Because the classes was a survey, we learned a little about a lot. We made a flower, a paper weight and an ornament. To be honest, would I have selected to make any of these things? Nope. But! I now have a much better appreciation for handmade glasswork.
The first thing we made was a flower. Now, when I worked at the mall during college I used to have to straighten up flowers just like the ones we made in class. I thought they were over-priced and a pain in the butt. They broke all the time and it fell to me to clean up the pieces. Maybe they weren’t so ridiculously priced after all! To make my flower I dipped a long stink (I am using none of the correct terminology because I remember none of it) into liquid glass. Then I heated it up and shaped it on a steel table. I dipped it into broken bits of colored glass and melted the color in for the stem. Then I dipped the glass-covered stick into more glass and added more color for the petals of the flower. At this point it looked nothing like a flower. Then, with the help of my teacher, I pulled and stretched on the glass and it was amazing. A flower totally took shape!
Our next item was a paper weight. I think paper weight and I am reminded of my grandma who had several. I don’t think of awesome. But now that I have mine? Awesome. Making the paperweight was similar to making the flower. I dipped a stick into melted glass and then melted color into the glass. This time I shaped the glass and then dipped malformed, colored glass chunk into melted glass and shaped my final blob. This was not an activity of precision but what it created looks as if it took lots of skill.
The final piece was an ornament. For this piece we actually blew glass. We were instructed to dip a hollow stick into glass and then blow into the stick from our cheeks. The instructions should have been to blow from your cheeks unless you have the lung capacity of an infant, in which case you should go for it. I got red-faced from blowing so hard (yep, I did just type that) and the whole thing was pretty pathetic. I added color and more glass and then one of the class assistants, thank god, did the rest of the blowing while I shaped the glass. Our teacher add the top piece to the ornament where you can add a hook to hang it.
When I was done with my class my opinion was that glass blowing might not be an art form I should pursue. I don’t think my lungs are cut out for it. But now that I have my pieces back, I LOVE them and am so glad I tried it! Also, I get to check one more thing off of my 100 list!
