OLPH Blows Glass

"Sea and Sky" garden globe with dichroic accents

21 October 2014

There were two instructors and eight newbies in the glass blowing class that Chris and I took at Luke Adams Glass Studio (the link isn't much, so I'll spare you).  We were going to make two pieces each.  In the first round we could make an ornament, a garden globe (essentially a huge ornament, with an extra charge for the extra glass), or a pumpkin.  In the second round, we could make a fluted vase, a tumbler, a bowl with a foot, or a fluted bowl.  We had a choice of basic colors that we could mix. Adding dichroic glass would cost a little more.

We broke off into two groups of four as the instructors gave us a lesson on the instruments we'd be using, and that was it.

I dared go first in our group. That ended up meaning that I had no idea what was coming next, and that I was the demonstration project for everyone else.  The blue and green glass mixture was called "sea and sky," and I added some dichroic glass for sparkle.

This was a team effort.  We started with a thin pipe that was dipped into an oven of white-hot clear glass. We learned how to turn the pipe so that the molten blob on the end would stay round as we rolled it onto our choice of crushed colored glass.  The instructor then blew quickly into the end of the pipe and sealed the opening.  A small air bubble appeared in the glass.  He brought the pipe to the work bench, where I was to help roll the pipe back and forth, and to pinch the end of it while he twisted the rest.  Chris sat at the end of the pipe to blow into it when she was instructed to.  A fourth person was the shielder, holding a thick piece of wood between the glass and the arms of those of us working on the piece.  The instructor did all the difficult maneuvers.  At the end, I didn't feel as if I'd made the piece; I'd only helped.

When it was Chris' turn (she made an ornament), I was the blower.  When it was the next person's turn, I was the shielder.  

Molten glass is hot.  Standing more than a foot from the glass I was shielding,  I could feel the heat radiating through my jeans.  When I wasn't working, I kept my distance from the oven we used to melt our colors onto the glass.

The third person (he has a PhD in robotics!) made a pumpkin.  Here it is being finished off:

The propane flame keeps the top hot while the instructor gathers glass to make the stem.

The glass is dipped into a mold to make ridges.  Cooling a little, the glass is now red instead of white as the instructor drips the stem onto the pumpkin.

In seconds, the instructor wraps the glass around a metal rod, removes the rod, and ends with a twist.

As the glass cools, the stem turns green.

For the second project, I went first again.  I chose a fluted bowl in amber with dichroic accents.  This time we gathered glass, rolled in the dichroic, melted it, gathered more glass, added color, and then more glass.  This time we opened up one end, and that's where the best part came in.  The glass is heated again, then spun.  As the spinning slows down, the glass slumps, and the bowl is formed. Here's our instructor working on a bowl for the third person in our group:

Someone in the other group was making a bowl too.  Here they are finishing off the bottom by heating the spot where the pipe was before smoothing it out:

When the pieces are finished, they go into an annealing oven, where they stay at high temperature and slowly cool.  That's my bowl in front.

Chris, as well as the fourth person in our group, opted for the fluted vase.  Here's the molten glass, with the air bubble inside, being slowly swung so that it elongates before the end is opened.

This is Chris' vase, a lime green to pink fade, being finished off.  The glass is still hot, but the colors are beginning to emerge.

Annealing takes two days; my pieces would have to be shipped.  Chris picked hers up today.