I love the challenge of walking the tightrope between hot and cold in the blown work that I make. The following photos illustrate this glass blowing dance. It is an artform which is physically demanding and exhilarating at the same time.

I use my blowpipe to gather molten glass out of the furnace, always turning slowly. As it cools it is frozen in time. My partner then drops a thin layer of colour over top. Several more layers of glass are gathered over the colour. Usually my partner blows while I shape the piece either with my jacks or with a stack of wet newspaper.

The piece is reheated in the glory hole to avoid cracking and balance the heat. I cut in a neckline with my jacks. My partner brings a puntil which is a long steel rod with a blob of glass shaped on the end. The hot puntil attaches to the bottom of my piece and the neck is chilled with water and cracked off onto the puntil.

I can then use the puffer or other tools to shape the top half of the piece. Once the piece is finished,  it is cracked off and placed into an annealer oven to cool slowly over many hours, depending upon the thickness of the glass.

Often most of the time on a piece is spent in the cold shop, several days later, grinding and polishing, or even carving a piece to achieve its perfect form.