Process
This slideshow contains images of hand blown drinking glass production through three stages. The first stage, the hot shop, is where I gather the molten glass out of a furnace on hollow steel pipes. I shape a small bubble on the end of a rod, and then apply a hot blob of colored glass. This is reheated and shaped smooth with a wet wooden tool. Another layer of clear glass is then gathered out of the furnace. It is carefully shaped, then stretched with gravity, and blown into a mold. The inside of the mold contains the profile of a drinking glass. The automatic mold machine opens by a foot pedal, and the finished glass shape is removed and allowed to solidify. When it cools to around 1000 degrees, it is placed in an oven to anneal slowly overnight.
Once they have reached room temperature, the glasses are brought in to the cold shop. Here, a turntable spins them, and a small flame is focused on the side. The top of the molded cup breaks off, revealing a near finished glass. After a rough grinding on an automated diamond wheel machine, the lip is beveled, cleaned, and left to dry. The final step is fire polishing. The cups go back on a turntable, and are placed between two large torches. These slowly heat the rim of the cup and melt the surface smooth. After cooling back down, the glasses are inspected for flaws, graded, signed, and loaded back in to a kiln for another trip up to 900 F. This removes any stress introduced in to the glass from the flame finishing. The next day, everything is unloaded, boxed up, and sent to its final destination.
