Blogs about pumpkins:
The Perfect Glass Pumpkin.
Last Halloween, while out doing the grocery shopping, I noticed a "Blow Your Own Glass Pumpkin" sidewalk sign. So I insisted that the husband stop at Blowing Sands. This was my first visit to this studio, and I didn't have my special glassblower glasses with me, so I acted just like a regular customer.
Professional glassblower Lon Clark did most of the work for this blow your own event. I picked the colors (orange with a bit of red for the body, and metallic brown stem), and blew the pumpkin's bubble, but Lon did all of the shaping and other work - including the perfectly curly stem.
As always, thanks to the husband for the photography.
Glass Pumpkin 2009 #3.
This is another blown glass pumpkin from last fall. I made this at Art By Fire in Issaquah. Art By Fire does a clear stem rather than a colored stem, which is a bit of a shame since colored stems look so nice. They also use the mold with the wider ridges, which results a much more pumpkiny-shaped pumpkin.
The monthly Blow Your Own events were much more convenient when Art By Fire was in Ballard. We could take a leisurely walk down to the glass shop and then grab dinner at La Carta De Oxaca or La Isla. Now we've got to dash out of work, and slog through freeway and bridge traffic get to the Issaquah location. There is a bright side though - we can get dinner at the Issaquah Brewhouse. In fact, that's the husband's payoff for coming out to Issaquah with me - Rogue beer.
Thanks to the husband for the photography.
Glass Pumpkin 2009 #2.
Here is another of my attempts at a glass pumpkin. I did this one during a "blow your own" session at Blowing Sands, a little glassblowing studio quite close to home. This pumpkin is less than perfect because I asked to do more in way of heating and shaping the piece than with previous pieces. But I still think it's quite cute!
After shaping the pumpkin body, you still need to do a stem, which I find quite intimidating. You have to gather a bit, pick up the color, and dunk it in the mold. Then you attach it to the pumpkin, twist the bitrod, and swirl it around some kind of tube. Lastly, cut the stem off the pipe and torch the end to smooth it. And you have to do all of this quickly, before the pumpkin body shatters! Lon Clark, the professional glassblower who runs the BYO events at Blowing Sands, did this stem.
As always, thanks to the husband for the photography.
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.
