camera when I could. So this is a very condensed version of my two hours, there were actually more steps and in a lot of cases repetition of steps as you add more color and glass. I also have to go back in a few days to pick up my finished pieces after they have annealed and cooled, so I don't get to show you everything I made.
I PRESENT, FUN WITH MOLTEN GLASS!
My teacher's name was Drake, and he had a blue mohawk. The first thing we made was a paperweight, which I have no pictures of, because I wasn't quite secure yet in taking out my camera (HELLO SUPER HOT STUFF EVERYWHERE) and wanted to learn a few things first. So we made a paperweight. It was basically just a blob of hot glass that I got to mold a little and add some colors to. When he gets a blob of glass on the end of the rod it's called a "gather" and that's the one step I never did. But I got to stick the rod of glass in the "glory hole" (really hot thing) to "flash" it, which basically kept it heated (or reheated it) so we could work with it.
After the paperweight we made a vase, so I actually got to do a little glassblowing with this piece, because we first make a blob of glass, but then we blow into the rod to create the center opening. (At one point we had also stuck it in a cone shaped mold that was spiked, and that created all those bubbles you see going around it).
Drake helping me put the vase in the glory hole! It's super hot. This is where you flash it, you spin it around so it doesn't lose its shape (by melting more on one side and bending). You do this before/after each addition of more glass.
OMG I'm making glass art! (note: these photos contain the occasional red splotch which I suspect are due to having a filter on my lens, causing a reflection, NOT that Satan's spawn is in my belly)
I'm rolling it back and forth to keep it on center, so the shape doesn't end up all wonky. That was a lot of my job, keeping it centered. And I'm smiling like a dumbass because I am that excited. Drake is picking up more glass and colors and he attaches those to the outside, so they'll create designs and bubbles when it's done.
I'm standing in this picture, but you can also turn around and sit down because it's a bench, so usually one of us would be sitting down, and the other standing up, one to roll, and one to shape.
It's going to be a vase! I wish I'd gotten a picture of some of the tools. We used "blockers" a lot, which are essentially rubber half-spheres that sit in a bucket of water. While the rod with the glass blob gets rolled back and forth you hold the blocker against the blob and it helps smooth and round the surface. So I would get to hold the blocker while he rolled the rod.
He "drew" on the outside with glass rods, and added little "dots" of melted glass that were colored. But since everything's so hot it all looks kinda orange and red.
Flashing some glass before he adds it to my vase
These little piles are shavings of colored glass, so he rolls the hot blob to pick them up, flashes it again, and then sticks it on my vase. (I get to do all this part later to make flowers)
Then he makes a "cookie foot" which is a blob of glass that he then flattens on the table, and I get to stick my bubble of glass on top of it, and it will act as the base for my vase. He then heats another blob on a pole, and sticks that to the bottom of the vase, so we can break it off at the top. The way he breaks it off is he puts drips of water on it and that weakens the hot glass (you can kinda see the water sputter when it hits, and the glass fracture). Then, he can just knock on the rod, and the glass breaks at that weak point, so then he's holding the vase on his rod by its bottom, and the original rod is no longer attached. After that, it goes through the process of flashing again several times, in between each flash I get to widen the opening of the vase by pushing against it with one of the metal tools that I didn't take a picture of.
Then, on the last flashing, he takes it out and swings the rod and it opens the top of the vase even more and makes it wavy.
CHECK OUT MY VASE
He removes the pieces from the rod the same way I told you before, by dripping some water and weakening it. All the pieces go into a 900 degree thing (oven?) where they have to sit for like 38 hours or something, and then they get to cool and then I can have them.
Next up, a plate! We set up these little pieces of glass to be designs. They'll get a blob of hot glass on them (to pick them up) then get stuck on my plate.
This cool mold allows me to arrange little rods of glass, which will create stripes. I shove the blob into the mold, and blow through the rod a little so the blob widens and picks up the glass rods.
I liked both pics I took of this.
Flashing in the glory hole!
Making the plate was very similar to making the vase...blob of glass, blowing it out in the center, adding the cookie foot...We just used more glass and made a bigger opening. Then Drake spun it around to flare it. Because there were three spots where those little bits of glass were (the ones I had arranged on the table), those spots were heavier and gravity made it sorta split.
So we still had 15 minutes so he asked if I wanted to make some flowers, and of course I did. So he showed me how to do one, and I pretty much got to make three of them all on my own, except for the "gather" at the beginning. He'd do a gather, then roll it in several of the colors I had on the table, then flash it, then roll it on the table (but not in the colors) to smooth the shape, then press it straight down on the table to sorta flatten the blob on the end of the rod. THEN, he would sit at the bench and roll it while he pinched at the edges. That's where this picture comes in.
As you continue to pinch, you also start to pull, and then you get your flare that looks like petals.
Then you pull it away from the rod and that creates the long stem, which he then sorta swirls. And since it's thin enough, you don't need water to break it off, he just sorta clips it at one point to weaken it and breaks it off in the oven.
So then I made THREE flowers all by myself and it was great.
And he'll call me when they're ready and I'll go pick them up and hug them and squeeze them and call them George.
EDIT: HERE'S MY FINISHED PIECES!
Paperweight
My three flowers
This one is sorta purple
Which makes it awesome
My vase
My platter/plate thing
Look I can stack them
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