[yapc] Interested in something hot *after* the conference? Come down to Glass Axis!

[drforr at pobox.com]

Glass Axis (http://glassaxis.org) is a glassblowing studio about 1/2 mile
south of the OSU campus.

If we can get 6-8 people together I think I can talk Glass Axis into
running one of their First Experience workshops for us. Everyone in the
group would get to blow their own glass Christmas ornament or make their
own flower. This is offhand glass blowing -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1xb48Y6EdA - by the way, not sitting in
front of a torch. I've been doing this for 7 years and find it's an
incredibly addictive way to play with silicon. You'll take molten glass out
of a 2400-degree furnace, add colors, blow it and shape it, and in 24 hours
you'll have your own handmade Christmas ornament for your tree at home.

I'll call down tomorrow to get details and see if this is possible, but I
don't think there will be a problem with that. My best guess is that we're
looking at $25-$30 per person, extra ornaments $25 each. The best day to do
this probably would be either Monday or Tuesday. The ornaments take about
24 hours to cool down, so that way I can bring them back to campus in a box
and everyone can get theirs before flying out. The best slot would be
6-9pm, and we probably should be there about 15 minutes ahead to go through
the paperwork and safety lecture.

If you want a better idea of what you'd be doing,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPH4kFYdwuY actually goes through some of
the steps in detail. When the glass is just out of the furnace it's at
about 2400 degrees and runs and drips like honey. The best advice I can
give you when you're starting out is to keep it turning and keep it hot.
Gravity wants to pull your nice round bubble out of shape, and the
surrounding air sucks away heat.

If you've gotten to the bottom of this message and still have questions,
either leave them on the wiki or email me directly, I'll try to answer what
I can. Again, at this point I'm just going on what I've seen in other
beginner C-ball (Christmas ornament) classes and how Public Glass
(www.publicglass.org), my shop, runs things.
--
Jeff Goff <drforr at pobox.com>