Glassblowing a Freehand Simple Cup

Hello students and welcome back to the Kent State Hot Shop. Today we're going to demo how to make a cup. You're going to need a set of jacks, a set of tweezers, and we're going to introduce a new tool today which is the straight shears. We'll get into that during the demo on how you use it, but just like with the tweezers you want the tips to be just off the bench. So take a good look at how this is set up. This is how it should always be set up. You're also going to need the puffer with the nub. We talked about that in the last demo so make sure if you have any questions about that that you reviewed that video. You're going to need the glory hole to be set up and then you're going to need a blow pipe and a punty rod because we're going to put them together and show you how to use both of them to make the actual cup. So I'm going to start with getting my first gather, taking my time to keep it nice and clean. That tail trails off in the furnace, letting it come into a nice shape before I come out of the furnace and I want that q-tip-y sort of shape and I'm just angling it ever so slightly down so that that glass flows to the tip. This is crucial because if all that glass is up where the moil is going to be, like we've talked about in class, none of that is going to be part of your piece. So if you gather a good amount of glass make sure some of it is flowing to the tip. That way that becomes part of the cup that you're about to blow. And then once this sets up a little bit we're going to go in for another dip. If I let this set up a little bit more I'll be able to gather more glass. If it's super hot and soupy, you guys have probably experienced this already, that it falls off because everything's so hot. So let it set up that way it gives you something to grab a little bit more glass with. Go back in. I want to gather all the way over my first gather and let that trail off. Come straight out and I'm hanging out here at the furnace. I can also start walking over to my bench and I'm air marvering so I'm between being horizontal and turning and dipping down slightly I'm shaping that gather. I can stretch that out at the bench slightly too. And then once my assistant is ready to go I'm going to tell him to go on. So on air, off. We're going to take our time building up that bubble. On, off, on lightly. I have my two-thirds bubble in. I'm going to stretch that just a little bit to show you guys. And notice that it's very blown out up here. That's important to make sure that your walls are thin but you have a little bit extra on the bottom to cushion so then you have a solid stable base. We're going to go in, get that glass in movement. I want to make sure that all the glass is in the glory hole so that moil, what's going to be the moil, is actually inside the doors. We don't want that hanging outside. If that starts to get cold it's going to crack and then you're going to have a lot of other issues to worry about. So keep it warm, keep it happy. And once I get some movement I'm going to hang this down as I walk to the bench just slightly and then when I get to the bench I'm going to do my drop key and that'll give me a way to put my neckline in. Because I have that heavy mass at the bottom it's going to pull that out and I want to let that stretch, stretch, stretch. That way I get a lot of length in my pelt. I'll put my neckline in. I'm going to tell my assistant to go on with air, off, put that neckline back in, on, off, go back in, straighten that up. Air one more time, on. Awesome, thank you. So now I have a nice neckline in there. I have a good solid bubble. The walls are pretty even. I can tell by looking at it that there's a little bit more mass back here. So I'm going to make sure my neckline's nice and straight and then I'll flash this whole thing. Reheat up to that shoulder and then when I come out I'm going to let that stretch out and that's going to form the rest of the pelt. This also keeps our neckline straight and it doesn't let it get so hot that the whole form is moving around all willy-nilly. We want stability. We want to keep things on center. So if we overheat we're going to lose control and like we've talked about when there's those thin walls the heat is going to heat that up faster. So it doesn't take very long to reheat this and before you come out back to the bench I want to stretch that out, hang it down, hang it down, hang it down some more, come back up. I'm going to touch my sides and that's just going to give that wall a little stability and then I'm going to go on that bottom at the back of the jacks at an angle to start that bottom. Next step I want to give this a whole flash and I pretty much have the cup where I want it to be. I'm going to heat up just the bottom that way we can flatten that out. So again the whole thing of flash got all the way back just so I'm going to get the bottom. So when I come out when we go on the bottom you're taking the back of the jacks and pressing into the form so you start at that 45 and work your way flat. Press it down. I'm going to touch the sidewalls real quick give that a little cold chill. Go on the 45 and work our way in. Go back on the sides clean up that edge and when we're doing this we're squeezing the jacks to make that that surface area nice and tight. That way we can have a lot more control on where we're pressing and where we're shaping with those jack blades. So I'm going to take a quick flash and then with the back of the jacks on the very bottom that definitely is going to work be where we put our punty. Punty helps us transfer from the blow pipe to be able to get to this side and address whatever we want to do with that. Just a touch of the sides. Use the back of the jacks to press that in ever so lightly. So this is the basic form of a cup. We have our boil, our neckline, the shoulder, the body of the cup, and our bottom. And we want to put our punty directly in the center and that little dip is going to help us guide where we put that punty. So as I'm taking care of this form by giving it like flashes my partner is going to go make a punty. Go upright with it and shape that punty. I'll grab it with my tweezers, find center, turn, and then I'm guiding the punty rod with my tweezers to make sure it's on center. I'm looking from the punty all the way through the blow pipe. And then once I'm good to go, stop stopping please, I use the pull part of the jacks go over that. I lift up very lightly just enough to be off that rail and I bonk it. If it's a good neckline it should stay. I'll put my blow pipe at the end of the bench and then my assistant will bring the cup to me. Thank you. And now we've transferred over to the punty. That way we can open up our cup. Now my job is to make sure this stays on center so then the lip of the cup stays centered too. We have a little bit of heat in here and we don't want to overheat this or it'll be super super floppy. I'm watching this bottom to make sure it stays on center and nice and flat. Should have a 90 degree angle between the punty rod and I'll give it a nice splash. And I only want to move the top half of that cup to open it up all the way. So I'm only going to keep that up. I go inside the door. Whenever you see that moment of that shoulder you want that inside the hole. And we're doing essentially a reheat so we want a little bit of movement. Flash it every now and then just to keep the punty hot. Again a flash is just a couple seconds. We're reheating. Really letting that heat. I'm watching that hole in the top. I don't want it to melt in so I'm making sure that it stays open and it's big enough for me to get the jacks inside. I'm turning always as I sit down. I get my jack blades inside that hole. Open my jack blades as I'm turning and as I'm lifting up. So we almost got it in that heat. We're going to heat that up one more time and then go on the outside as well to make sure that it meets that wall. We have a slight little divot and that's natural. That happens all the time. If you can get it in one heat that's great. But sometimes you need just one more chance to get in there and you really only have one or two chances to do it anyway. If you have to heat it like five or six more times chances are you're losing that moment of heat. And it's those subtle little differences in the heat that make the biggest difference to keep things nice and clean. So I built that heat back up. I'm going to open it up down this time. Go back on the outside to straighten up that wall. Make sure everything is nice and even. So to get this off of the punty rod I'm going to take a quick flask and hopefully if it's a good punty it'll come off right away. And I'm going to break it off just so then you can see how this should look when it comes off. You guys will be bonking this just like everything else into the annealers. So a punty that's nice and clean should come off just like that. It'll leave a very minor mark if that. Shouldn't be super jagged. If you have a lot of material left on there that's not great. You'll have to cold work that off. And we'll talk about why that's an issue in class. And you also don't want it to heat a big hole or a crater into the bottom of your cup as well. And we'll again talk about that in class. You just want a nice little memory mark of where that punty used to be. That's the essentials of blowing a cup and if you guys have any questions feel free to email me. Have a great day!