Glory Hole-monday- first full day

Monday July 26, 2010

So I slept in longer today than i thought I would. I really thought that because I'm used to getting up @ 5:30- 6:00 that I might do the same here. No, I must have hit the snooze twice and reset my alarm atleast once. But I was up and in the cafe by 7:30. The cafe and lobby are the only places with wireless so I'm having to write at night and post the next morning.

This morning's breakfast was pretty de-lish. I had a biscuit with gravy, a piece of quiche, some grapes and a banana. Lots of water. And more water.

I was so tired after just a 3 hour class last night that i knew the first full day was going to be rough. And it was. The first half of the day was really good. Hot, but good. We were all starting to feel more comfortable and gather glass with more confidence. Trying new things. Mostly learning how to gather, stretch, shape the glass and to take it off the punt correctly.

At ten a.m. I stopped to take this picture.

Everyone partners up so that someone can assist you with opening the door to the glory hole, shielding your hands, cooling your punti by pouring the water, assisting you if you're looking for a tool and generally toss ideas off while your trying to figure out what to do with the molten, changing, moving glass on the end of your rod. This is Landon.

We were pretty much drawn to each other right away. I think because I could tell he was serious about this experience and I think he sensed that I was too. We spent the morning trying out some things that we had been shown- everyone had their turns. We broke for lunch for an hour and were back at it. I really could have used a little longer break to digest and rejuvenate- get some more water in me before being back in all that heat.

After lunch we spent another hour and half working on our skills some more.- gathering more glass, larger loads, making larger shapes, learning to manipulate with different tools. At 2:30 we broke for a slide show of Tommy's work in the AV room. Coming from the Hot Shop it was like walking into a dark cool cave. And also made it a little harder to get these old bones moving again. It really just wanted to be a bear and sleep in it's den. But I didn't. I rallied and was happy about it. Especially after he told us that we would be moving on to introducing color. Basically the same techniques that we've been practicing but on your marbler (steel table to work your glass on) I don't know if i've got that right. It's so hard to hear in that shop! There's the roar of 3 glory holes and a punti furnace- all firing with such force it sounds like a plane blowing by- plus we have 8 floor fans going and i'm not sure how many over head fans. So, it's alittle hard to hear Tommy speak. He doesn't have a very strong voice anyway. His words. All of this was just to say, I'm not sure if that steel table is called that for sure. And i have a correction to make about the previous post. That is a boil at the end of the punti.- not a boiler.

Moving on- working with the color was really exciting. It'll be really interesting to see all these things finished. Color looks so different when it's molten than when it has cooled. And even different still, when it's in the powdered form. What is actually a purple, looks like baby blue in powder form. So as we make things and tap them off the punti, they land gently at the bottom of the kiln where they will anneal. Ironically, in metalsmithing, annealing is done by heating the metal, yet in glass blowing, it is actually what is considered the cooling process. The kiln allows the glass to cool slowly at different temperatures for different lengths of time until they are cool enough to take out. Instead of sitting out in the open, the glass would crack and explode.

We each experimented with more shaping but also with beginning to layer in the color for the next couple hours and called it a day. Tommy has been bragging on us about being such a great glass and moving so quickly that i think we are actually going to begin to blow a day earlier than he had planned. We had exceeded his expectations. We had "blown him away" I believe is what he said.

Here are some random shots from the glass studio.

and below- two essentials- especially as a beginner- water bottle and socks for your arms. 100% natural that is. No melting please. And absolutely no jewelry. It can quickly get too hot and burn the skin. But what a concept for me. I also think that it's an ironic concept since I've been looking to this trip to give me a break from what I've been doing for 25 years now. 26 actually.

Class ended at 5 and everyone made their ways to showers and what not. I was a what not. Soaking wet and stinky as hell but I was afraid that if I stopped, I would collapse. So I came back long enough to change shoes, headed back to the cafe for dinner, before going back to the Hot Shop for a blowing demonstration from Tommy and Kevin. Kevin is Tommy's assistant for the week, and a student here, graduating soon with his BFA in glass. Super great guy. I really like him.

So, dinner was good. I forgot to take a picture of it. Big fresh salad, meat and/or veggie lasagna, garlic bread, and bread pudding. All homemade mind you. We are well cared for here., that's for sure.

I was going to video the demo tonight but my camera is acting weird. It's like the stabilizer is going hay wire and not working, being really jiggly. So I ended up using my video on my phone. You know, I'm lucky my phone has such good camera on it. A lot of the pictures I've been posting are from my phone. Most of them, actually, So I got some good video if I can figure out how to get it on here. I'm also thinking that I'll try again tomorrow night at his demo if i can get things straightened out.

I think their demo would be amazing to see for anyone, but after you've spent the day in the heat, feeling the weight of that glass and how easy and how quick your shape or direction can change when you're not looking, or your turning too fast, or too slow- in a split second; you can really be blown away by someone that is handling with such ease at least ten times the size and weight you've been working with. Like butter. Like NOTHING. It's like a beautiful dance. It really is. you never stop moving. Something's always moving,…turning….rolling….. sagging….. balling….swaying….. pulling…. stretching. It's really cool.