WonderLab sponsors fire-blown glass-making workshop

As 9-year-old Naman Kotian waited for his mom and his sister to finish their own glass beads, he clutched his safety goggles in his hands. He had to wear them “so the fire won’t spark in your eyes or anything.”

Naman, along with several other kids, made his own glass bead with the help of local glass artist Abby Gitlitz and the WonderLab staff.

WonderLab sponsored a workshop called Changing Glass in its February “Forged by Fire” series.

Three local glass artists demonstrated decorative fire-blown glass-making techniques.
WonderLab sponsored the Forged by Fire series to show how creativity in arts and sciences is connected.

Before the kids set to work on their glass beads, Gitlitz used cookie baking metaphors and honey to explain what happened to the glass when the kids fired it.

“When I work with this glass it gets four times hotter than the cookies in your oven,” Gitlitz said.

She then pulled out a jar of honey to demonstrate what happens to glass when it gets hot.

“Glass moves as much as honey when it’s hot,” Gitlitz said, swirling a jar of honey.
The honey was the same consistency as hot glass. A straw in the honey jar mimicked the steel rod the kids used to wrap their hot glass around and make their bead. She pulled the straw out and twirled it to form a bead of honey on the straw.

Gitlitz told the group how to make glass rods colorful by using different chemical additives. Two fat selenium and copper sticks, which looked like giant crayons, are used to turn glass yellow and green.

“It’s like food coloring,” Gitlitz said.

Gitlitz asked her audience to act out what happens to the glass when the kids dropped their beads in water to cool. As kids and their parents stood up to take part, Gitlitz said hot glass expands.

“Get hot, get hot, get hot!” Gitlitz yelled as she and her audience expanded their arms, mimicking hot glass.

“Now, get cool,” Gitlitz said as they pulled their arms into their chests, like shrinking glass in cool water.

Naman explained his bead-making process in detail and took his creation process very seriously.

“Basically, you get one of the sticks, and you have to wave it above the fire,” Naman said. “Then it turns into a ball.”

Naman chose a blue glass stick for his bead. As he waited for his glass bead to cool, he expressed doubts about his creation.

“I think I didn’t really do a good job because she said it might fall off,” Naman said.
Naman said he would probably keep his creation in his room on a special stand and write a caption about how and where he made it.

Downstairs, artists Ross Thackery and Dave Martin demonstrated how to make glass pendants. Martin explained that they use centrifugal force and gravity to create different patterns with the glass.

“It’s basically a bunch of different techniques to get the glass to move,” Martin said.
Martin and Thackery displayed pendants they made during the day. One pendant consisted of clear glass in a teardrop shape with tiny, multicolored swirls.

Martin explained that they shoved colored glass sticks into a clear glass tube and twisted the colored sticks to achieve the swirl effect.

Martin said glass pendants are relatively easy to make.

“It’s something anybody can do,” Martin said. “People off the street just pick it up.”