This blows

...but not like that.  It was actually really, really fascinating, and I hope I get to go do it again.

A friend of ours does glass blowing.  I don't know how long she's been doing it, but it's been long enough that she sells stuff on Etsy, and she likes to stock up a pile of ornaments before the holidays so she can sell those, too.

This piece has already collected some frit, and been re-heated.

We learned through a mutual friend that she sometimes enlists helpers to make the ornaments, and offers up one of the ornaments as payment.  Sucker!!  I would have done it just to watch the process.  For that matter, I would have sat quietly in the corner and never said a word, if she were willing to explain everything to me as she worked.

Glory hole.  Hee hee!

She starts by collecting some white (clear) glass from the crucible in the furnace.  There aren't any pictures of that because it's so ridiculously hot in there that you can't even see where the air stops and the glass starts until you dip a pipe in low enough to disturb the surface of the glass.  Everything inside the furnace glows bright orange; the glassblowers all wear sunglasses just for this step.  I didn't even think it was safe to point my camera in there.  The hot glass is rolled on a metal table called a marver to give it a slightly tapered shape (see the first picture, above).  Color is added by rolling it through tiny pieces of broken glass called frit.  This can be arranged in stripes on the table to get certain color patterns in the finished piece.

Forming the glass with tweezers.

The glass may be reheated several times in a smaller furnace ("glory hole") to keep it soft enough to form.  The glory hole is around 2,000F.  While she formed the pieces, we sat at the other end of the pipe and provided air.  She told us all we had to know was how to blow up a balloon, and how to hit something with a hammer (it turned out to just be a stick of wood), but even at 2,000 degrees, glass doesn't want to change shape, so it's less like blowing up a balloon and more like trying to inflate a Coke bottle.  There were times when it hurt my head a little.

Blowing red-hot glass in a mold gives texture to the finished piece.

After she was done forming the ornament (using whatever method she chose for that particular item), we took it across the shop to another table to break it off the pipe.  This sometimes required rotating the pipe as we went, because the glass was still hot and pliable, and we didn't want it to distort its shape or fall off the pipe.  At the table, we held the pipe high and vertical to set the ornament in a heat-resistant fixture, then whacked the pipe with a stick.  The shock on the pipe broke the connection to the ornament, leaving it in the fixture.  This part always worried me.  I was sure that I'd hit it too hard--or not hard enough, requiring further whacks--and ruin the ornament she'd spent so long making.  This might have derived from the third ornament we made, which really was ruined at about that time.

Collecting frit from the marver.

While we were banging pipes with sticks, she would collect a glob of glass from the furnace.  The Girl or I would hold the ornament with tongs while our glassblower friend applied a dollop of hot glass to the top of the ornament, sealing it and covering the broken edges.  While it was still hot and gooey, she'd twist it with tweezers to form a loop.  There aren't many pictures of these last few steps, because I was usually too busy holding or smacking things to get my camera.  I try to not screw around too much when I'm handling anything over 1,000 degrees.

Using tweezers to stretch out a molded ornament.

Once the loop is applied, the ornament goes into an annealer (a very hot box) to cool overnight.  When the ornament goes in, the box is around 900F.  The temperature slowly drops over twelve hours.  If the glass cools too quickly, it will break.

Feathering the glass on a wrapped ornament.

She also showed us a wrap, another way to apply color to an ornament.  While she prepared the basic clear ornament, I kept a separate rod (which wasn't hollow, so it wasn't a pipe, but I don't know if there's a technical term for it) hot in the glory hole, taking it out periodically to keep it from getting too runny, and rotating it the whole time.  She had already applied a glob of colored glass on the end of the rod.

The wrapped ornament gets a loop.  Note that the loop glass is still glowing.

When the basic ornament had its shape, I stood behind the glassblower and held the rod over the ornament.  She used tweezers to pull out a line of glass (think about hot cheese on your pizza) to the ornament, then rolled it forward as I followed to get a spiral of solid color wrapped around the ornament.  Then she'd usually re-heat the whole thing, and use a hook to pull on the bands on opposite sides to get that swept-up look--that's called feathering.

Frit for a striped piece.

I like knowing how everything is made, and I'd never been able to see glassblowing up-close and personal before, much less help do it, so I was enthralled all night.  The shop we visited often has events, open houses, and classes, and if you're interested, I'd recommend a visit.