Blowing & Capping for Glassblowing

"Hi! I’m Jim McKelvey with Third Degree Glass Factory in St. Louis. You can check us out on the web at www.stlglass.com. Today, we’re going to learn about glassblowing for expertvillage.com. Let’s talk about that trick that I did by blowing and capping on the pipe. That’s a move that’s very difficult for some beginners to master. The problem is if you don’t know how to blow in cap, you end up having to blow at the end of the pipe. Well, if my lips are down here, I really can’t see what’s going on with the bubble. So, it’s very important, even as a beginner, that you learn how to blow in cap. I’m going to teach you how to do that right now. It’s pretty simple. All you need is a pipe with some warm glass on the end of it. It doesn’t have to be hot. The glass can be stone cold, but what you’re going to do it you’re going to put your thumb right next to the mouthpiece like this, so that it’s really easy to put that thumb right over the tip. Then, you put the thumb and the mouthpiece in your mouth and blow hard. While it’s in your mouth, you cap it with your thumb, just like that. Now, when the breath that you’ve put into the pipe hits the hot pipe it’s going to expand, and that’s what’s going to create the pressure that will blow the glass. Now, the test to see if you’ve got a good cap is you can listen to it. I’m going to put this right next to the microphone, and you can hear that little puff as I release it, indicating that I’ve got a good cap. Practice this 10 times until you can do it cleanly, and then you’ll be set to make those perfect first bubbles."