Learn About the Art of Glass Blowing

Rebecca: Who know that your breath could shape glass into any formula? Hi, I am Rebecca Brayton and welcome to WathcMojo.com and today we will be learning about glass blowing. So how hard is it to learn how to blow glass? Catherine Benoit: The first year and a half, even two years are really hard because it is hard to control the medium so most of the pieces you just drop on the floor or you know—at the beginning it is nothing more— Rebecca: Do you know what you are going to make before you make it or does the glass kind of inspire you? Catherine: I always know what I am going to make, if it is a vase or a bowl, or a plate but the shape can evaluate through the piece. Sometimes, if the glasses and want to move exactly the way I wanted to move, I am just going to look at it and say, oh, it would be nicer if I did this instead. Rebecca: So what kind of pieces were the beginner starts by making? Catherine: Usually, the first years, it is more like paper waves that are all crooked and that can stand in ash trays. Rebecca: Before we start to learn how to glass blow, what kind of equipment do we need? Catherine: The furnace which contains the melted glass and then you have the glory hole that is used to reheat the glass as you go because the pieces goes down, the glass cools down, so you have to heat it back up to keep on working it and then you have the annealers which is a kiln in which you put your pieces all through the day. This is Mr. Jack that is used to put a line in the glass where we are going to break off the piece to change the acts, a moyet. Moyet is newspaper that is fold and wet and this is the main tool which we place the glass and we do the shapes. You have the pinchities, shears, softyeta which is made to inflate the piece once it is on the pontil, and the pontil is a metal rod that I put a little glass at the end and I am going to stick it to the bottom of the piece so when I break off it is going to stay glued onto the pontil and I am going to be able to work the lit blocks or wodden tool that when it come out of the furnace and then the glasses are really very hot, I am going to shape the glass with it. The pie is just a hollow tube that I get the glass on the tip of it and that is where I am blowing from. Rebecca: How hot does the glass need to be to melt? Catherine: 1,100 degrees Celsius, but to melt it is like 400 more. Rebecca: Do you work with any other sorts of glass? Catherine: I do more sculpturing of the glass and glasses are more utilitarian. Rebecca: Thank you very much.