Friday, April 5, 2019

Glassblowing class experience
March 24, 2019

As a unique experience I decided to bring my Dad to try glassblowing. Both of us have always been interested in the blown glass process and the beautiful things that come from the craft.
The transformation from solid glass to liquid material takes place at about 1320 degrees Celsius and then is left to level out (which allows the bubbles to rise out of the mass). The working temperature is 1090 degrees.
Everyone choosing their colours for their "friendship ball"

We were told to lay out the colours within this template and we could choose between spotted (like the ball with yellow on it) or spiral (the blue one). Dad chose spotted and I chose spiral. Mine is the all green one on the right.

Dad's colours are the ones on the far left (without the paper). Blue and pink looking here.

The furnace... if you're cold, just stand next to it to warm up in a jiffy

Our instructor dips the rod into the furnace with the melted glass and constantly spins the rod in the liquid for it to accumulate in a blob on the end. She then rolls it on this metal table (to make it one solid piece without any air in it).

She then holds it in the furnace for a few seconds to reheat it, then rolls it into the glass pieces each person chose earlier. The cold glass pieces stick to the hot molten glass

When you choose the spiral form, this extra step is taken. She uses a plier-like tool to pinch the end of the blob and then twists the rod while holding the tool in place. This creates the swirl effect vs. just leaving it as spots.

You don't want to get too close to that heat!
This is the nearly finished ball of the first participant. Here our instructor is adding the little hook to the top of the ball by getting a little more molten glass, plopping it on the newly formed and still hot ball, pulling away some of the excess then bending it back and forth and finally wrapping it around a small tool to form the loop. The left over molten glass on the rod is placed in a bucket and because this glass is cooling too quickly in room temperature it eventually cracks and shatters with an audible snap, crackle, pop

Dad's up 2nd... the first bit of molten glass is added to the rod, then rolled on the table
Then it's reheated for a bit

Then rolled again through the cold glass pieces we chose earlier (when she has enough glass to make the entire ball).

Then reheated again for a moment... you have to constantly turn the rod or the glass blob will just fall off the rod when being reheated.


Getting ready to blow!

Dad has a good set of lungs to create the initial start of the ball (the hardest part to blow as you're blowing through a thick part of glass).

Blow hard Dad! 🌬
Good job! While we were blowing she was constantly turning the rod, so we had to blow while moving
It's getting there... keep going!
Such concentration!
Ta-da! (minus the loop)
Here she's adding the little loop to Dad's masterpiece

At first it looks like SUCH a huge amount of glass to create the loop

Then she takes most of that blob away. Just about done, then it goes into a little incubator to slowly reduce the temperature so that it doesn't just shatter like the left over glass on the rod.
These are the buckets she puts the hot rods with leftover glass in and they snap crackle and pop as they cool
Time for mine... I do wish we were more "hands on" to make it and not just do the blowing part, but that's a more advanced class and would take much more time.

Rolling it to pick up the cold glass pieces which form the colour in the otherwise clear glass

Apparently my Dad & I have good lungs (according to our instructor)

It's not too difficult... the young girl in our class was easily able to do it also


Look at the strange colouring of my ball... it totally looks pink, but there's only clear glass with green swirl. The colour changes as it cools

Now it's green... It will actually be more of a bright green when it fully cools, but right afterwards it was this olive green.

Here you can more clearly see how she forms the loop
Look at this funny water glass! lol
Dad checking out the tools
Some of the beautiful coloured glass pieces you can choose to customize your piece

And our finished pieces ...
From these pieces of glass...
to this... the finished friendship ball
From these two different-coloured pieces of glass to...

To this pink & purple masterpiece!