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Now that everyone is back from the beach, it’s time to think about sand in a whole different way — as in melting it in a 2,000-degree furnace, dipping a hollow pole into it, twisting it around, blowing into it and hopefully not burning off your clothes in the process.
And you don’t even have to leave Brooklyn to do it. Now entering its 30th year, the Urban Glass works in Fort Greene once again has a full list of fall courses to turn you from someone whose only experience with glass is accidentally breaking them into someone who can actually craft something beautiful with his own two hands (and lips).
I was lucky enough to get a crash course in glassmaking (and, yes, breaking) from the non-profit workshop’s director of education, John West.
We started off slowly, making a couple of paperweights (yeah, a little cheesy, but my 6-year-old will love it) so West could teach me the ground rules.
Rule 1: Don’t poke anyone with a hot punty.
Rule 2: Don’t snicker when someone says “punty.” A punty is the long, sometimes hollow steel rod that glassmakers dip into the big vat of 2,000-degree molten glass before molding, blowing or shaping his or her piece.
After securing a nice big dollop of hot lava, glassmakers walk across the 17,000-square-foot workshop to their personal workspace, where they can roll, blow and reheat their glass in the “glory hole,” a mini-furnace.
That brings us to Rule 3: Do not crack off in the glory hole, which is not nearly as salacious as it sounds.
I’d like to say I’m now blowing glass like Richard Marquis (man, you ever see that guy’s work?!), but I’m not. When I finally worked my way from paperweights to tumblers, I dipped too many times and ended up with a 30-ounce drinking vessel.
But I gotta say, it looks great.
