blow

remember that trip i took to the czech republic? 

i spent most of my time there learning about the art of glass blowing.  i even got to give it a go myself.  check me out in action!

 our first day!

 this is seriously hard work, lots of multi-tasking to keep a mass of molten glass from falling off the end of the stick and blowing it into a piece that will look good!  the beginning part is key to how the rest of the piece will turn out... mess this up and well... you have to start over!

 once the blowing is done, then there is a series of manipulating the shape to be what you want, which is a process of using tools, reheating, and repeating until you decide its done, no exact science.

 the tools used to do this are beautiful and simple, still and always will be handcrafted. 

 glass blowing is a bit of a team sport to get the perfect piece!

 here we are at the big studio, experiencing the work of the professionals!

 these bins are full of fine glass particles that will be melted in the furnaces, they all look to be the same, but they make different colors, cool!  kind of like those white mystery dum dums lollipops when i was a kid!

 after trying this on a small scale, seeing them do what they do on a large scale is outright impressive!

 third day, no more nice time, these guys made me work it myself, and they were tough teachers, but by the end i had definitely learned something, about myself and glass!

 moment of truth! each time you put something back into the furnace it becomes more and more vulnerable, some of our pieces just didnt make it at the end of the day...

 here is the crew, we really had an amazing time!

 here is the outside of the big studio, it was pretty picturesque.

 

 glass glass everywhere!

 

really, this was one of the most amazing experiences in my life, i definitely see more glass blowing in my future!!! stay posted for some pics of the pieces i created.