2018 Fall Gorge Trip: Sunday

We had arranged to be out of the house by 9:00 so we could get to Vancouver for our Glass Blowing Lessons at 10:30.

We didn't eat breakfast, because we were going to have a special breakfast at the market in Vancouver. That was a mistake.

We got to Firehouse Glass on time and met Josh, our instructor. The ovens were all fired up, so we started immediately. Ross started working on some pieces himself, while Josh lead us through making some simple projects.

Sue - Getting ready to Jack her paperweight.

Our first project was a paperweight. Sue went first, then Andreas, then me and finally Louise. It is an amazing process, drawing the glass out of a big oven that is never turned off. The glass is drawn onto a steel rod that you have to KEEP ROTATING - ALL THE TIME - to keep the glass even. If you stop, the glass droops down towards the floor.

Andreas - adding colour

...You draw some initial glass, press it into a dish of powdered colour material, then reheat it (Flash it) then add more color, then reheat it, then roll it on a steel table (a process called marbling), then draw more glass, then add more color, then reheat it again, marble it again, then add more glass - all the time rotating the rod. They have a special cooling station so that you can periodically cool down your rod - as you work; heat travels up the rod towards your hands so it eventually becomes very hot if you don't cool it.

Ted - must keep the rod rotating!

After re-heating the glass again and shaping it with a wooden spoon-like tool, you take another tool that looks like a cross between long-nose pliers and a caliper (a glass-blowing jack)- to pinch the neck, close to the rod. After re-heating the glass and repeating this process a few times, you put a little bit of water on the neck, then take your masterpiece over to a cooling oven, put it onto a mat inside the oven, and then give the rod a sharp tap with a piece of wood, and you paperweight breaks cleanly from the rod.

Louise - Blowing Glass - making a bowl

It is a very interesting process. It is also very hot standing in front of the furnaces.

After our first attempts, we all tried a second project. Sue made a paperweight shaped like a heart. (After the glass is hot, you take some needle nose pliers and grab one side of the glass and pull it out to form the bottom of the heart. (Reheating it then smooths it off). Andreas made some sort of shape - not sure what he was going for, and Louise and I made small bowls, which were interesting because we had to use hollow rods and then blow through the rod when the glass was hot to expand the glass at the end of the rod to make it hollow.

Ross - working on a large bowl

I can tell you it is a lot harder than it looks. It would take a lot of experience to be any good at it!

We finished up around 2:30. Ross kept working on a project, so we took a walk downtown to the market. Vancouver has a beautiful park right in the center of town, with water features, very large trees, a large grass area, and space for the market.

Flashing the bowl to keep it just fluid enough to work on.

Once Ross finished his project (3:30), we went across the street for a beer and some food. We ordered beer, and then found out that both of the restaurants next door (which deliver to the bar) were closed. By this time, we were getting very hungry..... We tried to call a few other places in town but everything seemed to have closed.

Ross made the call that we would drive back to Cascade Locks for supper at the Thunder Island Brewhouse. When we got there it was very busy, but their service was quick and the food was excellent. We sat on a patio overlooking the river - very nice.

We got back to the house at around 8:00, and spent the night on the deck drinking wine and Gin and Tonic, talking about our experience that day, and solving the world's problems until almost midnight.