Burnin' Down the House

This past weekend Jordan and I had an amazing date to learn how to blow glass!  It was totally cool and we learned so much!  It all started from a Groupon we found online for a place called Marrs Glass Studio.  The event was advertised as a BYOB glass blowing class that included a quick informal instruction, hands on crafting, and the opportunity to create your own piece of glass to take home!  Uh, yes please!

We decide to make it a double date with our friends, Mallory and Nathan.  That helped to spread around the cost and it was WAY more fun with a small group of people.  Mallory and I  I was a procrastinator and kept forgetting to get our session on the calendar.  Luckily for us, my procrastination turned out to be a blessing because the weather was nice and cool to counter the heat of the glass shop.  Ya'll, the kiln was 2000 degrees in that place.  Yes, the 3 zeros after that 2 is NOT a typo.

So we arrived at the shop a little uneasy about what to expect but all fell totally in awe at the glass pieces around us.  This shop made it all!

This is a picture of just a FEW of the pieces that we saw.  Gorgeous work.  Even reflecting back on our visit, I can't decide what my favorite piece was.  The middle left picture looks like a simple glass, but up close had SO much detail (intricate crisscross with a small bubble in each square).  I was afraid to touch it at $1000.00 for the 1 glass.

So we all popped open a beer because, well, you can't waste a good BYOB opportunity, and toasted to the evening!  We began to scheme and plan what each of us would make as we perused the creation possibilities.

Top Left - toast to the evening, fun, and great friends!

Bottom Left - Their storage closet had the green lantern painted on it.  It was totally hilarious so we had to get a picture. (We just saw that movie for the first time last week.)

Right Top - creations by previous students.  

Right Middle and Right Bottom - This is a picture of Nathan working on his piece (bowl).  We'll get to the crafting details below.

The shop was quite impressive.  Everywhere you looked there was a dangerous tool or hazard. I almost walked into an open flame at least twice.  Just as we are all commenting on the heat and discovering how hot the glass had to be, the song "Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads came on the radio.  This became the motto of our evening and was appropriate!

Top Left - Glass Blowing kiln - this one was not quite as hot as 2000 degrees (thank goodness because we had to stand in front of it to work on our glass).  Sunglasses were a must.

Top Right - a craft/tool section of this shop

Bottom Left - open flame, watch out folks!

Bottom Middle - really cool scissors and tools!

Bottom Right - Jordan's color collection as he prepared to make his bowl.

Now it was time to work on our pieces.  Jordan decided to make a glass bowl with red, white, and black.  Very cool and very Red Raider.  Loved it!  I decided to make a large ornament.  The ornament was not so much for a Christmas tree (too heavy) but can be hung on a decorative hook somewhere.

In the above picture there are some great shots of Jordan beginning to work on his bowl.  Every step was interesting to watch. 

These are various pictures of Jordan and I each making our creations!  I wont go into detail about every shot but his bowl (bottom right) was particularly cool.  He had to blow the air into it, allow some cool time for shaping, and then suck some of the air back out of it.  By sucking some air out, it made the glass dome back into the bowl to create a concave shape.  The moment the glass contracts is so fast but I was able to snap this picture just before the shape finalized.  It only took about 2 seconds to go from a flat bottom sphere to a bowl.

Here is a quick video of me working on the ornament.

Here are our finished products!

My ornament. Green with gold accents!

Jordan's bowl - red, white, and black!

All in all, the glass blowing was so much fun and we definitely plan to go again soon!

Saturday we hosted a neighborhood game night at our house.  We had so much fun with some of our neighbors playing games and then sitting around the fire. My neighbors know how to cook too!  The food was yummy!  I have very few pictures of game night, but Jordan got this excellent shot of the inviting fire all set up.  That was a fun evening and everyone really enjoyed themselves!