Glass Worshops: Hot Glass Induction

First day back to university and straight into my first hot glass induction with Kirsteen. Learning the skills and methods of glass blowing, sculpting, twisting and stretching, as well as the safety regulations for being in the workshop; it has been an extremely enjoyable day. Hot glass is a very interesting substance to work with: you have to be able to work quickly and use both of your hands/ arms simultaneously, something that I feel I was able to pick up quite quickly. I feel that glass blowing is not a technique that will suit my sampling process: I find the results to be too large scale and obscure, unable to control the shape that is being created. I am unsure at this stage how I would be able to adapt the process of glass blowing in order to recreate my small, delicate embellishments.

In reflection of this first session, I feel positive that glass is a material that I will be able to in time feature in my own practice portfolio, through experimentation with different techniques. Returning back from our Christmas break and only having three weeks in glass I understand that there is not a lot of time until our deadline date, however being given this opportunity to learn and ultimately attempt to incorporate a new material into my work is exciting, and something that I shall most definitely be continuing with after our practice deadline and during our unit x project.