Glassblowing Class

Beginning Glassblowing Class

Glassblowing is an interesting process and what is more interesting is what possesses a soul to stand in front of a glass furnace that is at 2200 degrees! I can't exactly answer this question, but I can say that once you have that molten glass on the end of a blowpipe and you are working it, it is best described as hypnotic.

The picture above shows the collection of pieces that I made during a beginning glassblowing class at Steinert Glass School in Kent, Ohio. It was a five week course, one night a week, 3 hours a night. It starts at ground zero, learning to get glass out of the furnace, and completes with you being able to make colored glass vases of various shapes. The weekly progression is shown below.

Week 1: Week 1 consisted of working to get glass onto the punty/blow pipe and marver it to the desired shape. Once we were able to do this, we proceeded to blowing out the bubble. We tried to begin doing jack lines but didn't make it. No pictures from week 1, since we didn't end up with anything.

Week 2: The goal of week 2's class was to developer our jack lines, get the piece onto a punty, and finally use the jacks to open up the neck. 3 beautiful thick O.J. glasses! But hey, I made them and they are my first pieces. (Not bad for less than 6 hours of instruction in the hot shop.)
We also did a bit of solid working, making an interesting flower. (Not pictured here.)

Single gathers of glass.

Week 3: Week 3 got interesting due the fact that the main glass furnace door had imploded, which meant we had to work using the small glass furnance. The instructor had vasoline glass, made with depleted uranium, in the small furnace. So the pieces for this week were a nice bright green with white characteristics.
This week we learned to do two gathers of glass, giving us more glass to work with on the blow pipe. One of the pieces pictured here is really closer to 2 gathers, but not quite. We also began using a ribbed mold to add some effects. One of the pieces shows using pliers to work the neck of the piece for a milk pitcher effect.

The piece on the left is 3 small gathers of glass, while the one on the right is 2 gathers. A ribbed mold was used. Vasoline glass.

Week 4: 3 Gathers became the standard and we introduced using colored frit. We rolled the hot glass in the frit, then melted it back into the bubble. Working with the jacks became a bit easier and can be seen in the cleaner lines of the pieces. The colored piece has a flat lip created using the jacks and the paddle, after opening the piece with the jacks.
3 gathers. Colored frit on the right piece.

Week 5: The last week of class. We didn't introduce much new this week. One new technique is tapping the sides of the bubble, to produce flat sides on the vessel. It is hard to tell in the picture, but the vessel on the left has two flat sides, more like a flask than a vase. One other technique I chose to attempt was using the steam stick. This lead to the more organic looking vessel on the right. With a little more practice, the steam stick will produce some nice pieces.
3 gathers. The piece on the left was molded then two sides tapped down. The piece on the right was jacked open then the steam stick was used a couple times to build up the shoulders of the piece.

Glassblowing is not for everyone. If you don't like heat, you will not enjoy working in the hot shop. You gather glass out of an extremely hot furnace. You reheat the piece in a glory hole, a huge enclosed gas burner. To the right is a picture of a small glory hole (not one at Steinert Glass School.) It is hot, and yes you will burn yourself at least once. With that said, if you can handle some heat, just about anyone can learn to blow glass.
One other thing, it isn't really a cheap hobby, but hey what good hobbies are!?!

Here are the general steps for making a vase:

Gather glass from the furnace - Dipping the blow pipe in the furnance, while rotating.
Marver the glass - working it by rolling it on a steel table.
Blow, and possibly marver more
If you need more glass, go back to step 1.
Heat in the glory hole, periodically after this step.
Put a jack line into the piece
Paddle the bottom.
Transfer to a punty.
Heat and open the neck of the piece using the jacks.
Knock the piece off the punty
Put it in the annealer to cool - The glass must cool at a controlled slow rate, or it will shatter.

During the entire process of glassblowing, you are always rotating the blowpipe, always. You are also reheating the piece frequently to keep the glass hot so it won't shatter (due to cooling too quick) and so it will remain fluid enough to work it.

Steinert Glass School at Plum Creek - Steinert Glass School is a non-profit school started by John Steinert of Steinert industries. They have put their heart and soul into converting an old water station into this school. If you are in the Cleveland/Akron Ohio area, I recommend you give them a call. They have classes in glassblowing, lamp working, jewelry making, blacksmithing, and glass fusing.

Week 1: Week 1 consisted of working to get glass onto the punty/blow pipe and marver it to the desired shape. Once we were able to do this, we proceeded to blowing out the bubble. We tried to begin doing jack lines but didn't make it. No pictures from week 1, since we didn't end up with anything.
Week 2: The goal of week 2's class was to developer our jack lines, get the piece onto a punty, and finally use the jacks to open up the neck. 3 beautiful thick O.J. glasses! But hey, I made them and they are my first pieces. (Not bad for less than 6 hours of instruction in the hot shop.) We also did a bit of solid working, making an interesting flower. (Not pictured here.)	Single gathers of glass.
Week 3: Week 3 got interesting due the fact that the main glass furnace door had imploded, which meant we had to work using the small glass furnance. The instructor had vasoline glass, made with depleted uranium, in the small furnace. So the pieces for this week were a nice bright green with white characteristics. This week we learned to do two gathers of glass, giving us more glass to work with on the blow pipe. One of the pieces pictured here is really closer to 2 gathers, but not quite. We also began using a ribbed mold to add some effects. One of the pieces shows using pliers to work the neck of the piece for a milk pitcher effect.	The piece on the left is 3 small gathers of glass, while the one on the right is 2 gathers. A ribbed mold was used. Vasoline glass.
Week 4: 3 Gathers became the standard and we introduced using colored frit. We rolled the hot glass in the frit, then melted it back into the bubble. Working with the jacks became a bit easier and can be seen in the cleaner lines of the pieces. The colored piece has a flat lip created using the jacks and the paddle, after opening the piece with the jacks.	3 gathers. Colored frit on the right piece.
Week 5: The last week of class. We didn't introduce much new this week. One new technique is tapping the sides of the bubble, to produce flat sides on the vessel. It is hard to tell in the picture, but the vessel on the left has two flat sides, more like a flask than a vase. One other technique I chose to attempt was using the steam stick. This lead to the more organic looking vessel on the right. With a little more practice, the steam stick will produce some nice pieces.	3 gathers. The piece on the left was molded then two sides tapped down. The piece on the right was jacked open then the steam stick was used a couple times to build up the shoulders of the piece.