Jumping In

This past week I was able to try out our furnace and blow some glass. Our furnace worked great! The glass that I got out of the furnace was really clear and looked really nice.  I was somewhat disappointed at my attempt to make  deer antlers. I ended up making some glass ornaments, but the deer antlers ended up breaking or being burnt. 

My hope was that I would be able to make deer antlers out of glass just using the glass from my furnace and to be able to keep the glass warm just by using a hand torch. The usual method is for glass blowers to reheat the glass in a glory hole while shaping it. Unfortunately the torch wasn't enough, so I will need to build a glory hole. 

A glory hole is a big round crucible type structure that has a burner in it that can run around 2500 degrees F. I can stick the glass back in to reheat it every minute or so while I'm shaping the glass. 

 So this morning the boys and I hand mixed concrete and poured a slab to set our glory hole on. I'm sure that some of you know concrete work is not easy. It was hot and we were sweating and tired, but it was good to work with the boys and to see them learn some basics about cement work.

We got it done and then jumped in the truck and went down to the Savage River. The water was ice cold and just wading in a little made our feet numb. Of course we urged and challenged each other to jump in and of course we all did!

We didn't stay long but it made for a short but exciting adventure and Caleb suggested that we make it a tradition.

Jumping into that cold water really got me thinking, "I really need to get this glass thing going!" 

Having time to be with the boys is such a great gift! Our goal in starting our business is to be able to enjoy moments like these.

And so we'll  continue on. 

Thanks for following us as we take the necessary time and steps to portage around the rougher spots. We are getting there, as well as enjoying the adventure along the way.

And man, was that water cold!