Process

Glassblowing has been around since the time of the Romans; nearly 2000 years ago.  Much of the equipment that we use today is virtually the same as it was when glassblowing started.  The process for forming glass and working with glass has also, in large part, been unchanged.  This is the process for making a colored bowl.

First all the color that will be in the vase is added, in layers at the beginning.  In total there will be five layers of color sandwiched between three layers of clear glass.

After that color is overlayed a layer of clear glass is gathered and shaped for the next step: the Swedish overlay. In the picture below the parchoffis (wooden jacks) are being used to literally fold a priorly prepared bubble with three layers of color backwards over the main piece.

After the Swedish overlay is complete you smooth the piece out to gather more glass.

The piece is then blown and flattened and a bottom is put into it.  After that it is transferred onto a solid rod called a punty so that the top part of the vase can be worked on.

The lip of the piece is pulled out.

And then trimmed.

Then the piece is cooled down using the torch to torch thinner areas while thicker areas have a time to cool down.  Once the piece is equalized in temperature it will be knocked off the punty and put away in an annealer where it will cool slowly from 910 degrees to room temperature over 24 hours.

The final product after grinding and polishing.

Thanks goes to my assistant, Jeff Royce, and photagrapher Michael Royce