She made a float, which is a little glass ball that can float on the water, or it can just be decorative. Then she made a bird, a cup, a flower ball, a plate, two special order glass balls, a vase, and another bird.
I made a flower ball after she did. Then a float, a shot glass, a paper weight, and a vase. The vase was my favorite.
The first step to making any glass object is to warm up the end of a rod. If you are making a paper wight or a bird or anything that doesn't need to be blown, then you use a regular medal rod. If you are making a cup, vase, bowl, plate, ball, or anything that does need to be blown, then you use a hollow medal rod with a plastic nozzle on the end. Warm it up until it turns red on the tip. Then go onto the next step.
Open the extremely hot and bright furnace filled with molten glass and stick the rod into it until you see its shadow. Then stick it in a few inches and turn it a full rotation. You have to do it pretty quick because it is so hot. Its really good to have a long sleeved shirt and sun glasses.
Roll the glob of glass on the metal table aiming to get it smooth and centered on the rod. Then roll that in some colored glass if you want to. There are some really pretty colors, but you can't always mix them. For example, white and yellow won't mix, but blue and white will, I really like blue and white.
You can heat up the glass by taking it to the fire hole. Stick it in and turn it until it becomes almost hard to control, but always try to keep the glass centered on the rod. Take it back to the metal table and add more color, sometimes it looks cool with several layers of color. Its also fun to add more clear glass after having color.
To make a Bowl, plate, cup, or vase, you now need to start the blowing process. Always keeping the glass centered on the rod, set it on the edge of the table or work bench structure and blow into the mouth piece with your thumb in your mouth prepared to cover the hole. Blow for a second or two and trap the air in the rod by covering the hole with your thumb.
It might take 10 or 15 seconds for the bubble to enter the glass. Once it does, you might want to blow more, this time without trying to trap the air in the rod. It also may take a while get bubble, if the glass is too cold it will be really hard. Something else to watch out for is if your bubble is too much at the end, it might pop if the end gets too thin.
Once you have an average sized bubble, depending on what you are making and how big it going to be, you can now start shaping it. There are many different tools that do many different things. One of the main tools are the jacks, which are basically really big tweezers. They are used to thin a section of the glass where it comes off the rod, or where you put a foot for a dish, or an extension from the top of a ball. An extension may also be made to take off so that a hole is left.
The diamond cutters are used when you really get down to where you need to break it off the rod, or a piece from whatever your making. They help to cool off the small section so that it will break easily. There are also tools that are used for shaping. Sort of like temporary molds. Wet newspaper is used as a shaping tool like using your hand.
The fun part about plates, bowls and vases, is that they get to be stretched out. Once you get the opening big enough, it will stretch out in the fire hole if you spin it pretty fast. Its my favorite part. Once you have it stretched all you have to do is let it hang down and the sides will fold into this really cool design.
There is a lot more to share about glass. I don't evan know much about it and I can already write 10 paragraphs. Thanks for reading, I might post more about glass blow as I learn more.
