Blocking Glass: Beginning Glass Blowing: Free Online Video Lesson

"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. Now, as I sit down with the glass, I’m going to grab that block that I have and see if it fits. It looks like this block is just going to barely fit. As a matter of fact, I can just barely get that in there. Notice that I’m holding the block up here at the front. A lot of beginners want to hold it back here, and that’s wrong. You want your hand nice and messy. I make nice smooth rolls. I use the whole bench, taking the block off at the end of each roll. When the block starts to steam, get it wet. So here we go one more time. Blocking it smoothly, changing directions, and coming back."