Playing with Fire at Third Degree Glass Factory

Last week, I found out about Third Degree Glass Factory in St. Louis, a nifty place that opens up their space to the public every third Friday of the month. When I went last Friday, I got to see a fire show and glass-blowing demonstration for the first time.

When this is your first time seeing a fire show (by Fire Tech), you gotta front-row it:

Oooh, fire…

Look, ma!

I’m on fire, baby!

I tried experimenting with long exposure. It’s hard! It was difficult to get the moving performer’s face in focus and I didn’t have a tripod to get those super-long light trails. So this was the best I could do:

Ghosting

That first fire-breathing picture was nothing compared to the final blowout (haha):

Next, I saw a bunch of really cool glass pieces inside the factory. If only I had $990 to spare… Actually though, who buys this stuff? Now I see where the term “starving artist” comes from.

My future house would be so complete if I could line up a bunch of glassware, in rainbow order, just like this.

There sure were some talented artists.

You could even make your own ornaments. I originally wanted to make my own glass piece, but prices started at $25. Um, no thank you. I’ll just look at them for now…#brokecollegestudent

Finally, we headed over to watch the glass-blowing demonstration.

It was really neat; we got to watch this artist create an “experimental” piece from start to finish.

Shaping…something? There were a lot of pieces to assemble.

Start by creating the bowl’s base pieces.

More FIRE!

Plink!

Now I see why it’s called “glass-blowing.”

“Sandwiching” the finished piece…

Done! (It also almost tipped over…lol)

One more thing…

My friends made fun of me for it, but I couldn’t resist getting a photo of the bathroom sinks. Well joke’s on them because just look at these! So cool!

Have you ever seen glass-blowing before?

Thanks for reading!