Glassblowing

You know that moment on Facebook when the librarian you befriended four years ago as an intern likes your slightly off-color status update? Or when your aunt, your ex-boyfriend, and your neighbor all comment on the two-year-old photo of your pet fish? 

Things can get awkward on the 'book. Circles of friends mush together, people you never thought you'd see again show up, and snooping around in other people's business gets waaaay too easy (you know you've done it!) 

But sometimes that mushiness works out. Because sometimes it reconnects you with awesome, interesting people like Katie.

I met Katie in a hostel in Florence, Italy during an epic 3 month long trip through Europe. She was funny and friendly and living in Greece at the time. We parted ways just a couple days later, but connected on Facebook first.

Fast-forward 3 years and Katie's living in Boston. After a few messages back-and-forth, we made plans to meet at an arts festival downtown. Which is where we saw a demo from Diablo Glass School and decided to give glassblowing a try.

A few weeks later, Katie nabbed a Groupon for a pumpkin making class at Luke Adams Glass. We were in business.

photo credit: Katie LaGrave

The whole process is as hot and intense as it looks. It's also a ton of fun.

There were three of us (my friend Jen joined too) to one instructor, and I was impressed by how much we were allowed to do after a brief lesson. You work with the molten glass on the end of a long, hollow steel rod, always turning it (so it doesn't fall off), tapping it in colored beads of glass, shaping it on the work bench and eventually in a mold.

Glassblowing is called glassblowing (and not glass shaping) because the pieces become hollow when you blow air through the end of the long steel rod. We got to do this ourselves when the glass pieces were in the pumpkin ridge mold. Then the instructor added a bit more, making sure our pumpkins would be just the right size.

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One of the hardest parts of the process, at least for us, was picking colors. They had an entire range of options: purple, green, orange, brown, clear, white, teal, blow, and a number of metallic options. We each did something a little different, but they made a pretty set in the end.