Atlanta Hot Glass has moved into the building across the street from Mudfire. Last weekend they had an open house so I popped over to see what they are doing and watch some glass blowing. Yes, I find glass blowers and potters are really fun to watch.
They have a couple of gallery rooms where beautiful glass work was displayed. It was fun to wander around them and enjoy the handy work of our neighboring artists. They also have a huge, well equipped, well organized, and very clean studio.
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| Heating the Glass |
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| Shaping the Molten Glass |
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| More Shaping |
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| Transferring the Vessel |
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| The Finish Piece |
It takes a lot of time to create a blown glass piece and surprisingly little of that is spent actually blowing into the tube that holds the glass. Much of it is preparing the hot glass, and shaping it. A glass blower also has to be very mindful of just how much time they have the glass out of the kiln as it becomes more likely that it will break the quicker it cools. As it becomes closer to the desired shape, and therefore thinner, the likely hood of breaking becomes greater and greater. One of the reasons I didn't get a good picture of this piece when it was finished was because I was too slow with the camera and the finished product has to go into a hot box to cool gradually as soon as it comes off the rod.
It was really fun to watch, I can see myself visiting there often.
You might want to head over to
Mudcolony to see what other potters are doing.
Check out the gallery page -
Future Relics Gallery
by Lori Buff
One of my friends is a glass blower and I just love visiting the studio he works at to watch everybody working. Visit often.
ReplyDeleteHow fun for you. Do you ever get to help?
Deleteoh dang, you see, I watch glass and it looks so flippin' FUN, just like when I first saw being made and a kiln opened :)
ReplyDeleteThey are both so appealing and fun.
DeleteHow cool is it to have a hot shop across the street!
ReplyDeleteThe first time I went to Haystack Josh Simpson......http://www.joshsimpson.com/ was giving the glass blowing workshop. Ever since then I've wanted to try blowing glass.
I love to watch them working in the glass shop at Penland, so much creative fun.
Deletethis time of year it must be sweltering working with the glass
ReplyDeleteIt's funny Linda, we didn't realize how hot it was until we stepped outside into the cool evening air.
DeleteGlass blowing is so mesmerizing to watch. Look like you have great new neighbors.
ReplyDeleteWe do have great new neighbors, they are really nice people and it's quite a nice arts community around there.
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