Blow by Blow

5/10/10 Novice Glass Artist - Eighth Hot II Class

For our final class of the session, we were given full reign of our three hours, open to work on whatever projects we desired.

With all the freedom, I wanted to be sure and work on techniques I had only tried once or twice - so cups were out of the running. My first piece was a small vase that I used jacks to pull the neck on (as opposed to newspaper) which I added a small blue body wrap to. I was happy with the general shape of the vase but less satisfied with the size. 

I seem to suffer from teeny tiny gather syndrome. Although my gathers are usually fairly even, they are always wicked small (I am reminded each week that I’m probably not turning fast enough in the glass). So for my final piece I had one goal – Make it big. Remember a few weeks ago we practiced working with three gathers? Same drill, except I ended up taking four gathers just to get about the same amount of glass. I worked that glass into a simple vase with a body wrap – I know, another class, another body wrap.

Even with four gathers, my “big” vase is only about seven inches tall. Still, it’s the largest piece I’ve made during my glassblowing time so I am pleased with it. It will be a while before I can take another glassblowing class (PGC does one week intensive courses during the summer – check it out). Until then, I’ll try to catch some practice time with my glassblowing buddies and work on lip wraps, improved facility with newspaper and try to find a cure for my teeny tiny gather syndrome.

Much thanks to all the folks at PGC (especially all my fabulous instructors and TAs) for another spectacular glass class!