Watch more Glassblowing for Beginners videos: www.howcast.com/videos/465894-How-to-Handle-Fallen-Molten-Glass-Glassblowing



Hello, my name is Todd Hansen. We're here at the Art of Fire - Contemporary Glass Blowing Studio in Laytonsville, Maryland. We are at www.artoffire.com. I've been a glass blower for about 12 years now. I've got several different lines of glass-work that I work on, and I'll be talking to you about glass blowing. There are gonna be times when you may get a really large gather and it might be too hot, you might lose control of it, but there are times when glass will fall to the floor. We have a concrete studio, our entire studio is covered in concrete. We do have rubber pads that we stand on when we're working, but the best thing to do if glass falls on the floor: just let it go. You're not gonna try and - you're not gonna be able to pick it up, you're not gonna be able to do anything with it. You certainly don't want to put it back on your pipe because now it's contaminated and you don't want that to become part of the body of work. The best thing to do is just to let it trail off, separate it from the pipe as best you can, wait till it cools off and then pick up a set of tweezers or a larger set of pincers and just dump it into a bucket and let it cool. If you can recycle it some way more power to you, but if it's gonna fall, it's gonna fall. Don't try and stop it, don't try and catch it because you're only gonna get burned. Same thing if you drop a pipe. If you feel a pipe - if you're losing balance with a pipe and you don't think you can control it anymore or if you've lost your grip or something's going wrong, let it go. If you grab for it chances are you're gonna grab a hot spot and pipe burn is gonna be just as bad as a glass burn. So don't try it just let it go. Clean up later and just be thankful that nobody got hurt.

1. Introduction to Glassblowing
2. What Tools Do You Need?
3. How to Find a Class
4. How to Find a Job
5. How to Pick a Kit
6. How to Rent a Studio
7. Where Is the Best Glassblowing Museum?
8. How Much Do Glassblowing Artists Make?
9. Is Glassblowing School Necessary?
10. How to Use a Blow Pipe
11. 6 Tips, Tricks & Techniques
12. How to Shape Glass
13. 4 Glory Hole Tips
14. How to Use Puffers & Steam Sticks
15. How to Use Tweezers to Shape Glass
16. How to Use Jacks & Pacioffis
17. How to Use Diamond & Straight Shears
18. How to Get Started
19. History of Glassblowing
20. What is Glass Art?
21. History of Handblown Glass
22. Can Glassblowing Be Done at Home?
23. Glassblowing Safety
24. How Hot Does the Glass Get?
25. How to Pick Supplies
26. How to Dress for Class
27. How to Marver Glass
28. How to Decorate Handblown Glass
29. How to Use Newspaper as Heat Protection
30. How to Handle Hot Handblown Glass
31. How to Handle Fallen Molten Glass
32. How to Color Handblown Glass
33. How to Use Blocks & Paddles
34. How to Blow Glass with Todd Hansen
35. How to Blow Glass with Ed Donovan

Learn about glassblowing from pros Todd Hansen and Ed Donovan in these Howcast videos.