Glass Blowing - creating a pumpkin

For the last while I have been looking to purchase a glass pumpkin.  I wanted something that wasn't your typical orange pumpkin but one that still made you think of fall.  Sadly the only one I saw that I liked was in the window of a store that was closed while we were driving down to Myrtle Beach. I decided to try the internet and while looking on line I saw that the Glass Design studio at Harbour Front was offering a course on glass blowing and they were making pumpkins.

Wow, I thought!  What a great idea.  I can make one or at least try.  I quickly signed up for the course and waited with great anticipation.  I watched video's all week to make sure I knew what to expect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njF_E527mVk

It didn't appear to be that hard and I felt confident that it was something that I would enjoy.  A few years ago I had taken a course at the Panorama Ski Resort where I learned to make glass beads. I really enjoyed that and figured it would be something similar.  I was quite wrong.

Friday night, I couldn't stop thinking about the course.  How many people would be there?  Would I enjoy it?  I hope they aren't really small.  What about colours - will it be one colour?  Needless to say, sleep was a long time coming as the much anticipated class raced in my mind.  I knew it wouldn't be a long class as the email that they sent indicated that it only took about an hour and it was a personal one on one session.  What a great way to learn.

The next morning, Ralph, Jordan and I enjoyed a nice breakfast together.  Ralph had made us French toast. Yummy!  He and Jordan had gone for a run around the block and had a good appetite.  I worked for while in the garden planting some bulbs and then was anxious to get downtown.  Our plan was to see where the Glass Blowing Studio was and then have a quick lunch before it was to take place.  When we got there, I met two young girls (in their mid 20's).  They were really friendly and asked if I was taking the course.  When I had agreed they asked if I wanted to start right away. Awesome!!! I was ready.

With Ralph and Jordan watching outside of the shop I was introduced to the glass blowing concept.  I spied a squat - dark orange pumpkin sitting on the table and my heart sank.  It looked like a paper weight and not what I was expecting at all.  I was assured that this "wasn't" what our end product would look like.

Phew - I was starting to feel better already.  I learned about how the glass is heated and how you roll it onto a long metal rod.  After the rod is pulled from the oven it is cooled down with water so that you can grasp it further along the end for moving around.  I learned the importance of continuously rolling the glass to keep the shape or it would fall off in a blob.  The base glass that we used was clear (almost like picture glass).  Once we got it good and hot and in a nice oval shape around the rod, we rolled it into some darker orange flakes of glass.  We then returned the rod to the furnace to melt the glass into the clear glass and then back again and rolled it into the dark orange.  We did this step 3 times.  Then we introduced a 2nd colour which was a paler orange (almost an orange/yellow).  By this point in time I had the hang of how quickly to roll and only needed to do this step once.

The next step was the get the shape.  We spent some time rolling it back and forth until we were satisfied that it was ready. At this point with the help of a pair a large tweezers, we pulled the glass every which way to add character to the colours. This mixed the dark orange and yellows together and added some subtle streaks throughout the pumpkin.  I started a little timidly as I was worried I would pull the glass off the rod.  I was assured that this wouldn't happen.  Once we were satisfied with the mix, it was time to blow a bubble of air into the rod This is very softly blown and then you hold your thumb over the hole on the back of the rod.  While continuously rolling the rod, you patiently wait to see the air bubble appear in the the glass.  It's pretty amazing to see this.  Once the bubble appeared it was time to heat it up again.  This time we added more clear glass to the pumpkin and started to reshape the glass back into the correct shape. This was done by rolling the glass in the palm of your hand with a wad of water soaked newspaper print.  A  little intimidating.  No squeezing... just gently let the glass form as you are rolling.

Once we were satisfied with the shape - we heated it up again and brought it to a rudimentary mold which would add the ridges down the pumpkin.  It was in this mold where the first amount of air was added to help form the pumpkin.  It was pretty cool.  During the entire time I was working - I had no idea what colour it will turn out like. 

Once the initial shape was made with the ridges, we heated up the glass again and proceeded to roll and blow in air.  This is a slow gentle process with very light puff's of air - lighter than blowing a bubble with bubble gum.  I decided to make my pumpkin more oblong as I like this shape.  Once we were satisfied with the shape we heated it up again one last time and then "cracked" the top off and added the stem.  I chose a dark green colour for the stem.  This step went really fast and before Ralph could get a picture it was placed in another kiln where it would slowly cool down.  This is a required step or the glass would shatter.

Ralph picked up the pumpkin today after work.  I am quite pleased with my first attempt.

Chasing the leaves

This weekend Ralph and I went for a drive in the country with the intention of photographing some of the beautiful fall colors.  We couldn't believe how cold it was.  Car's were driving by us with snow on them.  It sure seems early to be seeing snow.  The tree's are really beautiful right now and the leaves are falling like crazy. 

We really enjoyed our time exploring.  Fall is definitely here to stay.  Winter will be along shortly.

 

 

The end is near

Sadly today we packed up our bags and have headed back home.  We finished  our visit to Myrtle Beach with a nice breakfast at the Sea Captains House, bought a coffee at Starbucks and pointed the
truck north to drive home. 

We were saddened to see all the flooding as we drove home.  One golf course (Aberdeen) was completed flooded as were many homes in the area.  It is so sad to see all the damage done by the rains and hurricane.

