Anderstall Artworks: Hand Blown Glass Vessels

The Making of a Hand Blown Glass Ornament
By Joe Forrestall

	First I gather molten clear glass onto a blowpipe. This glass comes out of the funace at around 2000 degrees. Inside the furnace is a propane and forced air burner that is heating a crucible of refractory brick, which contains around 100-200 Lbs of molten glass. I start with clear glass in the furnace and then add color later.
I take this gather and shape it with a wooden tool called a block. These blocks, or other wooden tools, are usually made of a hard fruit bearing wood such as cherry and soaked in water. This water creates a barrier of steam in between the block and the glass, which cools the skin of the glass and gives structure, and it also stops the glass from burning the wood. After I shape the glass I blow air into the glass through the blowpipe. This creates a bubble of clear glass.
	Blowing air into the glass.
This clear glass bubble is now ready to be reheated and colored.
	This is where pieces are reheated. This unit is a glory hole, another forced air and propane burner that is heated to around 2000 degrees. The glass must be kept above 1000 degrees the entire time it is being worked. I will reheat the clear glass ornament before I add color glass.
Colored glass is created by adding different metals to glass. Most colors are added in chunks or powder called frit. Here I roll the hot glass through cobalt blue frit and the frit sticks (or melts) to the surface of the clear glass on the blowpipe.
	I must reheat in between colors
Then I add more color, in this case it is red and yellow frit. Notice the heat in the iron and the glass, it is visibly orange this is just the heat of the iron and glass.
	After all the color is added I reheat the piece. The more heat I apply the more this recently added color blends into the clear glass.
With a series of heats and shaping I begin to blow the ornament out while also "necking" the piece in. This is when I decrease the diameter of the piece next to the iron with metal tools.
	Necking in the piece you can begin to see the ornament take shape. These metal tools are called flat sax.

	When I have the ornament to the final shape I will place it into this holder and break the ornament off of the blowpipe. I make this controlled break at the neck, the spot where I decreased the diameter of the glass. I do this by tapping the iron, the vibration resonates and breaks the glass in that spot. With a little prayer to the glass gods.
Here you can see the ornament sitting in the holder waiting for the loop to be put on. This ornament is still over 1000 degrees, probably around 1200. I only have a short amount of time to put the loop on before the ornament is too cold, cold is maybe not the word... but before it is under 1000 degrees.
	I then add molten clear glass that I gather out of the furnace. I let the glass fall onto the top of the ornament, then it sticks and I can shape the loop.
The glass is stretched and cut leaving a small straight piece of glass that I can bend into a loop. It needs to be hot enough to stick but not too hot that it falls over when I cut the glass.
	I bend the loop and the ornament is complete. I must quickly get it to the annealing oven before it breaks.
The ornament is complete! It will go into an annealing oven set at around 900 degrees. It will stay at this temperature for the duration of the work session. When the day is done the annealing oven will slowly cool down to room temperature over the period of 8 hours. These cycles and temperatures vary with the thickness and weight of glass.