Creating The Most Complex Bowl We've Made So Far - Narrate Glassblowing Process Demonstration

Hey everybody, welcome back to the studio. Today we're going to be making a bowl for you, but we're going to be doing it just a little bit differently. Bowls have become one of my favorite forms to make and today we just decided to mix it up a little bit and just do it in a different way. So before we start we have to make some materials. I have some little pieces of cane right here. They're just little links of glass that have a core of a certain color. These canes in particular have black as the core and then blue on some, green on some, and then an exterior layer of clear. So first we're going to gather a little bit of glass out of the furnace. For anybody new to the channel, this is our glass furnace. It houses all of our clear glass that we use. This machine stays on at 2,000 degrees, 2,160 degrees is what we have it set to, and it stays on 24-7. We never turn it off unless we really need to, like a hurricane comes through or something like that. But it keeps the glass really hot. You can see it's very molten. This is the hottest the glass will ever get. It's very difficult to get it back up to that top temperature once it's cooled down almost in any way. So I'm going to go back in and get just a little bit more glass and the plan with this is we're going to actually take those canes that we saw just a second ago and we're going to roll them up around this glass. So we're actually going to be taking those canes and creating a new length of cane with them. This is called Xanferico cane or twisty cane. So once we roll those black canes up on the outside of this glass, we'll end up stretching it just like we did originally when I made these canes. Those canes were originally one long length that we broke up into smaller segments. And then with the twisted cane, we'll be able to break that down and we'll make our piece with that. So we'll add one final layer of clear and then we should be good. This should be the perfect amount of glass that I need to be able to pull our cane. Pulling Xanferico cane has been one of my favorite things to do lately. I've really kind of fallen in love with it. You can get all different kinds of patterns whether you do it in like a ribbon motion or you do just one piece of cane or however you just get so much variety and it really adds to the uniqueness of each piece you make. So I'll take a few moments and I'm actually going to shape this up just a little bit and then Will, who's assisting me today, is going to heat up those canes on that little plate that we used. And once they're just the right temperature, I'll be able to roll it across it and pick up all those canes. And if I do it just right, they should all be kind of equally distant from each other. This tool I'm using right now is called a block. We use it to shape up the glass, usually for things that are going to be inflated. It gives us a nice round shape for a bubble to expand into, but it's really nice at cooling down the glass and shaping it, even if it's going to be solid. So then we're going to move on to the marvering table. This is a thick metal table. It works kind of like a heat sink. It really cools down the glass as well as shaping it. So it's one of my favorite tools to use. I love using the marver. So I want to make sure this is the right kind of size and distance around so that I can roll up all those canes. So we took a measurement and I made sure this was just the right size to be able to get a perfect roll up. Now Will's going to be able to take a big heat on this, and whenever he comes out, we'll go for the roll up. All right, so that was almost perfect. You know, one of those canes I think is a little closer to the other one than I want it to be. The one that we ended on is really close to the one that we started with. So we're just going to mess with that a little bit. But this looks great. Everything's really equidistant. You know, it wasn't too hot, didn't stick to the plate or anything. It looks amazing. And now we just have to worry about getting rid of all those grooves. I'm going to get rid of the excess glass that's on the tip, all these kind of little frays that are sticking off. And once I do that, we'll end up melting it all together, get rid of all of the round ends that are coming from these canes, and then we'll be able to twist it and pull it across the studio. Like watch you, right? Yeah, right. I would worry that it's like it gets, uh, you know, stuff like that. It's like, right. Oh, totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pull up or like be too big or it's like worked out great or anything. I just started and, um, now I have to make sure it's in there. And like he used to do a bunch of weird things. Obviously it must've been important if they bought it and integrated part of it in there, like schooling experience, I think. So we're getting pretty close