Hi! I’m Jim McKelvey with Third Degree Glass Factory in St. Louis. You can check us out
on the web at www.stlglass.com. Today, we’re going to learn about glassblowing for expertvillage.com.
One of the secrets to making really nice glass is making really even gathers. Gathering out
of the tank can be sort of difficult, because the tank is very hot and it’s hard to see
what’s going on. So, if you’re a beginning student, there are some tricks that you can
use to learn how to gather correctly. We’re going to teach you those today. To teach you
those, I’d like you to take a cold blow pipe. This is just a normal blow pipe, but
don’t get one that’s hot. Get one that’s cold, then you’re going to need a just a
regular bucket of water. In this bucket of water, we’re going to practice the moves
that you’ll do in the furnace. We’re going to practice them so that they become automatic,
so that once that furnace door opens, you already know what to do get the glass out
in a safe and even way. There are 7 steps to a perfect gather. I’m going to show you
these right now. The first is to turn the pipe, and you want to have a nice comfortable
position turning the pipe. Typically, when we hold a glass pipe, we’ve got our left
hand forward like this and our right hand back, but when we’re gathering, if that
left hand stays forward it’s going to get burned from the furnace heat. The first step
for a perfect gather is to set the pipe on the sill of the tank and roll it up against
the right side. Now, I’m assuming you’re right-handed, and most studios are right-handed
places, so the door is going to be opening to the left, and you’re going to roll it
to the right side of the tank. To begin with, step 1, set the pipe on the tank and roll
it against that right door, and then get that right hand back. You’re going to get it
back here, and if you forget to do this, the tank is going to remind you because it’s
going to very hot up there. So, you get your hand back, and now, you put the glass into
the tank until you can see the reflection of the pipe on the surface of the glass. Now,
inside a glass tank everything is glowing yellow, so you won’t be able to actually
see the glass, because the glass and the walls of the furnace and the pot that the glass
is in are all going to be exactly the same temperature. So the only way you can tell
where the glass is, is to notice this reflection that the top of the pipe makes with the surface
of the glass. Now, once you see those reflections and the pipe, you want to make the reflection
touch the pipe. At that point, you know you’re touching the glass. Don’t make the mistake
of digging into the glass like a lot of the beginners do. What you want to do is simply
touch those 2 reflections and hold that position. Now, lets take a look at what’s happening
right here. As soon as those reflections touch, I’m really back about an inch on the pipe,
because the pipe is going to come into the tank at a slight angle. So, that’s almost
perfect. Most beginners make the mistake of submerging the pipe under the glass and then
they get glass all the way back up here. Just let them touch and that’s efficient. Once
you’ve touched the reflections, the next thing to do is to make 2 complete revolutions.
Now, in theory, you really only have to go around once, but if you tried to only go around
once you will probably go around less than once, and that won’t be good. So, I teach
people to go around 2 full revolutions and hold the pipe in the same position. So, we’re
going to go 1, 2. Now, you can go more than 2, that’s not a problem, just go at least
2. Then come up to level. You come up so the pipe is level and actually a little bit past
level. What this will do is it will take the strand of glass that has fallen off the end,
and it’ll cause that strand to come back onto the glass that you’re gathering and
that strand will break off. The next step is to move your left hand forward and come
out. You’re almost done, but at this point, you’ve gotten the glass onto the tip of
the pipe but the glass is probably holding onto the back of the pipe. It’s probably
bailing off back here. You want the glass out on the front where you can work it. So,
what we do as a final step of a perfect gather is to hold the pipe down just slightly and
let that glass fall off then end. Those are the 7 steps to a perfect gather.