I got home from work today to find a parcel waiting for me. It was the glasses I’d blown on Saturday, all very well wrapped up in bubble-wrap and packed in newspaper. They’d done a very good job of parcelling them up. And here they are! Proof that I’ve got years of training and apprenticeship to go before I would make a glass blower.
Wobbly glasses
I actually made more vessels than I thought – I’d forgotten the one on the far left, which was the first “trial piece” I made to go through the steps one at a time. It will make a useful small vase. I’m particularly pleased with the one on the far right – it’s a water glass, which I blew into a former to get the indentations in the body. I can see myself using that. It was an evolution of the vessel at the second left, which is a simple tumbler. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the bowl in the middle – it’s too small to be a fruit bowl, but I’m sure I’ll find a use for it.
I deliberately stuck with very simple shapes. The other two students were more ambitious, and both made stemmed wine goblets, whilst one also made a jug. But I observed that the more complex the piece, the more of the work was actually done by the tutor. So I decided that I’d rather try to make simpler pieces that I did the majority of the work on. In the case of my four pieces, the tutor made the base of the bowl but everything else was done by me – hence the distinct wobbles!
I’m not particularly enamoured of the colour – I find cobalt blue to be a bit garish and prefer my glasses to be colourless in general. But I suppose the clue is in the name. If one goes on a course with Bristol Blue Glass, one has to expect the resulting glasses to be blue! Overall, I am delighted with the results. It was a very intense day, and I learned I huge amount and enjoyed myself very much. It’s great to end up with something tangible at the end.
