Today I tried glass blowing for the first time. I wouldn't say reality completely lined up with expectations for this experience. I was really more of a glass helper. But it was something new that I've never tried before and at least a good moment to go at alone.
Walking into the building I was struck with a feeling of my 17 year old self again. Someone who embraced art and had it as part a part of his daily life. It really made me miss that creative side to myself. The building was the old Rainier brewery that has since been converted into a bunch of cool spaces. You really get a feel for the urban atmosphere and all of the artists that take up the space. There was awesome graffiti art sprayed everywhere that helped capture the essence. Inside the studio they had three big ovens going with a kiln with all of the molten glass in the middle. Around the bend there was an art gallery showing off a bunch of the amazing work that had been done there. There were chandeliers made of old phone booths and what looked like mining equipment stretching down to the ground. Incredible glass animals all over the place. Interesting abstract pieces that could have gone in a museum. As I waited for my turn I looked through books of glass art, observed others as they created their pieces and carefully picked out the piece I was going to make.
I originally was going to go with a beer mug; thinking that it would be so cool to drink from a mug that I created. But once I saw the finished templates it didn't strike me with the same passion. All I could think of was the fancy or odd glasses I have in my cupboard that I never drink out of because it's too awkwardly shaped or I don't want to dig it out. Instead I decided to go with a large egg. Something I can display proudly and have a decent little story to tell about it. The colors I chose fittingly matched the shirt I was wearing blue and red. Must have been feeling patriotic.
Admittedly, I didn't really end up creating the piece. I only got to help make it. Which is completely understandable. For the amount of people they had in there with the same zero experience level I had, it would be a safety nightmare. Not to mention all of the ignorant and lawsuit happy folks we live with in society today. What I did get to do was help my glass blowing artist make my egg. He let me rotate the mold in the oven. That was surprisingly difficult. Imagine a 6" melting ice cream cone on the end of a 5' stick that you have to keep turning so it doesn't fall off. I did get to blow the glass, albeit it was into a straw that was connected to the back end of the tube. He explained this is so the customer could see the glass expanding rather than being behind it. I also got to help shape it with a water soaked crucible tool. One of the really neat things that happened was purely by mistake, once the piece was shaped and ready to put on a base the guy dropped it! By some miracle it landed on the base but instead of topside up it wound up falling on its side. This leaves me with the only custom project with a sideways egg that no one else will have.
In the end my whole glass blowing "experience" took about 15 minutes. But what I left with was a refreshed sense of my artistic side, giving me back my passion to create again. Which I could never put a price on.
Things I learned today:
Glass needs to be 800 degrees to be pliable
It's equally important to put time into creating as it is putting time into living
If you don't ignite your passions you're only going to blow them out
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