Pew Pew Laser Blog

Glass Cactus Pumpkins.

These are the two pumpkins I made at a Seattle Glassblowing Studio's Pumpkin Making Workshop last October. During this 4 hour workshop, instructors showed me and 5 other people how to work with glass and create the pumpkins. Because I'd had a wee bit of prior experience, I skipped the paperweight part went straight to working on pumpkins.

I love glass pumpkins; I think they're my favorite form. To make a proper pumpkin, the gaffer uses a mold to put the ridges in the pumpkin, and flattens the bubble to the squat pumpkin shape. The assistant (or in this case, the instructor) prepares the stem in a mold, and twists it around a pipe to make the curly stem.

Unfortunately, these pumpkins weren't quite perfect. The taller one got a too long jackline, so I couldn't squat it correctly. Then we put the stem on a bit too hot, and it ended up looking like a cactus. The second one came out a little better; I was able to flatten the piece. The stem was again, a bit too hot, and made a big giant connection on the top of the pumpkin.

I later caught several other pumpkin "blow your own" events, and those came out much better. But I do plan to do a pumpkin workshop if available later this year.

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