Spring Break in Florida

We enjoyed a week at Grandma and Grandad's in Central Florida.
We got to to see some wildlife while we were there.

We spent some time kayaking with this guy in the bayou off Tampa Bay

AAAAAH!!!

Glass Making

Here is the final product on the top shelf of our study. 

Jen recently took a lesson in glass making.  She got to make a simple objet d'art.

She starts off with a small glob of molten glass to serve as the core and glue for the rest of the project.

She adds bits of colored glass which will be turned into swirls.

Back into the furnace to melt them together

Then some more shaping to press the colored glass into the project.

Then more molten glass on top of that.

Now time to make all the swirls

Keep swirling

This is an idea of what it will look like.  It is still very hot at this point.  Remember there was never any orange in this project, that is just the glow of the super hot glass.

David put it back in for another dip of clear glass.

More shaping of the next layer

Now pulling it into its final shape

Add a big twist at the end

Torch to smooth off the tip and melt away the tool markings

And it's ready to break off the rod.  It'll have to cool slowly over night, so we haven't really seen the final product yet.