How to Build a Snowman, Blenko Style

You might have seen the sassy little glass snowmen made by Blenko in stores in your area. Here is how these whimsical pieces of glass are made.

from the Shop Blenko website

1. Start with really, really hot, molten glass.

2. Shape the glass into 2 round balls using a tool called a jack, which looks like a pair of large tweezers.

3. Use the back end of the jack to make a flat place for the hat (at least, that's what tool it looked like he was using, or perhaps it was something else).

4. Add a big dollop of hot glass to the top of the piece. This will be the hat.

4. Shape the hat--all this time the rod is kept constantly rolling back and forth on the rail on which it is resting.

5. then add the nose and the buttons with more hot glass and a pair of shears to cut the hot glass to just the right shape.

 6. And done! One step not pictured is just before this last photo; the snowman was placed in a large tank of some kind, possibly water to cool it?  Occasionally during the process the glassmaker also put the piece into a furnace to heat it again for further working. A quick tap on the rod would break the glass loose from the rod.

Ta-da!

Next post, more pieces being made while we watched.

You can buy Blenko online at Shop Blenko. Go there, browse, and enjoy some of the finest of glass being made in the USA today.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.