Glassblowing Field Trip!

My 8th grade art class went on a field trip this morning to Corradetti Glass Studio in Clipper Mill to create blown glass pumpkins for fall! We had a lot of fun and I took loads of pictures. Here is one of the girls in front of the gallery space in the studio and some finished pumpkins for sale (not the ones we made):

Here is the process we used to make the pieces:

The assistant, Emma, "gathers" the molten glass on the end of a heated "blow pipe" by dipping it into the glass furnace and turning the pipe (like collecting honey from a pot):

The gathered glass is rolled through a pile of crushed orange glass (if the girls wanted color) and then reheated:

Emma blows gently into the pipe to create the beginning of an air bubble, and then pushes the glass into a mold that will give it its 'pumpkiny' ribs. The glass is reheated again:

The blow pipe is cooled off at this water station so it's cooler to handle:

Now the girls get to work! While Emma rolls the pipe from side to side to keep it from dripping, the girls blow into the end (they are also moving from side to side!) until the pumpkin is a large hollow 'balloon':

While the girls continue to turn the pipe, the assistant gathers a small amount of glass on a "punty" (a steel rod that is solid- not like the hollow blow pipe) and rolls it into green glass for the stem. The pumpkin is detached from the blow pipe and is attached to the stem, which is turned into cute curly cues:

The pieces are placed in an "annealer" (an oven that slowly brings the temp of the pieces from 1000 degrees to room temperature overnight). I will pick up the pieces tomorrow so stay tuned for those photos!:

Here are some other photos of each of the girls in action: