Gold Heart Perfume Bottle

Materials and Tools:

glass furnace
small glory hole
annealer
marver
pipe warmer
color oven
knock-off box
glassblowing bench
chisel
mallet
blowpipe
6 - 8 1/2" punty rods
stand (to hang punty rods and blowpipes)
diamond shears
straight shears
soffietta
glassblowing protective mitts
glassblowing tweezers
small tweezers (cosmetic)
8" or 9" jacks
8" or 9" round jacks
beeswax
3K gold foil (not gold leaf)
heart punch
2 pieces of 8-1/2" X 11" bond paper
small flat gift box (type used for jewelry) include cotton stuffing
half of a 1/2" thick disk from cherry red color rod
#2 cherry red glass frit
tile nippers
Mapp gas hand torch
spoon
round pointed knife
grit
water
paper towels
dental water jet
large empty coffee can
refractory ceramic fiber
air compressor and hose
4 newspaper spreads, folded and soaked in water

Figure A

Steps:

1. Pre-make two gold hearts by placing gold foil between two pieces of paper. Punch through the paper and gold foil with the heart punch. Store the paper and gold hearts together on the cotton pad inside a jewelry gift box. Add more cotton to prevent the hearts from sliding around in the box if there is room in the box.

2. Place the blowpipe and punty rods in a pipe warmer to heat tips for 15 minutes.

3. Break off approximately 1/2-inch thick disk from the cherry red color rod (cherry rod appears yellow-looking) with a chisel and mallet (figure A). Hold this small disk between your feet on the floor so that the disk is vertical. Position the chisel on the top midpoint of the disk and hit sharply with the top of the mallet to break it in two.

4. Place cherry red color rod in the color oven to heat for approximately 15 minutes.

5. Spread out 1/4 cup of #2 cherry red frit on the marver in a 2" x 4" rectangle shape.

6. Remove the blowpipe from the pipe warmer and heat the tip in the glory hole until the tip glows red.

Figure C

7. Open the color oven and push the hot tip of the blowpipe onto the color disk until it sticks (figure C).

8. Rotate the blowpipe on the glory hole’s yoke. Heat only the tip of the blowpipe and the color disk in the glory hole until it has completely melted.

Figure D

9. Immediately sit at the glassblowing bench with the blowpipe placed on its rails. While rotating the blowpipe up and down the rails, use the back of the jacks to shape the melted color into a gumdrop shape (figure D). Allow the color to cool so that it is no longer fluid and becomes very solid.

Figure E

10. Collect one small gather of clear glass from the furnace over the color; shape on the marver slightly and then roll just the tip over the #2 frit on the marver (figure E).

Figure F

11. Heat the frit on the clear glass in the glory hole until it has completely melted. Create swirls in the melted frit with the tips of the glassblowing tweezers. Push the tips in and turn (figure F), repeat three to four times around the entire surface of the melted frit.

12. Heat the glass on the blowpipe in the glory hole until all of the swirls have completely melted flat. All of the glass, clear and red frit, should be heated up thoroughly in the glory hole. Quickly, blow a starter bubble in the glass and then reshape into an egg shape at the bench using either the jacks or wet newspaper. Wait for it to cool so that it is no longer moving, and then hang it on the pipe stand.

13. Turn off any fans and close doors, windows and vents momentarily while placing gold hearts on the marver.

14. Separate the paper hearts from the gold hearts with cosmetic tweezers. Place the heart on the edge of the marver. The point of the heart should be pointing away from you. Place the other heart 4 inches away along the same edge of the marver, pointing away.

15. Place glassblowing tweezers on the hearts if they don't stay in place on the marver because of air movement.

16. Place diamond shears on the same marver.

17. Collect another small gather of glass from the furnace over the clear and red frit glass on the blowpipe. Marver this glass slightly and then reheat in the glory hole.

Figure G

18. Place hot glass over the hearts with diamond shears. Gently roll the glass over the first heart then flip the glass over and roll the second heart on the other side of the glass making sure the entire heart has stuck to the glass (figure G).

19. Heat again in the glory hole and marver the hearts to make sure there is good contact.

20. Once the glass has cooled slightly, gather the final small gather of glass onto the previous glass.

21. Marver this glass into an egg shape then reheat in the glory hole.

22. Marver only the tip of the glass this time and then reheat.

Figure H

23. Marver the tip again and then blow hard into the blowpipe. Continue this same procedure until there is a bubble in the glass approximately 3 inches in diameter (figure H).

Figure I

24. Heat the glass in the glory hole and place a jack mark in the glass bubble with the blades of the jacks (figure I).

25. Flash the entire glass piece in the glory hole for three seconds and then continue heating only the lower half of the glass until it begins to move. While rotating the blowpipe, take it out of glory hole and hold it vertically so that the hot glass begins to elongate.

26. Rotating in the same direction take the blowpipe back to the glory hole to flash and heat the tip again. Elongate using the same method as in step 25 until it forms the desired bottle shape.

27. Flash all the glass again and then heat only the very bottom of the piece. Flash quickly and flatten the bottom of the piece with the back of the jacks. Straighten the sides of the glass perfume bottle with the blades of the jacks.

