Problem? Hmm… I know! Pass me a Blowtorch!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

…In a continuation from yesterday’s post I’m looking at the ancient craft of glass blowing and made a photographic journal of the transformation that the glass pieces have undergone during our visit to the  Glass Studio in Leerdam.

Glass blowers use a special stool that looks like a workbench with long arm rests, sitting on the stool the glass blower can simultaneously roll the glass with one hand and form it with the other. Whilst rolling the glass on the pipe on the arm rests, the glass blower shapes it with wet paper and a block of wet wood, holding them against the glass as he rolls.

Since the paper and the block constantly moisten each other they don’t stick to the glass,  therefore the glass blower always has a bucket of water at his side.

As long as the glass is hot the glass blower can manipulate it as he wants,  it can be pricked to make openings or closures, groves can be made and pieces can be added or cut off. This is all done with various pincers and scissors.

Because glass hardens as it cools down, it is regularly placed in a warming kiln whilst it is being worked to keep the glass soft enough to work with so the glass blower can continue working on the piece.

We notice that one of the handles doesn’t attach very straight on the body of the vase,  so the man holds  the pipe whilst the woman blasts it with a blowtorch, this makes the area of the glass they want to correct soft enough so that they can straighten out the wobble,  and mission accomplished they go on to finish the piece.

Once the glass blower has finished working the piece it isn’t  the end of the process. The temperature of the glass will still be around 600 C (1112 F)  so the blower  ”taps” the object off the pipe with a large fork and transfers it to a “cooling”  kiln where the temperature has been set also at 600 C  to keep the finished temperature of the glass stable.

The kiln stays at this temperature during the working day so that the day’s production can be added to it as the pieces are completed and then at the end of the day when the  blowers have finished, the kiln is locked and the cooling process begins.  The kiln reduces in temperature very slowly  until it reaches 20 C  (68 F) and the pieces can be removed.

Thin pieces of glass need at least overnight to cool. This allows  the glass molecules to settle and if it were not done the glass would crack or explode.  The thicker the glass the longer it takes to cool down so there are two cooling kilns in the glass studio, one for thick pieces and one for the thinner ones.

The process is fascinating and I could sit for hours watching the creation of these fiery molten forms into beautiful glass pieces.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Put THAT on your Pipe and Blow It!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I tried to look up some information on the history and process of glass blowing  as we would see at Leerdam but the website is not incredibly informative. Fortunately I’d picked up a  free information sheet during our visit, so these facts come from that,  and from the commentary given whilst we were there.

There is an overhead video screen that shows parts of the process, (like the “tapping off” of the glass at the end from the pipe at the end of the process), but since we are on the very front row of the tiered seats I literally have ring-side view.

Leerdam is regarded as the centre of the Dutch Glass industry and is sometimes called the Netherlands Glass City.

Leerdam’s first glass factory was founded in 1765 and glass was made manually. Today glass is made using computer controlled equipment but professional  glass blowers have not completely disappeared from the scene. At Royal Leerdam Crystal, glass objects are still manufactured using traditional methods to this day and here at the Glass Studio it’s possible to see first hand how this traditional craft is practised.

Experienced Masters and young ambitious glass blowers practice their craft in teams. Glass blowers come from around the world to study techniques at Leerdam and they can assist each other even when they don’t  speak the same languages because  basic glass blowing techniques are the same world wide.

Vocational training takes four years on average, and upon completion of this training the trainee becomes an “Assistant”. Depending on talent, becoming a fully trained glass blower then takes several years more. Only then, finially,  will they have earned the title of Master glass blower.

Glass is made from sand, soda and lime. When mixed together  it’s called “the blend” and is placed in a melting crucible which consists of a small pot in the centre of a stone melting kiln. Temperatures in the kiln are kept at 1500  C  (2732  F) to melt the blend and once it turns into molten glass the temperature is reduced to 1150 C  (2102 F) to keep the glass fluid and ready for use.

The steel blowing pipe is roughly 140cm long and is used to take the molten glass out of the melting crucible. The glass blower inserts te pipe several times into the molten mass, adding layers of glass to the mass to achieve the amount of glass they need. When making large pieces, the  molten glass on the pipe can weigh up to 10 kg.

Once the desired amount of glass is on the pipe, the glass blower blows air into the hollow centre of it resulting  in a round form that is the starting point of the object being made.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Phew, it’s certainly warm in here… more on hot glass blowers tomorrow…