Glass Blowing

I was out at the coast for Memorial day weekend, and saw a sign to "Blow Your Own Glass." I pulled a Yuie in heavy traffic, and went back and talked to the guy. He had some wonderful pieces he had made, and said I could make a flower, vase or ball. I had to think about it 'til the next day as it was rather spendy. But I would easily pay that for a piece of art glass, I'd just as soon have made it myself.

His name is Gary Trebolo seasideglass@gmail.com Oops, just an email, I thought he had a website. Apparently several of the glass blowers working along the Oregon Coast are offering this opportunity to blow it yourself. He is located at the North edge of Florence, Oregon on Hwy 101. He was very patient and explained each step very well, he helped two 10 year old girls blow a globe after me, so anyone really can do it themselves.

Starting with a wad of clear glass, white hot from the kiln, on the end of a long blow rod, I rolled it in crushed cobalt glass, and reheated it in the furnace. Reheat, add more cobalt, repeat, with crushed turquoise glass. After several applications of color, he reshaped it into a cone, and then added a big glob of clear over it all.

The clear comes out of the white hot kiln, in the second pic he is adding the loop to the top of my finished globe.

Adding the hanging loop.

When we added the turquoise he gave it a swirl with pliers, just twisting it like it was Playdough. Me, blowing the glass globe, it took several tries, and had to reheat between each stage as it got larger and larger, I stopped at about an 8" diameter. Then it needed to go into a cool-down kiln overnight, if you change the temp too quickly it will shatter, so I picked it up the next day. I just couldn't wait to see how it turned out, it was red hot when we put it in the kiln. It was so much fun, I've always been interested in glass work, either lampwork beads, or stained glass, but it just another hobby to collect supplies for and never have the time to do it. He had quiet a setup of several furnaces, and three large kilns. I got to cross it off my bucket list.

I took pictures as the evening light was disappearing, one inside and one outside. The turquoise swirls faded out a bit as it blended with the cobalt, but you can see the swirl on the bottom best.

I will link this to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click on the badge in the right column, and see what other talented textile artists are doing.