For a real change of pace, Richard and I signed up for an afternoon (4 hour) class of glowblowing at a Seattle glass studio. For me -- a person who has always loved glass -- it was a great experience to handle glass, learn about which techniques are difficult and how results are achieved. I think Richard got a lot out of it as well -- he certainly was more proficient than I. The real key is constantly spinning the rod EVENLY at different tempos and at slightly different angles. One's constantly working with and against gravity and centrifigal forces to "dance" with the liquid glass. It's also neat to know that many times, it can take much longer to add colors and spin/shape the colors into patterns, than it is to form the actual piece.
Richard and I both made paperweights. I then made a bowl, and Richard made an espresso glass. We did "blow" the glass, and during the making of my bowl, one did have to inhale -- believe it or not -- to invert a bubble. However, the instructor did the inhaling as it takes lots of practice to do it safely.
The pieces need to cool overnight; when they are molten, they are over 2000 degrees, and our small pieces take 14 hours to cool. The lens on the Hubble telescope took a year to cool.
Can't wait to see the pieces!
blowing a bubble to form my bowl.
Richard "heats" his glass blob
Richard forming his glass
This is actually our first time handling glass...we tried out the different tools to pull, snip, and squeeze molten glass.
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