Blowing Glass

Our February date (Tyler and me, not the kids) was epic. We decided to do blown glass since there is a studio nearby. I'll tell you up front that it is a little pricey. And you need to schedule in advance. But we had everything planned and Tyler took off early from work and we headed to Holdman Studios.

The studio itself is pretty cool. You can walk around and look at all different kinds of art and glass. They have stained glass pieces and lots of blown glass. I adored these depictions of the four elements. I still can't decide which is my favorite.

There are several different things you can do as a first time blower of glass. We chose ornaments since they seemed the most likely to be used. (I'm not sure what I would do with a paper weight or flower.) They showed us lots of different designs and then we chose our colors. Here are all the options.

Tyler chose a bright orange and he wanted a stripey texture on his. He got to go first. I took mostly stills and he took mostly video so you will get to see some of both.

Now, you don't get to do all of the work. Because they want your piece to turn out right, the process is heavily supervised and the guy who helped us did many things for us. But you get to be right there through all of it, and it is still a pretty cool experience. I don't remember his name (sorry) but I'll call him Greg for this post. (I guess I changed his name to protect the innocent.)

First up, Greg hands you a pole with hot glass at the end. You roll it back and forth to balance it and get it ready. (I find it extremely funny because at the District Science fair I had to listen to the Chemistry teacher tell the exact same jokes again and he always leads with the one about cold glass and hot glass looking the same. Well...not here, my friend. Hot glass...really hot glass, looks much different.)

Next up, dipping the glass in the color. They have crystals in all the colors. Here is Tyler dipping his in the orange. He coated it really well on all sides. Hot glass actually looks pretty orange, so when the kids saw our pictures, they thought we both did orange.

The glass goes back in the furnace often. It can't cool too much or it will shatter. I imagine that would be unpleasant.

One of the things you get to help with is shaping the glass. This little bowl helps smooth it out and keep the rounded shape for an ornament.

Tyler's glass was put into a mold to give it some ridges. Next he grabbed the top and twisted. You can see the ridges and with the twist, they swirl nicely around the ornament.

Greg does the initial bubble for the ornament. He blows in the end of the pole, but for sanitary reasons, we got to use a tube. Here is Tyler adding some air to expand his glass and make it hollow inside.

After some more blowing and shaping and a few more trips back and forth from the furnace, it is ready. Greg takes it over and taps the ornament off the pole. Sheila (no, that is not her name either) adds a little glass on top and Greg shapes the hook. Then he puts it in a big heated cupboard. There the glass cools two degrees per hour so the glass won't shatter.

Now that you have the basic idea, it is my turn and you can watch some videos. It makes me sad that they won't be in the blog books, but that is just how it is.

My turn.

In this video, I dip my glass in white and teal. I chose the flower furthest left on the third shelf. I don't coat my entire glass because you want the two colors separate.

Sometimes you get to sit and wait while Greg does something. Here you can see I'm ready to twist and cut off the top of my ornament. I didn't put that video on here, but I was amazing at it.

I'm rolling my glass here to keep it from settling on one side.

Now Greg is going to put in the first bubble.

There are these weird tongs that help shape the glass and pinch it down so it can separate from the pole. In this video, I'm using the tongs and blowing the glass bigger at the same time. My ornament is just about finished.

And now for the final touch. Sheila is going to add my topper and then my ornament will go in the hot box.

It was really fun. The room was this strange combination of hot and cold. The outside doors were open and it was quite chilly outside, but the furnace was super heated and could easily keep you toasty. Sometimes you could stand in one part of the room and be cold on one side and hot on the other. When I left my cheeks felt like they had a mild sunburn because they were flushed from standing near the furnace and turning the glass. Look...so rosy.

We picked up our ornaments the next day. Here is Tyler's. The ridges smoothed out a bit too much, but you can still see the stripes.

My teal ended up being very light, with the white standing out much more and the teal hugging the edges of the white.

But we love them and it will be fun to hang them on the Christmas tree. It was a very fun date. It reminds me of going to the B & I and watching the guy do glass work. I was mesmerized as a kid. Now, I just need to dip and shape a candle and my life might be complete.