How to Blow Glass

Learn glass blowing with tips and techniques such as making gather with glass, blowing and capping, centering glass, using marver, flashing glass, taking glass off punty, spinning glass for waves, and placing glass in the annealer.

Series Summary

Glassblowing is the art of creating glass structures such as simple utilitarian vessels or delicate works of art. The process involves gathering molten glass on a hollow steel rod, rolling the “gather” on a slab of marble or flat piece of steel called a marver, and then blowing into the rod creating an air-bubble in the center of the gather. The glass is shaped continually using the marver and wet blocks made of fruit wood and is reheated several times throughout the forming process. A rod with a glass bulb at the tip, called a punty, is attached to the piece to allow the glassblower to finish the work. At the end the the punty is removed and the glass is placed in a final cooling furnace to slowly cool the glass. In all there are three furnaces the glassblower uses: the first furnace is just “the furnace” which is used to melt and hold the molten glass, the next is “the glory hole” which is used to reheat and “flash” the glass being worked, and the third and finishing furnace is called “the annealer”. The glass can be worked clear or with an inexhaustible array of colors added to suit the working artist.

Learn beginning glassblowing from expert glassblower Jim McKelvey who has been teaching glassblowing in 1987 and has taught thousands of students how to safely use glass and fire. Learn glass blowing with tips and techniques such as gathering the glass, blowing and capping, centering glass, using the marver and blocks, flashing the glass, taking glass off the punty, using an optic mold, spinning glass for waves, and placing glass in the annealer in this free online video series.

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Jim McKelvey

How to Blow Glass

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