28. Flash again and reheat the bottom slightly and make sure the bottom of the piece is flat with the back of the jacks. Blow very gently on the bottom center point for five seconds with the soffietta.

29. Gather a small amount of clear glass from the furnace onto the end of one of the punties and shape on the marver.

30. Grab the punty rod with the glassblowing tweezers and push the hot glass against the metal rail for just a second. Blow on the same glass very hard for just a second or two and immediately push it onto the bottom of the perfume bottle. While rotating the blowpipe, use the tweezers against the punty rod to make sure it’s centered.

31. Insert the tips of the tweezers in some water and touch the jack line in several places. Quickly hit the blowpipe with the big end of the tweezers to release the perfume bottle from the blowpipe.

32. Immediately flash the entire perfume bottle in the glory hole for three seconds and then heat just the neck until very hot.

Figure J

33. Pull out the neck to thin and elongate with the glassblowing tweezers (figure J). Then use the jacks to put a jack line a couple of inches down from the top of the perfume bottle.

34. Flash in the glory hole for three seconds. Use the cold part of the jack blades around the jack line, then pick up the diamond shears and place around the jack line, cooling it. Lift the punty rod with your left hand and diamond shears on the jack line off of the bench rails and have an assistant knock off the pulled part of the glass with the big end of the tweezers.

35. Flash again in the glory hole and then heat up the neck until very hot, being careful not to heat too much so that the hole closes up!! Flash again.

Figure K

36. Open the neck to around a 2-inch diameter with round jacks. Immediately start closing the neck down on the outside with the round jacks to create the flair at the top of the bottle (figure K). Reheat at the glory hole and repeat until you achieve the desired perfume bottle shape.

37. After reheating the flair and opening slightly, place both blades of the round jacks inside the small hole and rotate the blowpipe to make sure the hole is round and approximately 1/4 inch in diameter. Flash in the glory hole.

Figure L

38. Take the perfume bottle to the knock-off box and use a round-pointed knife to tap in several places where the glass on the punty is in contact with the bottom of the perfume bottle. Hold punty rod upright and put the neck of the bottle into a "hole" created by refractory ceramic fiber in a coffee can, gently hit on the punty rod to release the perfume bottle from the punty rod (figure L). Flame-polish the punty mark on the base of the bottle with the gas hand torch for a few seconds, and then use a spoon to finish off the melted punty mark.

39. Wearing protective mitts place the perfume bottle upright in the annealer and close the door. The perfume bottle will need to cool in the annealer for 12 hours.

40. To make the stopper, take a punty rod out of the pipe warmer and heat just the tip in the glory hole until red-hot. Then collect a good-sized gather of glass onto the punty rod. Marver the glass up off the metal rod and form it into a short cylinder. Immediately let the tip of the glass lay on the marver without rotating it to create a flat piece. Quickly flip it over to create another flat area on the other side. Repeat to cool slightly.

41. Make a 1/2-inch cut in the center of the flat area with straight shears. Separate the two halves slightly with the tip of the straight shears. Quickly pick up the jacks and put in an angled jack line further down on the glass close to the end of the punty rod.

Figure M

42. Heat all of the glass in the glory hole for approximately 15 seconds until very hot, and then quickly take it out of glory hole and hold the punty rod upright so the glass is pointing toward the floor. Hang the punty rod from the stand and watch carefully as the glass starts to elongate (figure M).

Figure N

Gently blow on the glass to cool it if the piece is getting too long or too thin. It will stop moving once cooled. Remove from the stand and run the blades of the diamond shears around the thin area of the stopper to chill. Open the annealer door and knock off the stopper into the annealer. It’s best to make several stoppers as the heart shape and thickness varies (figure N). Allow the stoppers to cool for 12 hours.

Figure O

43. Once the perfume bottle and stoppers have cooled (the next day), select the stopper that looks best with the bottle in terms of heart shape, proportion and hole diameter (figure O). Cut off sections from the tip of the stopper with the tile nippers until it fits inside the perfume bottle without hitting the bottom.

Figure P

To fire, polish the cut tip; use the gas torch to slowly heat up the tip until it starts to melt (figure P). Glass should not be larger than 1/4-inch diameter when using the hand torch otherwise it may crack. Wait until the melted tip has cooled slightly before placing on the table with the tip propped up on a pencil.

44. Wet your finger with water, dip it into the grit and place the grit around the stopper where it meets the neck of the perfume bottle. Put the stopper into the bottle and start rotating the stopper. Repeat to form a tight seal between the two. To check the seal clean off the grit. Periodically, add more water and grit, as it tends to dry out. This may take some time especially if the stopper isn’t perfectly round.

45. After grinding the stopper wash off the grit and dry. Rinse the perfume bottle under a faucet of running water. Clean the inside of the bottle with a dental water jet. Hold the bottle upside down over a sink, place the tip of the water jet inside the bottle then turn on the water jet. Place the bottle upside down on paper towels to dry or blow air into it with an air hose to dry.

46. Once everything is dry, you’re ready to fill the gold heart bottle with perfume.

E-mail: betsyknotts@sbcglobal.net