A New Art Endeavor

Reheating my glass

This past Sunday I took my first ever glassblowing class. I have always been interested in the art, but never knew where in Reno one could get a start. I don't even think I had ever heard of classes being offered through the university or the community college. I recently found out about a fairly new studio in Reno called Burnt Knuckle Glass that offers classes in glassblowing, torch-working, and fusing/slumping. Actually, a friend found out about them and then sent out an email asking for people who might be interested, so I jumped on the opportunity.

The class itself was a lot of fun, I really had no idea what to expect. The teachers were both extremely nice and patient with us, beginning students. The work is quite physical which I really enjoyed. To start, we learned how to gather glass from the furnace onto our poles. We did that a few times until we got the hang of it. We then learned how to bevel (I'm not sure if that's the word they used) the glass using a table. During that process, we rolled the glass on a table creating an angle or a wedge shape with the glass while pushing the glass off the end of the pole--not completely off, mind you. We also learned how to create an egg shape with the glass by beveling the bottom of the glass then lifting the pole up and beveling the top of the glass.

It's an amazing feeling to work with molten glass. When it first comes out of the furnace it is super goopy and manipulates quite easily, almost too easily for a beginner. It is interesting to work with the glass as it slowly cools and the viscosity changes. We also learned how to jack the glass to create thinner sections, the thin sections are weak and is where you break the glass off of the pole once you are done working with it. At the end of the class we used all the skills we learned to create a paper weight. I made mine yellow and purple. We had to leave it over night to set. I can't wait to see how mine turns out!

Reheating my glass in a furnace so I can manipulate it

Jacking my glass

My paperweight, still glowing hot

Thank you to my wonderful sister who brought her camera and took these pictures--I, of course, forgot to bring mine.