www.KOG.com
Today the glass blowing team at Kokomo Opalescent Glass is handmaking an art glass pumpkin.
It is called glass blowing because the artists literally blow their breath into the work of art.
It starts off pretty simply, really. A small dollop of molten glass, called a gather, on the end of a blow pipe. The blow pipe is a hollow metal tube, one end is built up to hold the molten glass and the other has a mouthpiece.
On this particular piece, both artists will blow into the pipe multiple times.
Jeff gives a couple puffs of air into the pipe, then gathers more glass. This glass gets rolled onto a marver table to begin the shaping process.
In addition to rolling the pumpkin on the table, other methods are used to shape it as well.
The wooden, cup-shaped tool in the bucket of water is called a block. The thing that looks like giant tweezers is called the jacks.
They actually use tweezers, too. Later on, we will even see shears and a couple of different molds being used.
The pumpkin gets several gathers of glass, it also warmed several times in the furnace during its creation using the glory hole.
One of the key steps is to keep the glass hot enough throughout the creation of the pumpkin. If the glass cools too much, too quickly, then we have a ruined pumpkin!
This particular pumpkin will have a texture we call craquel. The word craquel comes from the French and means to crack.
Jeff dips the molten glass into a bucket of water, this cools the outside of the pumpkin very quickly and causes it to fracture. It is then re-heated to heal the cracks. The finished product has a very distinct appearance.
How many times does he crack and heal the pumpkin? Now, now, that would be telling!
There are several occasions during the pumpkin art process that Jeff spins the blow pipe. He doesn’t just do this because it looks cool; it’s really done to stretch the glass out.
While the pumpkin is In the mold, Jeff blows into it to cause it to expand and take on the shape of the mold.
Daniel is getting the punty, which is a metal rod, ready for the next part of the process. He does this by getting a gather of glass that is the same color as the pumpkin and rolling it on the marver.
Although you can’t tell yet, this pumpkin will be clear.
The pumpkin will be transferred from the blow pipe to the punty rod so that the top of the pumpkin can be worked on.
Daniel holds the punty steady while Jeff uses the jacks to control the transfer. A couple of good taps on the blow pipe and the pumpkin is now on the punty!
Our pumpkin lost a lot of heat during the transfer, so Daniel warms it in the furnace again, then passes it to Jeff. While Jeff shapes the top of the pumpkin, Daniel goes to gather the glass they will use to make the stem.
The stem will be solid glass, this one will be 181 lighter amber which is a cathedral color. Since the stem will not be blown, a punty is used for it. He uses a different mold than was used earlier. This will give the glass its stem-like texture.
He then causes the glass stem to drape onto the top of the pumpkin. Here you can begin to see that the pumpkin is going to be clear.
Jeff uses shears to pinch off some of the stem glass and to shape it; he uses a torch to help soften any sharp places that may remain on the stem which helps reduce cold working time later.
Using tweezers and rotation of the punty he creates a fun, curly stem on the pumpkin.
The pumpkin is almost finished. A blade is used to release the pumpkin from the punty, then the punty mark is melted smooth.
Finally, it is carefully placed into an annealing oven to cool. In 24 hours or so it will be ready for a trip to the cold studio. There it will be inspected for quality; any sharp points that may exist will get ground down.
This pumpkin is now ready to become a delightful decoration in your home!
