telophase: (Yachiru - happy smiley)
telophase ([personal profile] telophase) wrote2012-12-03 09:16 am

(no subject)

We had a full weekend: on Saturday we did some glassblowing, then dropped by the Container Store, then went and saw Rise of the Guardians. Sunday, we went to the grocery store, came home and made two dishes for lunch, then tried to remember where we put the Christmas lights from last year and looked in ALL THE PLACES, then finally found them, then put them up, then went out and bought more to put up tonight (we are in no danger of competing with our neighbors; we are simply making our display less crappy), then came home and put up a Christmas tree.

Oh yeah, did I mention GLASSBLOWING?

The name is a bit of a misnomer; there was no actualy blowing involved, although we could have chosen to do that instead. There's a glass studio in town, SiNaCa (see what they did there?) and they hold various classes in the art. We took a 2-hour workshop named "glassblowing," but which involved manipulating molten glass with pincers while it was on a long pole, getting color into it, and at the end turning it into a globular paperweight. We can pick them up starting Tuesday, as they have to cool down in their...I've forgotten the name, but it's a large box in which they cool down slowly, because if you leave them out the inside and outside cool at different rates and they crack.

So now we have Christmas presents for our parents, and it doesn't matter how ugly they turn out because they're our parents so they have to say they love them, since their children made them! Muahahahaha!

The instructor offered us the option of doing a bit of blowing instead, and making Christmas ornaments, but the other couple we were taking the workshop with (we don't know them; they just signed up for it at the same time) wanted to do the paperweights a bit more, and we didn't care, so we followed along.

All in all, we enjoyed it, and will have to consider one of the longer workshops they offer, although DEAR GOD not in the summer, as it's an open-air facility and the furnace makes it 20-30°F higher than the ambient temperature.

We did take photos, but they're on Toby's phone and will have to await him taking them off and sending them to me. :D
ext_6284: Estara Swanberg, made by Thao (Default)

[identity profile] estara.livejournal.com 2012-12-03 07:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Would that thing be called a kiln, like what potters have? Or maybe it's an annealing oven? And I have no real clue about the name of the studio, but I assume it has to do with chemical elements that glass is made out of?
Edited 2012-12-03 19:35 (UTC)

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2012-12-03 07:37 pm (UTC)(link)
They might have called it a cooling kiln, but I'm not sure--I think they have another kiln they use for other types of glassmaking. I'm under the impression it's designed to gradually cool down so the interior and exterior cool at the same rate.

And yeah--SiNaCa is silicon, sodium, and calcium, which go into glass.
ext_6284: Estara Swanberg, made by Thao (Default)

[identity profile] estara.livejournal.com 2012-12-04 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Hah, considering I failed my one year of chemistry and was only able to advance by having that grade be raised at the cost of one of my major subjects being lowered I'm quite chuffed I had any clue at all ^^

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2012-12-04 06:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I struggled for a C in my one year of chemistry. Bombed so many tests, I can't believe it. Matched only by my struggle in my one year of Calculus, which it's a miracle I passed at all.