I love all creative arts. One place I had been eager to visit ever since I knew of its existence is Peter Greenwood’s Glass Blowing Studio in Riverton, Connecticut. Peter offers workshops for beginners with no experience and I really wanted to give it a try!
My idea was to visit before Christmas and create a glass blown ornament for my tree…how special would that be?! But, after discussing the workshop options with Peter before I made my visit, I decided to create a glass paperweight rather than a glass ornament. Yes, the ornament was an actual glass blowing experience, but if I took the workshop for the paperweight; I could actually make my piece from start to finish. I decided to go for the hands-on experience of forming molten glass and sculpting it into a paperweight – with Peter’s guidance, of course.
I am so glad I did. The process was fascinating.
A friend and I made the trip to the quaint little town of Riverton where Peter’s studio and showroom are located inside a historic stone church built in 1829.
I am sharing some photos from the visit on today’s Friday field trip, but I think the best way to really get a sense of the process is to watch the short video created from phone videos the day of my visit. In hindsight, I probably should have brought a video camera with me, but my friend Wendy was nice enough to take some video of my experience and I am thrilled to have it documented.
Click here for A Video on Creating a Paperweight in Peter Greenwood’s Connecticut Studio.
In some ways, I found creating glass pieces very similar to throwing pots because of the symmetry component, although working in conjunction with a 2,000 degree oven was a little more daunting! I was very much aware of the dangerous temperatures involved and was extremely cautious.
The 2,000 degree oven used to create my glass paperweight at Peter Greenwood’s studio.
The beginnings of my paperweight at Peter Greenwood’s studio in Connecticut.
Glass chips like this are used to create the design in the paperweight…I used blue chips for mine.
When completed, the blue swirl I created in my paperweight glowed orange from the high temperature. Once cooled, the blue color would be apparent. The cooling process is done very slowly or the piece would have exploded due to the quick temperature change!
I hope you enjoyed today’s field trip. Peter is a wonderful teacher and I highly recommend looking him up should you ever want to take a trip to Riverton and experience some of your own glass adventures!
Have a wonderful weekend!
The glass master himself, Peter Greenwood.
Thanks for stopping by! Remember to enjoy pleasure in simple things, Jackie
Sharing with Elizabeth & Co., Nancherrow, and House of Hipsters.