First Glass Flame working Class

There you have it, my first task in class, melt a cylinder of glass into a sphere. It took an hour and there's a crack inside where I made the glass fold over itself and it is a little lop-sided because it was still warm when I set it down in the mold.

It's tough because you can't shouldn't put your hand or tools in the flame. So you either hot seal or cold seal a stick of glass to one side. Hot seals are where both parts are hot, so the glass mixes and it holds really well, then you use the flame to cut it off when you don't need it. The cold seal is where you heat the stick and stick it on the (cold) piece. It's a weaker bond, but if you do it right it comes off clean and just a little flame polishing gives you a nice finish.

The second project was still hot when I left (class is 4 hours once a week). Another marble, this time with a mushroom inside and some decoration on the outside.  I didn't get to the decoration part, and my mushroom was tiny because of insufficient heating. If it is still there next week I'll try to finish it, otherwise I may start over.

Either way it was fun. I got burned when I grabbed hot glass. I want to do more!