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By now, it's obvious to anyone who has read any of my journals that I'm a ceramic and glass freak. However, at this place in the Old Town part of San Diego, we actually got to watch how it's done, and it's an incredibly labor intensive act.

As you first enter the gallery, you are bombarded with a smorgasboard of blown glass pieces, the cutest of which were fish in a standing position (or swimming..whatever they do, when they are upright). Vases to the max, lamplights, dishes, and straight ahead, the kiln! You can see from the pictures that the main man is working quickly, and sweating tons at the same time. As a piece of trivia, at one time in Venice (famous for its Venetian blown glass), artisans kept the technique extremely secret and no one was allowed to witness the process for fear of rivalry.

There are some basic materials with which the artisans work, and they have to do in concert to keep the glass malleable and hot enough so that it can be shaped, and reshaped. First there is this long blowhose which is roughly six feet in length to which there is a mouthpiece at one end, and a swivel at the other end where the glass is taking shape. The swivel allows the work in progress to rotate as it is being blown (by man # 2 on the other end)to give it form. The big guy in the picture is the one that gets to move the glass to the kiln and rotate it, takes it out and dips it in water presumably, then wipes it down with a wet cloth, all the while rotating, as man # 2 starts blowing into the hose. We could actually see the glass object get more oblong at one point, but this process seemed endless. Protective lenses have to be worn so as to enable man # 1 to be able to see the glass in the fire, as he's rotating it.

There was an audience of six or seven people, and on the counter, they have a very cute puppy in a basket who loves to be caressed. So you can let your fingers do the walking while you watch.

I walked away first because, frankly, I was tired just watching the relentless blowing, rotating, from fire to water back to fire. Closest to the action is a table of seconds or slightly damaged pieces which are offered at discounts. There is hardly any empty wall or shelf space, but the art work is so lovely, and after witnessing the labor that goes into it, one can appreciate that the prices are really excellent. A wonderful learning experience for an addict like myself.