glass class

this is a glass making class at the university of montevallo. i kept waiting to get branded by one of these pokers but the students were especially careful and attentive to my clumsiness.

the thing i found most amazing besides the fact that people ten years younger than me were skillfully using 2,000 degree ovens, was that these students worked for about an hour tediously creating their glass bowl... they would shape it and reheat it, dye it and reheat it, over and over again. .. then at the end they would have to separate the rod from the glass. half the time it breaks and half the time its a clean cut. one of the students that day actually did have their glass break at the very end. i thought it was pretty dramatic to put that much work into something knowing that in the very last step it could all be ruined. that's why i love art. people will sacrifice so much and risk coming out empty handed just for the chance at something beautiful. they did have some make it all the way through and they were very much worth it.