Recently I had the awesome opportunity to gain some knowledge and experience in the art of glass blowing!
My mother is a professor and my brother is a student at Keystone College, not to far from Marywood. That said, my mom got details about an opportunity to make pumpkins during a glass-blowing class inside Keystone’s glass-making studio. I was thrilled when I heard about the opportunity and my mom signed my entire family up!
This was actually my mom and I’s second time taking a glass-blowing class. Last winter, my mom and I took a class to make glass ornaments. We had an absolute ball during our first class and we were excited to give glass-blowing another whirl.
About The Class:
The class is only about 45 minutes. the teacher gave us a run down about the process behind glass art, as well as all the safety procedures that we had to take. It is extremely hot in the studio and the oven is hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit. Furthermore, handling hot glass was dangerous and we had to wear safety goggles and hold the molten glass by a metal rod. Anyways our main job as the inexperienced learners was to pick our colors, and to blow through the hole on the other end of the metal rod as the teacher rolled it back and forth. This process is what created the spherical shape for our design. After that, the teacher then added a stem of molten glass to the top to create the stem for the pumpkin.
Photos from the Pumpkin Class:
This is me blowing into the metal rod to create the spherical shape for the pumpkin.
This is my pumpkin as the teacher uses a blowtorch to mold the stem and pumpkin together.
Also, my family just recently took another class to create ornaments again for the holiday season!
This is my 2024 ornament at the end of the creation process before it got stored for cooling.
WRAP-UP:
Overall, each glass-blowing class was a wonderful and insightful experience. It was great spending time with my family and creating something together.
- Stay Spooky, Santo 🎃