Week 1 - Shaping
Glass blowing class started last weekend and I love it!

First we learned how to shape the glass and that starts with....snowmen?

The last project of the session was leaves. Red and yellow in this case.

I wish I would have pulled this longer - like warm taffy. Its only about a foot tall and I want them 2 feet tall. I'll have to do a few for the back yard.

This week was learning to blow the first bubble, which is harder than it looks. After that we made floats (those balls everyone has floating in their ponds?). I'll pick them up after class next week when we learn on bowls and cups.

Week 2 - Blowing Bubbles.

First we blow a bubble, then we make a floaty ball.

Again and again and again.

First we blow clear balls.

Then we add color.

Week 3 - Bowls.
Then open the ball up and turn it into a bowl.

Left over colors twisted to make a cool pattern.

More bowls - first is a color twisting experiment.

Its not easy to make the color twist back on itself, but we got it to do it.

Class 5 - Advanced Shapes.

Genie bottles

Class 6a -
Green Vase with opaque base and transparent top with black lip.

Class 6b - Red platter for the bedroom wall, red vase and green leaf for the yard.

The green leaf is 3' tall.

The platter is 17" wide.

Platter in the bedroom

Class 7 - My first piece done without any assistance (the instructor was working with other students).

Transparent Glass this week - red leaf with tons of red transparent.

Red short bowl w/blue flecks.

Aqua blue bowl with amber wrap.

Week 8: Handles (which means cups)

Green Cup

Blue Cup

Week 9: Color - a vase with a twisted version of the feather effect.

The color combination on this was an experiment and we love how it turned out.

The other side of the vase. I know, it sorta looks the same on each side.

My first 'sculpture' in a paper weight, which is pretty hard, actually.

This is a process of adding color, cutting it into arms, then using heat and tweezers to tug, yank on, swear, heat, pull, swear some more, heat again, sigh and pull on the arms until they meet at the top.

That's the hard part - the making a glass cage and getting it meet at the top and not look lopsided (like mine does).

Then you dip it in clear glass and try to capture a big bubble.

This was going to be a gift, but its sort of ugly and was really hard to do, so I'm keeping this one to study and improve upon.

Fluted Bowl from the side.

This does not stand up on its own, so it will lay tipped over like this.

Front of bowl

Wonky shaped glasses. It turns out that cylindars are harder to make than you'd think.