Glass Blown Figurine Vase

Materials:

colored glass rod
silica sand
fluxes
silver nitrate
copper oxide
zinc red iron oxide
wooden molds
steel jacks
shears
large tweezers
metal
graphite and wooden paddles
folded wet newspaper
cloth pads or cork pads
blowpipes
glass furnace
respirator
mixing bowls
measuring spoons
kitchen scale
glass blowing workbench
marver
pick-up oven
chisel
oxygen/propane torch
tile nippers
hot metal table
frit
glass blowing safety equipment (mask, Kevlar gloves)

1. Make the dancing figures by starting with a glass that is custom made from silica sand, fluxes and oxides, then melted with a special formula. All the colors are melted in a furnace in separate crucibles at 2,450-degrees Fahrenheit for a few hours. Then the furnace is cooled to a working temperature of 2,100-degrees. Molten glass is like the consistency of honey at 2100-degrees and the blowpipe is used to gather molten colored glass out of the furnace. The pipe has to be turned constantly so the molten glass does not drip from the pipe. This gathering takes about 10 seconds.

3. The glass is then rolled onto a metal table called a marver. The marver is used to shape and cool the glass (figure A).

4. The glass is pulled using pliers, stretching like taffy into a long piece of cane about 12 feet long for about 15 to 20 seconds (figure B).

5. When the glass cools, it is then cut into smaller lengths of about 18 inches (figure C).

6. Using a small oxygen/propane torch, the glass is hot sculpted or flame worked into dancing figures that will be later melted into the glass vase. Each figure takes about 3 to 5 minutes to sculpt (figure D).

7. Italian style murrinis are pre-made. They are layers of colored glass that form a star, heart or floral patterns pulled into a cane, then cross cut with tile nippers (figure E).

8. The figures and murrinis are then placed on a hot metal table to pre-heat.