How Flowers Bloom From Glass

Any of you following me on Twitter / Instagram (@TheDecorGirl) last Friday night, will know I got crafty.  We visited Superior Hot Glass Studio in Cleveland for a little introductory bait on the art of working with glass.  I say bait because it is quite easy to get hooked with all those clear bright colors, infinite possibilities and well, who doesn’t appreciate glass?

This all started because my kick-boxing partner, Jen, and I decided we wanted to do something together besides exercise or make cupcakes.  We both love color so we chose to delve into a class on glass making.   After a fun introductory lesson on glass, the tools, the kilns and on how we were going to create beautiful flowers from hot molten glass, it was our turn.

DIY on a whole new level. Our teacher, and a dear friend Shayna, collected our glass on a blowpipe from the kiln.  Here she is cooling the pipe before turning it over to our virgin hands. Jen is dipping her clear molten glass into her choice of colors.  Here I am forming what Shayna calls a “hockey puck” which will be the shape from which we start to pull our flowers. What you don’t see from these pictures is the glass is constantly moving.  I am rolling the pipe as I work with the supersize tweezers. This looks much easier than it is.  Think of pulling taffy or sugar, but with a mind of its own.  Though it is pliable the glass is not actually soft.  It is like a firm caramel as you pinch it with the tweezers and pull. Gravity is a tool as Jen pulls the flower to form a stem.  It is still hot but now it can crack.We used sharp glass shears to crimp the end of our stem before giving the metal pole a gentle tap to break it free.  The flower lands on a Kevlar and cotton padded table where the end is heated to remove the sharp edges from the end.  The deep red/blue color is the the heat, not the final color. Our flowers will spend 24 hours annealing before we can see the final results of our work.  Here is the thing, in the almost time you will have read this whole post – we made one flower.  The process is quick, only a few short minutes. Here are the flowers Jen and I created.  Kinda cool huh?So if you are looking for a fun outlet for your creativity consider a class in glass making.  Not your ordinary table top, “I made  it” item.  🙂  Check out Shayna blowing glass paperweights : part 1 and part 2