to being ready to pull our Zanfurico cane. Will's going to make what's called a post. So we got, there's a little bit of glass. He's going to flatten it right here and he's going to cool the pipe down quite a bit so that I can pick it up in my opposite hand. Whenever we're ready to do our pole, that post is basically going to be what I stabbed the tip of my glass onto. And then we'll be able to stretch and twist at the same time. All right. Awesome. So that went really well. Um, and now while the canes are still kind of hot, I can crack them while I touch it with my cold tool. And it really wants to break right there. Give it a little tap and it separates. And then once this cools down, we're actually going to break it down into some smaller bits. And these are the materials that we're going to be making our bowl with today. So this is the next kind of roll up that we're going to be doing. It's on a ceramic plate this time instead of the metal plate. And what we're going to actually do is we're going to let these preheat and then we'll move them over to the and we'll end up fusing them all together. Now, traditionally, we've done a lot of these roll-ups on the channel. And what we usually do is I'd make a little collar, like a little ring on the end of a blow pipe. And then I roll it up and it makes like a cylinder. We kind of connect those two opposite sides. Today, we're going to do something a little bit different. We're actually going to do what we call the plunger pickup. So I'm going to make a different kind of collar, and then I'll be able to pick it up vertically straight off the plate. So the canes will actually be vertical on the tip of my pipe instead of a round, like a cylinder. This is a difficult move to do and I don't have a lot of experience, but one thing that I have learned is that you really want to make sure that there's no gaps in between these canes. It's really difficult to be able to minimize those gaps once it's on the pipe. So now I'm going to take a few gathers of glass on a blow pipe this time. This is a hollow pipe that I can blow through, and we're going to end up blowing a bubble into this. I'll end up cutting the tip off of that bubble and then opening it up to look basically like a plunger. It's why we call it the plunger pickup, because my collar looks just like a plunger instead of like a regular collar that we've done before. So I've got my bubble in there, and now we're just going to worry about pushing my bubble all the way down to the tip so that I can cut off the tip of it in the end, and we'll have a hole that's exposed. All right, awesome. So now we have a small hole in the end, and I'm just going to use my tools to open that up. This is the return of the space cowboy. So earlier I took a small measurement of exactly how round this thing needs to be to be able to pick up those canes almost perfectly if everything goes right, and now I'm taking a small check to make sure everything's good. Will's going to let me know if this is the right temperature. I did another kind of check to make sure I'm just the right size, and in a moment when everything's good to go, we'll just do the move. All right, so that was awesome. These things are on here pretty good. There's no gaps in between them that I could see at least, and now we just have to worry about cutting off the edges, and then we can move on to the next move. Okay, so that went pretty well, and now we just have to worry about minimizing the gaps if there are any between them because we want it all to be airtight so we can inflate it, and I need it to be a much smaller size, so we're going to worry about compacting it down quite a bit more. I'm just trying to get rid of the holes. All right, off. Blow again. All right, you can stop. Yes, you're doing it. That's awesome. Blow. We're sealed. I was gonna say, it sounds like we're hitting somewhere. Yep, we're good. Oh, yes. So funny. Why didn't you leave? Why didn't you put down the toilet seat? You can blow. Off. So we've gotten this thing pretty compact, and now we need to worry about being able to transfer it to the new pipe here in just a moment, so now I'm going to go ahead and put in what's called a jack line. It's a small line. We're going to put it right where that pattern kind of stops, and it's going to basically indicate where we need to break it off of this when we transfer it to the new one. I played the entire South Park Sticker Crew in one sitting. Really? Oh, yeah. That's awesome. Does that mean that you spend a lot of time doing it, or is it a short game? Oh, I spent a lot. I stayed up all night. You can blow again. I do love that feeling, though, when a game just, like, pulls you in. Oh, yeah, take. It's kind of worked out that way. You can blow. All right, cool. Yes, sculpture punty. Perfect. So this thing's set up pretty well, and now we're going to go for the punty transfer. So for anyone who's new, Will's going to grab a new pipe, and