Things You'll Need:
- Glass blocks
- Furnace
- Blowpipe
- Bucket of water (as a safety precaution)
- Annealer
- Wooden paddles
- Shears
- Jacks
- Steel table
- Blowpipe
- Marver
- Newspaper
- Hand-held blowtorch
- Tweezers
- Punti
- Colored powder
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Step 1
Place your glass in the furnace and turn it on. Set the furnace temperature according to the type of glass you are blowing.
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Step 2
Wait for the furnace to get really hot, about half an hour to an hour, depending on its age and condition.
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Step 3
Using your hand tools, gather the hot glass from the furnace. Place the hot glass onto a steel table.
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Step 4
Using your marver, roll the hot glass into a cylinder.
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Step 5
Roll the cylinder of hot glass into colored powder to give your final product its desired hue.
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Step 6
Insert your blowpipe into the top of the cylinder and blow gently. Make sure that your finger is covering the small air hole in the pipe, so that all the air is directed into the glass.
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Step 7
Keep turning the pipe. As you are blowing, continually turn the blowpipe so that it doesn't stick to the glass.
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Step 8
If the glass is too thin, you can keep adding new bits of hot glass around it with your marver or wooden paddles.
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Step 9
Shape the glass with your marver and wooden paddles. Wet newspapers can also be used for shaping the glass, by cooling down certain areas of the glass so that they don't expand further.
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Step 10
Flatten the bottom of what will become your vase by gently applying pressure to the bottom. You can set the bottom onto the steel table and gently push down.
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Step 11
Place your vase on a punti. Using a hand-held blowtorch, warm the opening of the vase. Use your tweezers to gently pull the opening apart, creating a decorative flared opening.
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Step 12
Place your piece in the annealer and allow it to cool.
