Hittin' the pipe

Because the primary method of creating objects is blowing, there are special pipes that are used for the basis of this creation. I'm not accustomed to blowing through a pipe. When a gnome uses a pipe, they put in the tobacco and lazily puff on it for a few hours.



Here I am with, I think Alex Stisser, getting set up to blow. Mrs. Newsom is helping get my stool adjusted to the proper spot. Mr. Stisser is from Galva, Illinois. His family farms, so we had a great conversation between puffs about farming. He said he has a bachelor of fine arts in Glass and Sculpture. I hope to meet his bachelor friend some day to hear his take on Tacoma.

Oh, Mr. Stisser is what they call a 'gaffer'. He's been working on Glass since 1993. 14 years isn't bad, I have some friends who have been doing carpentry and other wood arts since 1854, so Mr. Stisser is well on his way.



We got me to the correct position, and practiced a few puffs. Without any molten glass on the end. At one point, puckered my lips and made a note, a horrible note, come from the end of the pipe. It startled Mrs. Newsom a bit.

I giggled. The pipe is pretty fun.



Here is another view.



Mr. Stisser took the pipe, inserted it into one of the Glory Holes to collect some molten glass. It's rather hot, between 1,149 and 1,260 degrees Celsius (2,100 and 2, 300 degrees Fahrenheit). He took the position of Gaffer, and helped to spin the pipe and shape it as I blew.

Because of the smallness of the pipe hole, it took a whole bunch of diaphragm support and breath control to get the right amount of air into the glass.

In this picture, Mr. Stisser said some humorous statement about a farming machine called a combine, which left me giggling for a few minutes. We decided that perhaps it would be best to let him finish out the creation.

Until Time,
TacomaGnome