7

FEATURE

HackSpace Learns... Glass-blowing

the swirls and mixes up the colours. It’s a hypnotic

motion that looks like toffee or fudge being folded,

and looks like we can lean forward and lick it.

Obviously that would result in significant injuries, so

we resist.

So, the glass literally looks good enough to eat, but

it’s still not right:

“With the colours being based on metal oxides,

they change colour when they get hot, which is really

annoying. So oranges, yellows, and reds all go to a

red/black. Blues tend to go to pink and greens stay

the same, funnily enough. Whites go clear, and blacks

just get blacker and redder. So you can’t actually tell

the colour of the piece until it’s cooled down.”

Another quick blast in the furnace and it’s time to

give the bauble its final shape.

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE

Now comes our favourite bit: smoothing the glass

and shaping it to a perfect orb. This uses a specialised

tool that’s a block of wood with the shape of a round

cavity carved out of it, with a handle, and it lives in

a bucket of cold water, for reasons that will become

obvious. The hot glass goes in the wooden cavity, the

iron spins, and a big cloud of steam comes up from the

damp wood:

“When the wood burns it creates a carbon layer,

which doesn’t stick to glass at all. And because it’s

wet it creates a kind of cushion around the glass. For

more complex shapes, we’ll use wet newspaper,

Right

We used this tool,

called a block,

to shape the

glass; earlier in

the day Josh was

using a wad of

damp newspaper

Right

You can see the

colours swirling

though the glass as

we hold on to it while

twisting the iron

Given Britain’s role in the development of glass, it

may surprise you to learn that the raw materials

and the gear used by today’s glass-blowers come

from all over the world – anywhere but the UK,

it seems. The plain pelletised glass Hen Ogledd

uses comes from New Zealand, and the coloured

granules are made in Germany. The specialised

glass-blowing tools are from Sweden, and the

hand tools are from the USA – all over the place, as

Ann explains:

“We used to have one of the best toolmakers

in the world in the UK, but unfortunately he never

took on an apprentice, so when he died, his skills

went with him.

“That’s one of the reasons why we want to

share what we’re doing as much as possible.

We’ve got this situation where we’re losing

techniques because people haven’t shared them.

We’re of the view that we may as well share the

knowledge and then it will live longer.”

KEEPING THE SKILLS ALIVE