Glassblowing

Last weekend I took a glassblowing course at the Diablo Glass School. I took one about five and half years ago but this went further. Last time I just made paperweights, which doesn't involve any blowing. This one started with a small sculpture and a paperweight on the first day, and on the second day we blew some ornaments and then a drinking glass. I picked up the pieces yesterday.



The piece on the left is the sculpture. We gathered a blob of glass on the end of a solid pipe and pulled and twisted it with a large tweezer and scissors into something random. We broke it off the pipe and placed it on a blob of molten glass which formed a base. I've named this "ent".

The second piece is a paperweight as I made before. You start with a smaller blob and dunk it in some color, this was blue and yellow. You then twist it as in the sculpture and poke at it to make some holes. In this one I rolled it over what looked like a small bed of nails. You then gather another blob of glass over this and those holes form small bubbles. You then shape it into a globe, break it off the pipe and flatten the bottom by pushing on it with a flat tool.

The next day we used a hollow pipe and blew some bubbles. You need to use all the skills learned the first day to keep the pipe constantly turning so it doesn't droop and move around the shop fast enough to have time to work the glass before it cools too much. We gathered the glass, blew the bubble, shaped it, etched a narrow line to break it at and broke it off the pipe. The instructor then placed this on a molten blob to form a base or worked a smaller blob into a hook. We did this twice so I got one of each.

Finally we made a cup. This had a lot of steps and frankly I'm amazed that after just a few hours we're able to do this. You basically blow a bubble as in the ornament but leave more glass at the end of the piece. You then swing it like a pendulum to let gravity stretch it longer and blow it out some more. Then (if I remember this order right) you attach another pipe to the bottom of the piece and break it off the original pipe. Then with the giant tweezers you shape the sides of the glass, opening up the top of it (which is now not connected to a pipe). To decorate, we swirled another small blob of (colored) molten glass around the cup.

I felt pretty comfortable doing all of this though my jacklines to break the piece off the pipe weren't very straight. I might sign up for another class (or they have private lessons) and make a few more paperweights and glasses. It's pretty fun.