Glass Blowing

In January I got the chance to go to Seattle with Dale, Scott, and Melody and we took a glass blowing class at Seattle Glass Blowing. I thought I would share with you a bit of what we did.

First our instructor had us get to know the equipment we would be using for projects. These pictures are all of the first thing we did, which was a paper weight 

Then the instructor got the beginning blob of molten glass from a special furnace with nothing but melted clear glass in ti.

Then after he showed me how to heat it in an other oven, he let me try it my self. You always had to keep the pipe level and turn it. The glass looked a little like red taffy. If you were turning to slow it started to sag down and then you had to turn it until that piece leveled back out. 

When it was molten enough we brought it over to these scoops filled with tiny glass pieces that looked like glitter.

you pressed the hot glass into these glass pieces turning it so that they covered all sides and top

Then it was back to the oven to reheat and melt this new colored glass into the clear glass base

Then back for more color and back to the oven

After we had all the colored glass on and melted we rolled the glass using the metal table and the pipe it was on

Then one more set of color glass

And back to the ovens

I don't have a picture of what was next, but we used the big dish tool in the first picture to round it into a ball sort of shape. Then back to the ovens. Next I took a cutter and cut and pulled the glass

Snipping it and pulling it while turning the pipe the glass was attached too.

I also twisted it as I turned the pipe

This was all done as quickly as I safely could as the glass went from thin taffy consistency to almost solid in a matter of minutes.

 

Another time into the clear glass vat to put a clear coat over the piece I was clipping a few minutes ago. Then back to the bench and working it into the round cup like devices to form a round sphere. 

Then once more back to the ovens to heat up the glass

Then back to the work bench and while I turned the piece, the instructor used a hard wood paddle to slightly flatten the top. Then we took a tool that  looked like a scissors with a flat blades to make a thin neck near the pipe.

Next we brought  the piece over to another work area an the instructor set it on the flat top with the pipe straight up in the air and did a sharp tap right above the thin area near the pipe that we just finished creating.

Next I used a blow torch to smooth where the glass had released from the pipe. This picture was of my next project which was a bowl. When the area was smooth on the glass, the instructor carried the paddle the glass piece is sitting on to a "cooling" oven wand slide the glass piece onto one of the shelves in it.  It took about 48 hours in this cooling oven for the piece to be ready.

They shipped us the pieces when they were ready as we were leaving for home the next morning.

We did not know until we got the box and unpacked it if all our pieces made it.

The temperature  of the glass when I pulled it out of the ovens each time was about 2000degrees. That blue bowl was still about 1100-1200 degrees.  We had to be very careful as even if a a piece of glass looked cooled we were warned not to touch it. We also had to make sure we held the pipes at less half way back from the heated end with glass and once we were done with the pipe we set them down and did not touch that one again. We had a clean pipe for every project. Then four of us had been slipt into two team with an instructor per team of two. Even though it was snowing outside they had the back door open and we were all nice and warm.

It took about a week to get our glass shipped to us and I was very excited to see what all made it.

Luck was on our side and all of our pieces made it!

These were the pieces that I made

This was my "special piece" we each made a paper weight and a bowl, then got to choose one other project.

This was so fun and fascinating to make

these were Scott's. He choose to make a glass to match his bowl. It is the piece still partly wrapped as I needed to take it to hime yet and decided not to totally unwrap his and Melody's "choice" piece

Melody did the bowl and her paper weight came out the coolest I think. She choose to make a vase for her last piece. She and I were one team and Scoot and Dale was the otyher team

Dale did a pick paper weight. He chose to make a pumpkin for his third piece. As he and Scott's group got done with time left, he was able to make a forth piece,  the blue ornament for a Christmas tree.

It was so fun and it might be something I would do again some time