How Are Glass Flower Pendants Made?
I remember the first time I went to the Corning Museum of Glass in Ithaca. I was so amazed at all the various exhibits there and the live demos by famous artists. I knew I wanted to make blown glass someday, I just needed to learn how.
I took a few classes, but the best tutorial I’ve ever seen was a video by Jon Kobuki which was filmed during his time at Corning! I highly recommend watching this video as he goes into way more depth than I will here, and there’s always something else to learn from it. I still go back to it years later and see things I missed the first time.
But still, many people want to know how I make glass flower pendants. So I’m going to go over it here.
Basic Lampworking Set up
To begin with, we will need basic tools.
- A kiln, which is similar to a kitchen oven, except that it reaches much higher temperatures. This helps the glass pieces cool slowly instead of cracking.
- You also need a lampworking torch, which combines oxygen and propane at high pressures to power the flame.
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You need basic shaping tools since molten glass is thousands of degrees and can’t be handled with bare hands. I did once see someone catch a molten hot piece of glass and then throw it back on to his work surface. I remember thinking “wow that was foolish”, but he was really impressed with himself!
The Maria
It all starts with a clear rod of glass. First heat up the end of the glass rod until it’s molten hot, and form a round ball of glass. This is called a “gather” and is the basis of all glasswork.
Once you have your gather, you’re going to heat up just the tip, letting the rest of the gather stay cold so it will form a firm base and keep the piece centered.
Press this down onto a solid piece of graphite called a marver very gently. I remember a teacher I used to have who told me about a skilled artist “Watch how he handles the piece. The glass is his friend!” In the same way, be gentle with the glass, don’t use force.
Now you have a disk at the end of the rod of glass, this is called the maria.
The Implosion
Take a thin rod of colored glass, also called a “stringer”, and use it to draw wavy lines on the maria, which will become the petals.
Heat up the maria, heating just the edges until the maria becomes concave. As you do this the wavy lines will start to move up into the maria, growing and stretching the same way a flower grows and stretches up into the sky.
Once again gently push the maria down onto the marvel, being gentle with maria. This will cause the petals to spread out, the harder you push the more they spread.
You can keep going like this, adding more and more and more layers! There are no limits here except the limits of the imagination.
The Punty
Now you need to turn this into something that you can actually use. Use another clear glass rod to pull all the petals to one point by slowing pulling glass off of the center of the maria.
Once they are all connected take another glass rod, called the punty. Punty is Italian for “bridge”, and just like a bridge, the punty creates a bridge between your hand and the piece.
Press the punty into the maria, and then use the flame to cut the maria off the rod it was connected to. Then place the maria back into the flame, heating the place that was connected to the previous rod until it is smooth and round.
Turning Maria into a Flower Pendant
Take another glass rod, heat just the tip, heat a spot on the edge of the maria, and connect the two of them.
Slowly heat that same glass rod and create a circle with it, connecting the other end to the same place. This is the loop the necklace cord will go through.
Grab the loop with one of the shaping tools, and give the punty a gentle tap to disconnect it. Never force anything in glass, everything is gentle and flowing. Like the glass itself.
Place the finished pendant in the kiln, where it can rest from its long journey of traveling from a simple glass rod to a beautiful blown glass flower pendant.
And you’re done! You’re now one step closer to becoming a professional glass artist. Be sure to follow our blog to learn more about our process, or maybe buy a finished product.