UW Stevens Point
Us juniors and the seniors are in our last few years of high school so we have to start thinking about what we want to do in the future. A good way to explore our possibilities and understand what really interests us is to visit different colleges and find out what they offer. December 2015, we were taken to the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point, a college that is around 3 hours away from Milwaukee that offers many undergraduate programs, both in majors and minors. We went there to know a little more about the school, its tuition, and to explore the campus, but before that, we visited the area of fine arts and communication. Within that, was their glass workshop where we were able to watch some of the alumni manipulate different forms of glass.
Geometric FiguresOne of the students focused on creating geometric figures out of thin, tube-like pieces of glass. He used a small flame to gently combine the pieces and to create shapes afterwards. He did this to have good craftsmanship as well. For him, it was a longer process because he had to make sure that the shapes were aligned, so it took more concentration.
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Organic FiguresAnother student created miniature figures, specifically tiny animals out of different colored glass. He used long and thin, tube-like colored pieces of glass to make the little figures. He'd grab two at a time, and use a high flame to blend the colors together. It took him around 20 minutes to create one figure. The first one he did was a little alligator.
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Glass Blowing ProcessWe also witnessed the glass blowing process. To start out, they placed a steel blow pipe into the furnace, in which clear glass is melted. They gathered a layer of molten glass on the end of this pipe and the then released a puff on the end of the blow pipe to create a bubble. The instructor later grabbed it and had to be rest the pipe on a plate, but constantly kept turning it. That bubble was shaped and eventually turned into a glass vase.
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