December 2023 Class - Glass Ornaments in Whitewater

I have been working glass on a torch for a while now, but one thing that has eluded me was how to blow bubbles.  So, when I saw that Josh at The Vinery was doing a class on soft glass ornaments, I signed up!  The class was a few hours long, and Josh handed out glaskolbens to everyone.   I had seen these things before but didn’t know what they were called.   I think I annoyed Josh by asking him to repeat it about a million times before I remembered.

We added frit to the glaskolben when it was still cold, then warmed up the bulb in the flame.   Eventually, the bulb is hot enough that the frit starts to stick to the edges.   Once the bulb is glowing hot, you blow in the cold end and blow a bubble.   Easy peazy.  Sort of.

The bubbles I blew were rather lopsided, and not very consistent at all.   I left them there overnight so they could anneal.   When I came back a few days later, they had been trimmed, and ornament hangers were on some of them.

It was a great introduction to blowing ornaments.   I bought a few glaskolbens from The Vinery so that I can practice some more on my own.  Hopefully by next Christmas season, I will have figured it out and can make some cool gifts.

Things I learned:

1.       The propane only flame has a LOT of carbon.  I tried drawing on the outside of the ornament with a white rod, and it just got black immediately – that was a fail!

2.       The glaskolbens make blowing bubbles a lot easier than blowing them from a blob – but I still hope to learn that method too!  

3.       Google doesn’t always take you on the most direct path to Whitewater, but the scenery is nice.