Glassblowing blows my mind

Literally. I signed up recently for Berlin Glas ´s in-depth class; and although I´ve stood in front of a furnace for the last 1195 days, and I´ve made a punty or two along the way, I´ve never taken a class. So the other day, as I was standing at the furnace ready to take a gather, my classmate opened the door for me and walked away. It was far too wide, and if you´ve ever stood next to a furnace, you know that 1160 degrees Celsius is freakin ´ hot. Three instincts flashed through my head: the first one told me to close the door myself.; after all, I´ve done this many times, and I know how to maneuver it alone. But I didn´t want the other student to see me and try it herself (our door sticks sometimes). So the other was to yell at her – like WTF close the f´ing door a little! And the third was tell myself to deal with it. You know sometimes, when you are in an uncomfortable situation, and you tell yourself that its only temporary/ it will end soon? Well! Its really hard to do that in front of 1160 degrees! So you gotta step-up and open up – its not her fault, its her first time in a hot shop - and articulate what you need calmly, clearly. But those three instincts that flashed thru my head – deal with it yourself, get angry, or suck it up – made me think twice how we communicate with each other in life. How do I really deal with things? And that blows my mind… in the best possible way...

Random pic :)

Oh those electrical Furnaces!

When we turned the furnace on in January, it never reached top temperature. Glass usually melts at 1250 degrees C. and the temperature never went over 1140. The glass was melted, but at such a low temperature, there were a lot of bubbles. An electrician came to assess what was going on, and sure enough, 3 of the 9 elements were out of order. Of course, we knew the day would eventually come when we would have to exchange parts on the furnace, and that day finally came at the end of the Agya conference.

So the other thing about having an electric furnace is that the elements are not that common, and take a while to produce, 3 weeks, in this case! We bought ours from Schupp and as they understood our urgency, they produced them as quickly as possible. Now the furnace is back to its regular working temperature, and we are ready to blow some glass again!! 

Notes from the Studio