Onna Village Glass Blowing

I was able to visit the Onna Village Glass Factory yesterday, and will surely be back with Adam to make something ourselves...probably when the weather cools down, because this factory was HOT!

 

You could see the heat waves coming out of these ovens, which were full of molten hot glass.

 The guy would take a metal rod and put it into the furnace, twist them around a few times until there was a ball of hot glass at the end.  Then he would sit down and with a metal tool, spin the rod and begin to shape the glass, creating grooves and designs.  Then the another guy would come over with a glass ball and they would form the two together.

 Even as the glass visibly cooled off, they could still add more of the hot glass to their creation.

 After he formed it the way he wanted, he picked up his rod and started twisting it around, flipping it and letting the glass pull apart until there was a long string.  Then he twisted the string around and put it on the ground, shaping it until it looked like a flower.  The hot glass cooled in a matter of seconds.

It was pretty awesome to see these Japanese guys working with molten glass, shaping it and creating beautiful designs, seeing the glass harden and form..the way they could manipulate it blew my mind.
And there was a glass shop next door with gorgeous finished products!!