Glass Blowing

Have you ever been fascinated by images of a maestro glass blower thrusting a blow pipe Into the glowing, molten mass of rock hard chunks of glass, heated to incredible temperatures, so that the solid material becomes a fluid, running liquid. Swirling the pipe around to wrap the honey-like liquid around the end. Angling the pipe to bring out the 'gather', turning all the time to ensure gravity doesn't get it's greedy paws on the molten glass. Rolling the glass around and around on a metal ‘marver’ table, dipping back in to gather more glass, and repeating until you have enough glass, in the right place and the right shape to start blowing glass. Just like on the Netflix series Blown Away.

That sounds easy, right? In theory. If there's two things life teaches us -' it's not as easy as the experts make it look', and 'everything gets better with practice'. This definitely is true for glass blowing. Having a calm and knowledgeable teacher helps too!!

Where to Learn

If would you like to learn how to blow glass, glass blowing studios across New Zealand offer a variety of workshops: from making your own paperweights, or blown glass pumpkins, beginner’s weekend glass blowing workshop experiences, to full time study of Hot Shop and kiln-based glass. There are plenty of windows into the world of glass blowing in NZ. 

The following hot glass studios have glass blowing workshops available:

      Amokura Glass, Rotorua

      Grinter Glass, Whangarei

Monmouth Glass, Auckland

      NZ Glassworks, Whanganui

And if you are bitten by the glass blowing bug, there are opportunities to keep learning, such as through UCOL in Whanganui. Historically, (internationally) glass blowing has been male dominated, not so in New Zealand. NZ has had a strong group of female glass blowers who have honed their skills through avenues like UCOL, while others have studied internationally, returning to NZ to continue to develop their blown glass skills.