Blow, Gabriel Blow

While you are reading this post, please feel free to play some music in the background.  

So ladies and gents, I (barely) survived week three of glass blowing.  Things are starting to get intense here people.  We have moved beyond through the now simple process of glass gathering out of what I like to call the Dragon, mainly because it sounds and blows hot air like one. 

The night began with a new process which involved bringing bits over to what we had on our pipe to create pieces.  The instructor made a pretty cool Stegosaurus and it seemed like a breeze.  I of course knew better and decided to keep thing simple and set out to make a fish.  Well that then morphed into a bumble bee and I finally ended up with a bird, but I was actually quite pleased with the end result.  These pieces are currently cooling in the studio and I will be able to take it home next week.  Fingers crossed it looks as good as I am picturing in my head.

With that accomplished, we then set out to start some actual glass blowing.  Up until this point I had been feeling cautiously optimistic that this might not be impossible, tough, but certainly not impossible.  After a few practice goes I was able to blow into the pipe and stop up the opening with my finger while continually turning the pipe; there was even a nice puff of air when I took my finger off (a sign that I was doing it right).  Feeling confident I stepped up to the plate to try to blow my first bubble and let me tell you I FAILED MISERABLY!!!  I have trouble blowing up a balloon - how in the heck was I supposed to get this molten glass to move at my will?  Thankfully I was not the only one having a problem so my ego was spared (barely). 

I am happy to report that by the end of the class I was able to get a little bubble in the bottom.  Fingers crossed it will all click next week when we really start getting into blowing glass.