he's going to get a little bit of glass on it. We're going to attach it to the tip right here, and I'm actually using a sculpture punty, so I'm going to put a small jack line in this punty as well so it can separate a little easier later on, but yeah, so we attach this on, and then I'm going to break it off of my pipe, and we'll have it transferred and flipped over to the new one. So what this allows me to do is when it's flipped over and on the new pipe, I can put my tools inside of the hole that's exposed, and I'll be able to open it up to the preferred shape. All right, you ready? All right, awesome. So now we have this little cup. We call these supios. It's basically got a really cool design, usually with cane, and now we can use it to just kind of put it up to the new pipe. We don't have to worry about having all that excess glass that we did on the other one, the first blowpipe and stuff. So now I'm going to make a collar, what I was kind of referring to earlier. So this is just a small ring that I'm going to put on the end of the glass. I collect a small bit of glass on the tip, I blow a bubble through it, and then that bubble when I heat it up, it recedes, and we can make it into a small little like collar, just a little ring. Perfect. So this is just the right size, and now Will's going to heat up that little supio, and we're going to add it onto the collar. All right, awesome. So now that all that's done, we can finally get to blowing glass. So sometimes the color application process when you're blowing glass can take a long time. I think it's worth it in the end. I really like this pattern, but it's just really time consuming sometimes. So we're going to get rid of the little knob on the tip, and then we'll be able to gather on top of it and make our bowl. Now, you know, I feel like I've been a chatty Kathy for a lot of this video, so I'm just going to let you guys watch the rest of it. I might give a few more kind of points and things like that, but a lot of what we're about to do really goes over, you know, a lot of things that we did already in the video. So I'll let you guys kind of watch and see if you can kind of tell what's happening and what we're going to do next. That's when my buddy was watching a bunch of anime. He started doing what I can best describe as an anime laugh, where it's just like an eruption of like violent laughter. Yeah, yeah. I'm just like, you know, I think I think I've seen it. My buddy, I was just like, yeah, this is definitely what you're, what you're happening to. Yeah, yeah. That's not good. That's doing it. It's figuring it out. A little harder. Sweet. A little softer, right? One more, one more. The big one? He's going for the big one. Okay, I did it. I think we can punty. Yeah. How are you feeling? Ready? We're up. Hey guys, so I did want to say something about this tool. These are called the parchofis. They're the wood jacks. They're basically used for opening things in a soft way, so you don't get any hard lines. They're nice and round on the bottom, but primarily I use them for making bowls because they can really push the glass around in a very unique way. Bowls are a very difficult shape because you're basically shaping it from the back to the front, so you have to be able to keep the entire piece hot without letting it kind of get out of control. So you have to worry about the speed you turn at, the pressure you're applying, how hot it's getting. A lot of factors come in when you're making a bowl, but I've really learned how to use this tool, and I've become quite confident using it. It's become one of my favorite tools. Okay, sweet. This is perfect for newspaper. Leah, so I have to start here and this way. Give me one second before you come on. That's going to be it, man. Yeah. All right, sweet guys. This is our final shape. We're not going to really mess with it anymore, and the last thing we need to do is just disconnect it from the pipe, and we can move it over to our annealing oven so that it can cool overnight. These pieces take about 12 hours to cool down, so we'll be able to load it in today, and then tomorrow, once it's room temperature, we'll be able to come and pick it up and see the final result. Now we're going to add a little water to that connection point right here, and when I give the pipe a tap, it should pop right off into Will's Kevlar gloves, and then he can transport it over to the annealer. Oh god, where's my wood? All right, perfect, and here's the final result. I love how this thing came out. The camera had a hard time picking up the lines on it, but they kind of have a lot of blue and green on top of them. This plunger pickup always gives it kind of a different perspective, and I love how it looks, and guys, if you're interested in purchasing this piece, you can find a link to it in the description box down below. Thanks for watching today, everybody. Y'all be safe out there, and we'll catch you in the next one.