Vic Bamforth Glass blowing...

Blimey, it’s cold this morning…

I didn't have my thermometer on me, but it was so cold that it took me twenty five minutes to scrape the ice off the windows of my little car, and then 10 minutess to scrape the ice off the inside!

Today, I’m in the Stourbridge Glassblowing Studios. To see Vic Bamforth blowing some glass, he is already in the ‘hot shop’ preparing for today.

Cup of tea in hand, seat on one of the chairs from the back of the studio, I set myself up, while Vic was taking the student through the different operations that they would be going through during the course of the morning.

Some of the tools had a bit of a cleaning session yesterday, and Vic was going through the preparation of the Jacks to get them back up to working condition, so they were warmed in front of the glory hole until they were up to temperature, then beeswax was rubbed onto the ends of the tool, any excess would drip away.

They were going to make some Somerso, these were to try out some new colours,
the first one of the day, Fuscia.

Heating the end of the blowing iron Vic is always aware that the help today is one of the students, and careful to keep an eye on where the student is at all times. 

So, the iron goes in the furnace to get it hot enough to pick the glass up out of another furnace, the top loader. The glass was heated in the glory hole to get it up to temperature, some shaping done, in and out of the furnace a few times, on the bench and then a blow, with a hand over the blowing end to control the bubble.

The blowing iron gets rolled back and forth on the bench to keep the glass centered  then letting it cool a little to gather some clear glass.

Vic and the student have a good working relationship and get on well, Vic shapes the hot glass with the block and then some paper (soaked in water). The student is asked to blow into the pipe to get a bubble, and then rolled on the bench, allowed to cool a little, and then more clear glass is added, then more shaping.

Vic stands and allows the iron to swing a bit, this is to let gravity stretch the glass piece, and then back on the bench to roll the piece to keep it centered.

More use of the paper, that without seeming to look for the top-up bottle, Vic just picks up, and pours more water into the damp, but hot paper. 

He gets the student to hold a board between the glass and his hand to protect from the heat. With Vic’s shoulder tugging a bit, the glass goes back into the glory hole again. This time when it’s on the bench he introduces some cork to shape the glass, now it’s really starting to look like one of Vic’s pieces, and now he pushes some more shape into the glass to create some dents.

Back in the glory hole again...

When it’s on the bench again, the student is told to put his hand over the blowing end, more shape, back in the glory hole, then  to the bench, then onto the glory hole again.  More shape, glory hole, this happens a number of times.

Flash in the glory hole one last time then a bit more shaping and cooling ready to put the Punty on. Once the Punty (Pontile) is centred and placed on, then Vic scores and taps the bar to brake off the blowing iron  that was used in the first part of the process.  There’s a lot of movement around the shop to get the jobs done in a quick time, time is off the essence here, as if the glass cools too quick then it will crack….

Vic takes the piece to the bench at the back of the studio and cracks off the Punty bar. This allows the piece to fall onto some cloth on the bench. The student then puts the blowing bar away while Vic puts on some very large safety gloves to pick up the piece.

The student then opens the door to the annealing oven for Vic to place the glowing piece on one of the shelves, they have good communication going on, and the student is doing well with what he is being asked to do, he does take his actions very seriously and knows what has to be done but from time to time does require Vic to reassure what he is doing.

As I write this they are on their second piece, and Vic is doing well with the situation, the heat is exhausting and for a fit young person this would be hard work, but for Vic, recovering from surgery on his shoulder and a student, there’s a lot that could go wrong, so his patience is tried, but he does cope well with it.

Now I've watched Vic glass blowing, one of the four of the Stourbridge Glassblowing Studios ‘boys’, the others all have their own style of blowing and there are four different types of finished work on display and for sale.

For me, it’s a lovely position to be in, watching art being created before your eyes, it’s a very quick process really, some smaller items can be done in a few minutes, and these guys get the luxury of a beautiful high gloss finish on the end result…

All the best

Jamie