Glassblowing is the technique of forming glass. This involves inflating melted glass into a bubble creating a vase or other glass figure with the aid of a blow tube. The people who blow and form glass for livings are called glass blowers, glass smiths, or gaffers. Anybody can blow glass. It might not be that good, but they can still experience the life of a glass blower.
The Hot Shop is a famous glass-blowing studio where artists from around the world are paid to come and form glass pieces in Tacoma, Washington. It’s a 90 ft.-stainless steel cone that has both a cold and hot glass studio. It can hold up to 200 spectators that can buy tickets to watch some of the famous artists do their work. It’s 100 ft. in diameter on the bottom base and 15 ft. at the top of the cone. The top has an opened hole for air to escape. The Hot Shop has 2 large furnaces including 5 annealers. The large furnaces are two different kinds. One is “The Furnace” and the other is “The Glory Hole.” “The Furnace” holds approximately 1000 lbs. of melted glass, and “The Glory Hole” is used to reheat pieces in between steps. Both of them can reach temperatures up to 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit or 1315 degrees Celsius.
In the cooling process, The Hot Shop uses the 5 annealers, which are insulated boxes similar to electric kilns. They are designed to cool glass slowly at a specified speed so it won’t shatter. Shattering occurs when the glass gets too cold too quick. Without the annealers it would take a much longer time for the glass to cool, and you’d have the risk of the glass shattering. In the finalizing stage you take your piece to the cold shop which is adjacent to the Hot Shop. There you have the piece cooled, polished, and /or cut to add surface details or remove imperfections.
There’s a lot of interesting things about glass. One of them is the Rupert’s drop. In this process you drop a little bit of hot molten glass into cold water, and it creates a teardrop shaped glass figure. If you hit the oval part of the teardrop with a hammer it won’t crack or shatter because the inside is still drying causing internal stress because of the expanding. The stress makes the glass strong, but if you break the tail it will shatter into a glass powder.
One of the greatest glass-blowers in existence was actually born and raised in Tacoma. His name is Dale Chihuly, and a lot of his art is displayed on a 500 ft. walkway that arches over interstate 705 in Tacoma. This walkway connects Tacoma’s Union station, The Washington History Museum, and The Museum of Glass. The Museum of glass opened in conjunction to the overpass and the Hot Shop.
The Bridge of Glass’s actual structure isn’t glass. It’s concrete that is painted the color of steel. It was made to create a backdrop for the City and its waterfront bay not to compete with other artists. On the walkway are 3 different stages of Chihuly’s glass blown pieces. These stages of art are the Sea Form Pavilion, the Crystal Towers, and the Venetian Wall.
The first one is The Sea Form Pavilion which is Chihuly’s inspiration from the color and variety from the sea floor. It’s a rectangular tunnel that you walk under to get to the other two stages of the Bridge of Glass. As you walk in the pavilion, and you look up you’ll see Chihuly’s sea floor of glass objects. The next object is the Crystal Towers. On the towers are light blue colored cones, flasks, and cubes made of poly vitro. There’s two of these towers one on each side parallel to each other. They aren’t made of glass because it would get weathered, and the weight of glass is much heavier than poly vitro. The Venetian Wall, the next stage, consists of 110 glass cases that contain one of Chihuly’s glass-blown vases.
Glassblowing is a pretty amazing thing, and I’m sure the cuts and burns you receive while creating your project are worth it. Imagine how many cuts and burns Chihuly received while making the pieces on the Bridge of Glass, and look what turned out.
Travis Roth
Pictures from:www.chihuly.com/bridgeofglass/projectdescription.html
