The 1st Birthday Bubble

Back in the days of Old Normal I had a birthday of note and some friends presented me with a voucher for a crafty course of my choice.  

Scanning the very long list from Applique to Zinc roofing, my eye settled on glassblowing. I've always had a soft spot for glass.

The original booking of a beginners session got cancelled by Covid.  The tutor rearranged things so that instead of a full day with 2/3 learners I'd have a half day of 1:1 tuition - which was today.

I'd picked a well reviewed 'creative' glassblower who, unfortunately, wasn't exactly local so I spent more time travelling than crafting but it was well worth it.

This was the 'starter' piece (in the tutor's very insulated hand).  A small paperweight piece introducing the tasks of gathering up the molten glass, colouring it and shaping it - but not actually blowing it.

The further four pieces were blown - a couple of hanging balls, a vase and a sculptural 'teardrop' piece covering a range of techniques.

The pieces are now slowly cooling for a day or so before the tutor will finish off the pieces (e.g. grinding a flat base to this) and posting them on.  Really looking forward to seeing them.

I now have a much better appreciation of the difficulty of this art, quite how hard it is to blow balloons of molten glass, and my definition of 'hot' has been firmly recalibrated.