Life on the Rails: Intermediate Glassblowing Techniques: Volume 1

I am happy to announce the newest glassblowing technique book for hotshop soft glass called Life on the Rails. Over 250 pages contains more than 800 colored process illustrations of glassblowing instruction accompanied by detailed explanations of invisible forces like heat, gravity, and pressure. Some contents include: cleaning the studio, gathering, starter bubbles, maintaining a centered bubble, loading into the annealer, the jackline, flattening the bottom, the transfer, trimming, opening the lip, color applications, torches, and much more! This information leads up to the creation of the basic shapes: sphere, cylinder, cone, inverse cone, bottle, bowl, and plate. Most importantly, troubleshooting portions are scattered throughout the pages. Full page charcoal illustrations depict fifteen teachers, artists, and friends who played a pivotal role in my glass education and journey. I see this book as a new teaching tool to build a foundation for technical skills that will inspire individual artistic thought and design. The information caters to students who have taken a beginning glassblowing class. It’s for someone who is acquainted with the studio, equipment, and tools and who is starting to develop hand manipulation skills. I hope this book will benefit both the current and next generation of education in furnace glassblowing.