We  stopped in Morgantown, West Virginia  and will be back on the road again tomorrow morning.  It is the  end of a very nice vacation. 

Muggy and Buggy

Today is our last "full day" here at Myrtle Beach.  We had two rounds of golf booked since one of  was cancelled earlier in the week.  We're playing Sandpiper Bay in the morning and The Thistle in the afternoon.

It was warm when we woke up.  We all commented on the temperature and removed our sweaters very quickly.  It was really muggy and the mosquito's were out in full force. We were the first to tee off and completed our round fairly quickly.  We drove to The Thistle right away with the plan to ask if we could tee off sooner.  The forecast was calling for rain later in the afternoon.  The Pro Shop was very accommodating and we were able to tee off at 1:00 p.m.  What a beautiful course and very "lady friendly".  We were all really enjoying ourselves until the "thunder and lightening" came.  This was around 2:30.  I was very nervous about being on the course with the lightening around us and it seemed pretty close. I guess my nerves were good for me as I hit the ball so far and nicely onto the green to enable me to have a birdie (so exciting).  Everyone agreed that it wasn't safe,  so we quickly finished the hole and headed back in to the clubhouse.  By the time we got there, the rain was pouring down!  I went inside and talked to the people at the Pro Shop and they were really nice.  Since we had already played 7 holes they were only required to provide us with a 9 hole rain check that can be used the next time we are back in the Myrtle Beach.  Because of the fact that our original round was scheduled for this past Monday and then again this Saturday, they felt bad that we weren't able to get the game completed.  As a result they gave us a full 18 hole rain check.  That was so nice.

We drove back to the condo in pouring rain.  We made a few stops along the way to pick up some last minute shopping.  TaylorMade at the Outlet Store had a great deal on golf balls with buy one get one at 50% off so you could get 24 balls for $15.00  We picked up a couple of packages for "next year". 

We ate dinner at the condo and enjoyed Flounder with the left over Nassi and cauliflower.  The fish was amazing and so fresh.  We're starting to pack up now and play to leave tomorrow morning. 

A heron sitting by the green

The storm is rolling in

A turtle making his way across the fairway

It was so weird the way that the mushrooms were growing. They were circling the "sand bunker".

Day 5 - Heritage Club

Yesterday we played at Heritage Golf Club.  We tee'd off at 7:30 as the 2nd cart in the group.  It was a very slow round.  It took us 5.5 hours to complete.  We thought we'd fly through but sadly did not.
They are a really busy course and send groups out every 8 minutes.  So we found ourselves waiting on every tee box. The reason for this is because they include breakfast and lunch in the cost of the round.  It's a beautiful course, but not one that I would golf at again because I prefer to have some space between groups.  I don't play well when I wait all the time.

The course itself was wet and suffered from flooding when the tide rose.  Bridges started to get covered with water.  They were worried about what might happen yesterday, but it seemed to be ok.

Later in the day we went for a nice swim in ocean. The water temperature was really beautiful.

In the evening we enjoyed a nice dinner at the Wicked Tuna.  We watched them bring in a fresh catch of fish right to the restaurant.  This is what they do daily.  I doesn't get any fresher than that!

 

True Blue singing the blue's

This morning we were up early to get to the course by 7:30.  We were scheduled to golf at True Blue at 7:57.  It seemed odd when we got there as there were no attendants or carts by the bag drop. When we went into the Pro Shop we were told that the course was closed.  We were surprised that no one had told us.  The course offered to schedule us at Caledonia in the afternoon so we were able to still get a round of golf in.  There is still so much water here with more expected.  In the afternoon they told us that 3 dams had given away in Horry County and they were expecting the Waccamaw river to overflow it's banks causing more flooding.  There is a good chance that more golf courses will be closed again tomorrow.

We started our round at close to 1:00 p.m.  It was a beautiful afternoon.  The pace of play was pretty slow but that was ok as we relaxed and enjoyed ourselves.

Afterward we went to this amazing "Grill Cheese and Crab Cake" restaurant.  It was so good.

No roll Wednesday

We were up early this morning as our first round of golf was scheduled for 7:30 this morning.  We were the first carts going out on the Wachesaw East course.  They warned us that the course might be wet.  They weren't kidding.  By the end of the 2nd hole my feet were soaked.  You couldn't avoid the water as it was everywhere.

We enjoyed our first round but definitely needed to do a wash after our game was finished. We had mud on our clothes, shoes and faces.  It wasn't a pretty site but we still had fun.  The ground was so soft that  Ralph and Lawrence said that they were sinking into the ground as they were getting ready to hit their balls.  It really is hard to describe how wet the courses really are.

Our 2nd round was at The International Club which was in the same area.  We were able to tee off by 1:15 and finished our round just before 6:00.  We raced back to the condo for the Wednesday night golf party.  No winners in our group this year.

I have lost two of my game balls today. Teresa also has lost two.  Lawrence still has two of his three balls and Ralph still has all three.  Ralph is currently leading in the scoring race.  We still have a chance as this game lasts all week.  I can still collect 4 points per game so I haven't given up yet.

It was a fun day, but I will admit to being tired.  36 holes is a lot of golfing.  We walked over 22000 steps today.  Cart path rules prevail everywhere as they attempt to dry out the courses.