WarmGlass.com

Warm pickups out of the kiln. Glassblowing in my fusing studio, with the simple addition of a glory hole, glassblower's bench, and a few hand tools. I'm focusing on making drinking glasses (until I develop skill levels further) using slices of color bars and clear studio nuggets from System 96. I'd like to share with others if interested in doing this yourself - because it's so much fun! It's the closest thing to magic that's real.

Not really new, Mark, but it can be a lot of fun. We've been doing similar kinds of things for several years now, just picking up out of a kiln and working in the glory hole. We actually taught several classes on the technique in the past.

There we go! Although it's tough to find something new under the sun, teaching classes on this topic is always welcomed by those interested in taking their work to the next level. It appears new, when little information or activity is found discussing this approach, and my activity came from actively pursuing this on my own initiative. Glad to hear about what you're doing Brad - I'd love to get together and compare notes. Let's get more people's eyes wide open blowing glass!

Johnathon Taylor Schmuck taught the classes at our place. I think the first was in around 2010. But the technique has been around much longer than that, I remember Sara Creekmore talking about it over a decade ago and I'm sure there are many others. You're right, there's nothing new under the sun, only variations on the old.

Another pickup idea I'm pioneering is using kiln formed cylinders. These thick-walled fused cylinders are fun to make and easy to pick up and blow out. A little different from the typical roll-up, here we start the hot shop process with a cylinder right out of the kiln. If you want to know more about this, I'll share the details if you message me.