Chris was nice enough to take pictures of the process...
Ashlyn and Landon were up first. They each chose to make blown glass floats. For the floats they chose a color of glass chips that they wanted to incorporate in their float. The person helping them then got the hot glowing ball of glass onto the metal rod and rolled it in the colored glass chips. Then as they turned the rod and shaped the piece into a sphere, Ashlyn and Landon blew air into the glass until it was the right size.
Then it was my turn. I was making a paperweight which was a different process. Hal ended up wanting one too so I got to create two pieces. The oven where they retrieve the glass from is incredibly hot, obviously. You can't stand close to it without feeling the searing heat. 
For my paperweight I had to select a discarded piece of glass in the color and pattern that I liked the best. This piece would have hot liquid glass poured over it, causing it to shatter. The liquid glass would then pick up the shattered pieces of colored glass and cause them to melt as well.
The glass was then returned to the oven while constantly turning the rod to ensure that the glass did not drip off. The glass was almost like honey and would drip off if you didn't turn it quickly enough.
I then collected more of the shattered glass.
Returned to the oven to heat it up...
and then it was time for shaping. I had to do the same cupping technique that was used on the floats to give the glass its round shape.
Then I had to score the glass slowly to ensure that the globe would snap off of the rod in a clean cut.
The completed paperweight…
I love the movement of the colored glass swirling around inside and the pockets of air trapped beside them.
That afternoon we hit the pool again because…well, why not!
More Oregon to come!
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