It Huuuuuurts

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

We started glass class tonight. I had so much fun making a paper weight that I was interested in doing more, or at least doing that again. I investigated and discovered a 6-week glass blowing 1 class. Each class is three hours long and based on learning to do, not necessarily making a project. I told Keith I was taking the class and it would be very much more fun if he took it as well. He was in. We called Alexander. He was in.

In our paper weight class, Claire, our instructor, gathered the glass from the 2200-degree furnace and we added colors and squished the colors around and kept the glass hot by putting it in the warm-up furnace and shaped it and felt all special and happy about making a thing.

That gathering thing that Claire did? We learned that tonight. It is freaking hard, and it HURTS. It is SO HOT that you feel like your hand is burning off. I am not exaggerating. It is physically difficult to keep your hand in place before it hurts so much. My hand is very tender right now – not officially burned, but so owie. You are supposed to put a metal rod into a crucible of liquid glass (consistency of warm honey) and make two complete rotations to gather glass (hence the name). By the time you go around once, you are thinking I NEED TO GET AWAY FROM THIS HOTNESS. You are supposed to move purposefully, but not fast. Yeah, I pretty much panicked every time. I got slightly less panicky with a couple practices, but still….it’s really hard.

Then we marver-ed. Or used the marver. I am unsure if marver is a noun or a verb. You take your double gather (do it once…burn…wait a few seconds…do it again….BURN) and move with purpose to the marver (okay, it is a noun. But we were marvering, too) and roll the molten glass on the surface to make a cylinder. Then go to the workstation and use your Jacks tweezers (BIG) to make a cut line, then two more lines so it looked like a snowman, then knock it off the pipe.

Yeah. That didn’t really work. Oh. To be clear, it worked really well when Claire did it. It did not work as well when the rest of us did it. We eventually each got a head to break off. The class is Jeff and Myriam and us. Jeff’s daughter, Ashley, had to miss the first class, but will join us next week. She gets to pay $50 to spend an hour with Claire this week, catching up. The thing is – our hands got a break while everyone else took a turn. Ashley is going to really be hurting.

Claire, and the assistant, Carla, both promised that week one was the hardest and said we really, really need to come back. I would never consider not coming back. Okay. I would consider it, because it hurts, but not really. I gotta find out what happens next.