As the door to the crucible opens to gather the white-hot 2000º molten glass, it is as if you are within a dragon's fiery gaze. The heat takes your very breath away. The molten glass is gathered on the pipe and the glass is formed, color taken up and melted into the glass. Turning pipe, centering the glass, turning pipe, centering, slowing, turning, turning, turning... Physics is your enemy, time is not your friend. At 1000° , the glass is too cold to work, thermal shocking and the piece blowing up into a thousand pieces always a possibility. Into the fires of the glory hole to be heated so you can create the interior design. Each Glass Caress is unique, like a snowflake, but much more permanent if it survives the process of its' fiery birth. Once the interior design is created, more molten glass is gathered from the crucible whereas the gaffer, the lead glass blower, then crafts the glass with a custom-designed block into Glass Caress' patent-pending shape, forming, turning pipe always, using jacks, turning, pausing, turning, back the other way, pausing, the same basic steps of all glass blowing... but with a difference... Glass Caress has the ability to soothe and relax beyond just aesthetic values. Soothing, sensuous, satisfying. A massage experience like no other. Back to the glory hole to be finished, and then to be "bonked" off from the pipe, upside down, where it is torched to the point a fiery red-hot "Eye of Mordor" appears. The piece's bottom is then paddled to ensure a smooth finish, and then, with the smell of burning wood wafting around you, you place the newly created Glass Caress quickly into the annealer, a "reverse-kiln" if you will, where, for the next 24 hours, it will slowly cool down to room temperature, this slow "curing" process providing greater stability for the glass. Glass Caress are presently brought to you in the Gemstone Collection of Amethyst, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and Gold Topaz.. Continue |