My 1st ever glass creation!

It's heeeeeeere! Ok, well actually it was here last week but I struggled with getting any decent pictures of the paperweight. It's very smooth, very reflective, and the colors are pretty translucent so I'll warn you right now, the pictures aren't the greatest.

I came home for lunch each day last week hoping it would arrive. On Thursday I got to the driveway and I could see the box sitting on the porch (I almost skipped to the house I was so excited).

But was a little scared when I saw this

But thankfully the glass was packed really well, inside this box was packing material, then another box. Inside that box were the two glass pieces each in their own box and more packing material.

This is the ornament my sister made.

I love how she got that strong swirl all the way around.

Here is my paperweight

Like I said the pictures aren't the best, but I tried to shoot it from a few angles and with different lighting so the colors would show.

I love the colors, and I'm happy with the amount of bubbles (I tried not to get too many in there).

It's such a funny thing to make an object with your hands but have no idea what it's going to look like until it's sent to you.

I can't believe I actually made this- I've always wanted to work with glass and although I didn't do any of the hard parts (I got the fun easy tasks) I'm happy to have been in a working studio, near the equipment and to have manipulated the molten glass.

After this experience I have to confess that I'm smitten with the idea of getting some actual instruction in glassblowing. I think it'll be a while before I take a class or anything (at least a year or more) because it's hard to find a place that teaches it (less than a few hours away, that is) and it's pretty expensive (at least from what I've seen so far).

I'm feeling a little bit like I might need to make a decision between getting a spinning wheel and learning to work with glass. Each is an investment in both time and money. And I'm just not sure I could realistically do both.

If you missed my first post on glassblowing be sure to check it out.