Hand Blown Jar From Start To Finish demo by: Mark Black
Here's a slide show of Mark blowing a small jar. Below you'll find a detailed
step-by-step description of the process!
As you scroll down this page captions pertain to the image below.
Welcome to Glass Paradise. Let's fire up the torch and have some fun! 
As you can see below, a large torch allows me to work with THICK Pyrex tubing.
The process begins by pulling a point.
Pure silver bullion is melted onto a quartz rod.
The silver is placed into a 2000 degree flame...
Silver oxides are fumed onto the surface of the tube.
A borosilicate colored glass rod is melted in the flame.
The color rod is carefully attached.
The molten glass is spun around the tube.
A clear glass rod is used to rake the pattern.
The raked pattern in melted into the surface.
The jar is gathered into a liquid bulb.
It's most difficult to keep the piece centered as the glass becomes fluid...
At this point the heat radiating from the glass becomes very INTENSE!
Blowing out the jar gives it a symmetrical shape.
The base is flattened by pushing down on a graphite pad.
A claw is used to handle the glass while it's hot.
Removing the glass point to open the vessel.
Heating the lip so it becomes liquid again.
Shaping the lip with a carbon rod.
The final inspection.
The technique illustrated above is a contemporary version of a pattern which dates all the way back to ancient Egypt. To modern glass artists it's simply called the "wrap & rake". My fellow glassblowers will find no revolutionary new concepts demonstrated here, nor industry secrets revealed. I'm only sharing some basic info about our process (for our friends who haven't had the opportunity to visit a lampwork studio in person).
I'll never forget the first time I watched glass artists working on the island of Murano near Venice, Italy (I was only ten years old at the time). Little did I know... that a family vacation would ultimately change the course of my life.
Thanks for visiting Glass Paradise Welcome back anytime! ~Mark Black
More demos coming soon...
2008 studio remodel - "The Arsenal"
Thank you! I love playing with fire.
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