Mrs. Keyfitz's Art Blog

Art Inspiration, Discussion & Appreciation




Dale Chihuly’s Glassblowing This week, the 2nd and 1st graders watched portions of “Chihuly Over Venice” and “Chihuly in the Hot Shop” to learn about the art of glass blowing.  Here are a few things we learned- Glass is just sand heated up to 4000 degrees until it becomes vitriolic. Once the glass comes out of the furnace or glorybox, the artists only have a short amount of time to work it before it becomes to cool to manipulate.  This is why things are so quick-paced! Larger glass projects require the work of a team with different people doing different jobs. Glass must be cooled slowly or else it will break.  Once a glass piece is finished, it goes into a special oven called an annealer that controls the lowering of the temperature to ensure it’s safe cooling. There are two rods used in glass blowing- the blow pipe, which the glass goes onto first to gather enough glass and get the initial form, and the punty rod on which the glass is shaped and finessed.  A Glass Experiment: We learned how glass will break if it’s temperature changes too dramatically too quickly.  Put a glass in the freezer, then pour in hot water; Heat up a glass with hot water, then replace the hot water with ice water.  In both instances, the glass will crack from the radical change!  (NOTE: Have your parents help you with this, as broken glass is dangerous!)

Dale Chihuly’s Glassblowing

This week, the 2nd and 1st graders watched portions of “Chihuly Over Venice” and “Chihuly in the Hot Shop” to learn about the art of glass blowing. 


Here are a few things we learned-

  • Glass is just sand heated up to 4000 degrees until it becomes vitriolic.
  • Once the glass comes out of the furnace or glorybox, the artists only have a short amount of time to work it before it becomes to cool to manipulate.  This is why things are so quick-paced!
  • Larger glass projects require the work of a team with different people doing different jobs.
  • Glass must be cooled slowly or else it will break.  Once a glass piece is finished, it goes into a special oven called an annealer that controls the lowering of the temperature to ensure it’s safe cooling.
  • There are two rods used in glass blowing- the blow pipe, which the glass goes onto first to gather enough glass and get the initial form, and the punty rod on which the glass is shaped and finessed. 

A Glass Experiment:

We learned how glass will break if it’s temperature changes too dramatically too quickly.  Put a glass in the freezer, then pour in hot water; Heat up a glass with hot water, then replace the hot water with ice water.  In both instances, the glass will crack from the radical change! 

(NOTE: Have your parents help you with this, as broken glass is dangerous!)

Notes