Mixed Murrine Foglio on the Pipe

This is what was on tap for today in the hot shop.  This is a highly-patterned bubble of glass on the blowpipe just before I take the first of two or three 'gathers;' dipping it into a huge crucible of molten clear glass and encasing these colors.  Scale is probably tough with this photo but the bubble is probably 9" long and 5" wide with really dense and intricate patterning.  While it's all very colorful, when the colors in the glass are very dense at this point so they mostly read as black or white with some orange which is really just the glass glowing from the heat.  Colors in glass also aren't true while the glass is very hot--most need to cool down overnight before the true colors are revealed. 

Blowing this piece is actually just about the last step in its creation.  You can see photos of the different stages of making a piece in the In the Studio section to better understand the process and what goes into each work.  After making this piece on a Friday afternoon, it will cool down over 20 hours.  So my first chance to see it again is when I open the kiln on Monday morning, although sometimes I can't help myself and swing by the studio on Sunday to see how everything turned out.  It's always really good fun and rewarding to see how the design I spent so much time considering and planning actually turned out in the finished work.  Opening the kiln always feels a bit like unwrapping presents--ones you worked really hard to earn.