When
we have decided on a design, our first step is to create
the correct colors out of glass.
Each color stripe in the glass
is called a cane, and must be hand made before we can begin.
In this process the dense color we have chosen must be covered
with clear glass
and stretched out (sometimes to lengths of 20 ft. or more).
The long pull of color leaves us with the desired shape,
size, and color density for just one of the colors in each
piece. After all the colors of a design have been made into
these canes we can start to make the beginning patterns
for our line of glass.
Each cane is cut and laid out next to one another on a ceramic
like plate, creating the sequence of color. This plate and
pattern is placed into a heating oven (called a glory hole)
to begin melting the glass canes together. Using extremely
high temperatures around 2000 degrees) the canes are fused
together. The flat pattern is then rolled up around the
end of a blow pipe and the glass
blowing process begins. We layer molten clear glass over
the canes to create more mass, then the glass
is blown up and expanded, stretching and lightening the
original pattern. The glass
is shaped using a variety of metal and wooden tools and
once finished, it is placed into a cooling oven which starts
around 1000 degrees. This oven slowly cools the piece over
a course of 12 - 15
hours until it reaches room temperature.