How to Apply Green in Glassblowing

Glassblowing is as much an art as the final glass product you'll produce. A glassblower inflates white-hot glass into a sphere that he or she will form into a vase or jar or any kind of glasswork imaginable, sometimes even formless paperweights. Add green color to glass pieces to make them really unique.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Pour frit onto the marver. Frit is glass colorant, small pieces of pigment that look like different colored peas. The marver is a steel table you can roll the hot glass on. In times past it was made out of marble and the name has stuck even though the tables are now steel.

2. Roll the hot glass on the marver to pick up the pieces of green frit. Reheat the glass and add some more. Repeat this process until you have the intensity of green you like.

3. Grab color is to dip the glass into another pot containing molten glass that has already been colored green for another method.

4. Put the glass on the end of the puntil (pronounced "punty") back into the furnace to get the green to melt in.

5. Grab up the blocks. These are pieces of wood shaped like scoops with handles that are held in a bucket of water so they stay wet.

6. Rotate the glass or jar in the blocks to provide more shape to the glass.

7. Repeat. You are now ready to add more color, different colors or patterns. Once you have it the way you like, melt the color in by sticking it back into the furnace.