“A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine, except that on a day without sunshine you can still get drunk.” ~ Lee Entrekin quotes

Wine glasses.... are a girl's best friend... oh wait, I think that is daimonds...

I believe they may be equally as hard to create... sure, one takes millions of years, tons of pressure and heat and the other takes your whole life, lost of pressure on yourself and honestly a lot of heat... Pretty similar I would say!

Here are my glasses from Monday:

 And Tuesday:

 Yes, both days I only managed to make two that are worth while... I SAID THEY WERE DIFFICULT!

Here is me making some today... Thank Vegard for the photos... I think he was bored.

 First you blow the bubble as above.

 Then cut in a neck (which will later be the top of the cup).

 Then your assistant gives you a stem bit and you pull it into the fancy shape you want... here it is straight, which may seem simple but it is tricky... "very ticksy my precious" haha!

 Then you put on a foot, punty it and open up the other end! 

 This is one I nearly finished but dropped on the ground instead.  It was standing on it's foot but that exploded and it stayed standing! Like magic!! I was very upset when Vegard accidentally knocked it over later and he told me that maybe it isn't very healthy to be upset about breaking an already broken glass... but it was standing by MAGIC!!!

After lunch I tried to make these gems! That is a cup (blown Italian style which I am not going to explain), a knob, a blown stem (hollow), another knob, then a blown stem!  Easy-peasy!

 Here is the teacher applying the blown stem... nice and straight!

 And here he is opening the glass up in the final steps!

 Here is my first attempt!  Looks pretty good huh!? That is because it is moving and you can't see how crooked it is! But, BUT!!! I made one on my first try!!!

 And here is attempt number two... I have blown the cup, put on the stem and am shaping the foot... 

 Looks good so far right?

Then it cracked! Oh well, such is life... But it was a ton of fun to do something different and hard but still a wineglass!  I think Vegard and I were both refreshed by a new challenge and new techniques to get thin and nice glasses.  I look forward to seeing our glasses tomorrow and blowing some more!