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Glass Art Available in many shapes, sizes and colors.
Handmade gifts for all occasions.
Closed Bowls
To make a glass bowl using Hand Glass Blowing techniques, a glob of molten glass, that has been kept at 2100 F in an oven called a furnace, is gathered onto the end of a long metal pipe (called a blow pipe) with a hole that traverses the entire length of the pipe. Air is blown through the pipe converting the glob of glass into a bubble. Through subsequent heatings (in a glory hole) followed by more blowings and further formations with tools like a wooden block, the bubble is eventually blown and formed into the shape of what will become a hollow bowl, with the opening of the bowl connected to the pipe.
The bowl is then transferred from the blow pipe to the end of another long solid metal pole called a punty only now the opening of the bowl-to-be is facing away from the punty. The bowl is now opened by heating the bowl-to-be in the glory hole and prying the closed bowl open with a tool called Jacks. Depending on how much the bowl is opened and to what degree, a bowl that is barely opened or opened just a little bit will become a closed mouthed bowl or closed bowl while a bowl that is opened much more widely will result in a open mouthed bowl or a open bowl.
In my early pursuits in bowl making I discovered that I was partial to the closed bowl over the open bowl. This is because in my own tastes as an artist there is a certain artistic quality that the closed bowl has that is missing from the open bowl. One is more apt to place a flower in the opening of a closed bowl or a bouquet of roses in a closed bowl than in an open bowl form. From an open bowl, one is more apt to eat soup or breakfast cereal and maybe be a little less artistic in the designing of the open bowl than with the closed bowl. I discovered that my tastes lean toward making closed bowl forms as opposed to open bowl forms so I made many of these closed bowls. Plus there is less work involved as you don’t have to open them as wide and thus can stop a little sooner when making them. Please enjoy my closed bowls. They are here for you to look at and to purchase if you so desire.
Each one of these closed bowls (and everything else in this gallery) is either in my Etsy Shop for sale or if not, WILL be in my Etsy Shop for sale in the future. Please enjoy looking through my gallery of closed bowls and if you are interested in any particular bowl that is not in my Etsy Shop, or if you are having a difficult time locating the exact one you are interested, please let me know and I will place it in my Etsy Shop for you to purchase or help you find it if you would so like.
Open Bowls
After transferring the bubble (bowl to-be) from the blow pipe to the punty to open it up, it can be opened just a bit or hardly at all to make a closed bowl or it can be opened a bit further or as much as you wish and of varying degrees to make an open mouthed bowl or an open bowl. Although I am partial to closed bowls, open bowls can be and are just as much "art" as a closed bowl is. Open bowls are not only for soup eating or only used as cereal bowls. They can be used to keep things in, such as fruit, knick-knacks, candy, or nothing at all. A bowl all by itself can be art all unto itself.
Please enjoy looking through my open bowls that I have made. Again, if you see a bowl that you may be interested in, it may be in my Etsy Shop. But if it isn’t, let me know and I will put it in there for you. If you are having difficulty finding the bowl that you want, let me know and I will be happy to give you a hand.
Vases
To make a vase, the procedure is very much the same as in making bowls. Only, the bubble is slightly elongated, depending on how long your vase is to be, and the bubble can be shaped with all the necessary curves and finally a lip can be formed along the edges of the mouth.
There are long vases, short vases, squat vases and vases that look like bottles. Vases of all kinds, shapes, colors and sizes can be found in my Etsy Shop. Find your favorite today.
Cups
Cups are made similarly to bowls except the angles are generally different than bowls, and are also similarly made to vases in that the bubbles are elongated quite often to give you cups of a certain length. In some cases, cups are harder to make than bowls because it's important that the glass thickness be thin enough such that one can drink out of them with no problem. My cups come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors and are excellent for drinking orange juice, water, whiskey, wine, or what ever beverage you prefer. You can find them in my Etsy Shop.
Paperweights are made differently than bowls, vases, and cups. Vessels are hollow and therefore are created from a starting bubble and formed into a bowl, vase, or cup. Paperweights, on the other hand, are solid and are not made from a bubble. To make a paperweight, a glob of hot molten glass is collected onto the end of a punty, cooled slightly and bits of colored glass, the design so to speak, are applied to the glob of glass and melted in to form the inner core. More glass is gathered onto the inner core, melted together in the glory hole and then formed into a round paperweight to cool and solidify overnight.
A number of beautifully colored glass paperweights can be found and purchased in my Etsy Shop. So you can start keeping those papers on your desk in order and at the same time have a beautiful companion piece to decorate your now organized workspace.