|
First, the
furnace door is cracked open, an
assistant/instructor holds a wooden shield between
the "gatherer" and the pool of glass. We (the
gatherer's) inserted a 6 foot or so solid stainless
steel rod into the furnace, tilted the end down into
the pool, constantly twisting the rod as one
ALWAYS turns any rod with a blob of molten glass on
the end - otherwise one has a blob of molten glass
on the floor - BUMMER!.
Quickly
withdraw the rod from the furnace, it gets warm
quite rapidly, and continuing to rotate the rod,
walk to the working bench,
entering a
"gate" formed by the sides of the bench and the rod.
.
A tradition
designed to keep one from hurting oneself. Keep
rotating the rod/blob by rolling the rod along the
sides of the bench with the blob close to the steel
bench arm. NOTE: Do NOT make the error of using said
bench arm as a support or rest for bare flesh after
the rod has been removed.
While
rolling the rod use your friend "Gravity" to smooth
out the blob and then add colors if one wishes.
A
second gather
gather is
done by re dipping the colored blob into the furnace pool to
get a larger blob and embed the colors. This
is done by the instructor as to drop a colored blob
into the clear pool of glass would ruin the whole
kit and kaboodle. After the
second "gather" re-enter the gate and begin
shaping the larger glob. Constant turning for a
sphere,
"jacks"/tweezers for pulling the taffy like
glass into a flower
or a vase
you may add a stem too your flower
and a lip to
your vase
water
soaked cherry wood shapers/movers
creating "weak points" where
production will be snapped off the rod without
destroying ones efforts.
Finally,
snapping from the rod and into a kiln for overnight annealing - assuming you
haven't dropped your work of art.
Nothing against the honorable Mr. Bradbury but it
was more fun than 451.
Since there were 2 work stations for the 6 of us a
lot of pictures were taken. Below are a bunch of
unorganized pictures any class members who may wish an
additional record of their experience in the hot
shop. Some time when the right tool a round 2 it
appears, I will either organize them or clean
house. So get em while they are hot, he stated punnally.
           |
