Glass

When I was a girl, one of my favorite parts of vacation was stopping at a factory en route to Grandma's house and taking a tour. So when I saw that a fellow homeschooler had organized a tour of a local artisan glass studio, I signed up in a snap.

This morning the kids were not enthusiastic about going. But once inside the glass works -- oh, my! Is there anything cooler than watching molten glass come out of a 2000-degree furnace? 

We got to visit the torch area, to see how they draw glass out as thin as angel hair, and how beads are made. We visited the flat shop, where they make stained glass and 'slump' sheets of glass into vases. Then we went to the main part of the glassworking studio, where there were two furnaces, seven glory holes, and a pile of annealers. Two guys made a blue vase in front of us, to which they attached a clear glass fish.

Snuggler now knows what she is going to be when she grows up. But she'll have to wait a few years before she embarks on her career as a glassblower. Classes start at age 12. I wanna go!