Jacking

Whenever we get our UT Informal Classes catalogs in the mail, I usually only glance through it before it goes into recycling. But during the summer, I noticed that they offered an Offhand Glassblowing class that sounded intriguing. I always love to watch glassblowing demonstration and this sounded like a lot of fun. Jfer encouraged me to sign up an Meredith O was also interested in taking it, so I registered for it in August.

Last Sunday was our first meeting with Aaron Gross of Austin Art Glass. After a brief safety overview and explanation of the tools (most of which have a suggestive name), we went right to working with glass! During the first couple of classes Aaron did most of the hot work—gathering glass, blowing and reheating in the glory hole (kid you not!) while we did the papering, blocking and jacking at the work bench. All of which was very exciting and ton of fun and every student ended up with a more or less snazzy glass tumbler and glass bowl.