About a month ago, I took my very first glass blowing class at Uptown Glassworks in Renton. I was nervous and excited. I’d never done anything like this before and I wanted everything to be perfect. After all, I was creating something I’d hope to display in my home for years to come.
“Don’t mess up,” I kept telling myself. Being a big klutz, I imagined myself dropping something breakable, or worse yet, burning myself or someone else as I maneuvered around the tight space with a molten piece of glass perilously perched on the end of a long pipe. (The glass in the glory hole is heated to over 2000°F. Hotter than hot). My first instructions from the teacher: “Don’t hurt anybody, including yourself “. (Yikes, no pressure). After the safety briefing was over, my first big decision was to choose the color of glass I would be blowing. There was a table of glass pieces in a rainbow of colors to select from. How would I ever decide? “Don’t overthink it,” was the advice of my instructor. Not a problem for me. I immediately chose red (of course) my favorite color.
After an hour or so of hands-on instruction on how to heat and shape glass, under the watchful eyes of expert glass artist, Chris Heilman, my masterpiece was finished- and it was beautiful… from what I could tell. When glass is hot, it is really hard to discern the color of the final product and it takes about 24hrs to cool before you can actually see exactly what you’ve created. So, after anxiously waiting the requisite 24 hrs., the finished product was picked up and I was the proud owner of my very first piece of glass art…custom made by me! I love it and it makes me smile to see this on my table every day.
