Paperweight Making at J. Draper Glass

Mom treated Laura and I to a little adventure at J. Draper Glass this weekend. She signed us up for the St. Valentine Workshop where we each got to make a heart shaped paperweight.

Here's a quick video of Laura rolling the molten hot clear glass into the colored glass, and then returning it to the heat, so the colored glass would melt.

After heating up the glass, we used the gigantic tweezers to pull and mix the glass which had the consistency of a slightly melty taffy. Two hands were needed to manipulate the molten glass.

There was quite a bit of heating the glass. It's a step that has to be done in between each step you manipulate the glass. The key is to keep the metal bar rotating and level, so it heats evenly and you don't lose the glob.

After this step, our teachers shaped the glass into globe, using a hollowed out piece of wood that stays soaking in water. The globe gets heated up again and then squashed and shaped into the heart (the teacher adds the cleavage by notching at the top of the globe).

In order to elongate the base of the heart, it gets heated up again and then you get to swing it around like a pendulum. Now that it looks like a heart, it's time to release it from the metal bar with a swift knock, and then blow torch the jagged edges.

I think it's safe to say our instructors were having as much fun as we were having.

Here's Mom's finished heart which included reds, oranges and mix of blues.

Laura went with an asymmetric blue heart with a hit of yellow and some cool bubbles.

I made a more traditional shaped heart with blue and white swirly twirlies.

Whether you're interested in taking a fun class we did or just looking for a cool piece of art, I suggest stopping by J. Draper's Studio.