Glass Blowing Cousin Adventure

We met up with the cousins at a glass blowing studio in The Dalles, OR yesterday morning. The kids had an appointment to make handblown glass christmas ornaments together! VERY COOL!

 Aunt Marcy helped them choose a design & color from one of the examples.

 "Ladies first"....so the boys watched the process as the girls explored the art of glass making.

 Rolling hot melted glass into colored glass pieces.....for the desired effect that Em chose.

 Maddy learning to blow into the rod...

 Lots of heating, shaping, re-heating, shaping....

 Then rolling it again into another color for her design pattern-SNOW!

 Maddy dips hers in red glass to start-she chose a red ornament with white Snow Angel on it.

BLOW HARD Emma!

Rounding it out in a wet wooden spoon....

see the snow effect starting to take place!!!!

Maddy is getting her snow angel made....

It cooled down after being hosed off and it turned BLUE!

Bryce was fascinated.

 Add a glass loop to the top for hanging and VIOLA!

 Beautiful job Emma. She was SOOOOOOO excited! She talked about it all night & all morning. She can't wait to tell her friends & teacher all about it come Monday morning.

Maddy asked for a teardrop shape, so here it is being pulled into just that!

Then it was finally the BOYS turn!

Choosing colors....

and getting hot melted glass!

 Learning how to blow the air into the glass

Since Doug was the oldest, he even got to use the blow torch!

Melting the strip of red glass 

 to add a candy cane stripe to bryces ornament...

Curiosity killed the cat....what happens if I blow into my EAR instead of the wand?

Douglas' finished ornament-ready for the kiln.

Admiring different projects in the gallery-and appreciating their uniqueness now that they've made one themselves & can understand the process more.

Bryce's completed Ornament. He LOVES it! Of course he wants to hold it and carry it everywhere he goes now....sad for him-Mom put the kybosh on that. ;)

 They even etched the kids names & year into them! What a great day of memories for these 4! So fun.