At this very moment I am reunited with my laptop and some wi-fi (sigh…) in a motel in Lansing, Michigan. The desk clerk is semi-retired, ex-FBI. He assures me he never wore cheap suits!
This past week transpired in a flurry of sparks, smoke and absolute Sorcerer’s Apprentice magic!
En route to a furnace firing at 1000 degrees centigrade. Great big iron rod will be heated until the tip is red and then dipped in the molten glass to “gather” a glob of glass.
Instructor Andy Kuntz opens the door…
I dip and turn the rod…
And back to the bench, centring and shaping the first gather. That right hand you see raised is tempted to touch the rod but radiant heat will prevent such an action from ever occurring. One fellow sported a pair of bandage-bound digits after an accidental collision with the rod.
After a second gather, the cooling glass ball at the end of the rod is larger and ready to be jacked — to have a line impressed which will later make it easier to knock the ball off the rod.
In my right hand is a pair of jacks — giant pincers which squeeze, widen or carve, depending on the task at hand.
The glass ball at the end of the rod must be re-heated — flashed — to keep the heat consistent and to avoid cracking and having your entire project, the one where you came in early to work on it, the really nice one that actually looked slightly better than the work of an absolute beginner, having that project shiver and shatter all over the inside of the furnace.
Flash early, flash often.
My first little blob — ahem, paperweight — comes off the rod. As they’re still extremely hot, freshly created glass objects spend the next 15 hours in the annealer — a kiln kept at 500 degrees.
It’s all about the heat.
The Country Mice 
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