Watch more Glassblowing for Beginners videos: www.howcast.com/videos/465896-How-to-Use-Blocks-and-Paddles-Glassblowing



Hello my name’s Todd Hansen, we’re here at the Art of Fire Contemporary Glass Blowing Studio in Laytonsville, Maryland. We're at www.artoffire.com. I’ve been a glassblower for about twelve years now, I’ve got several different lines of glasswork that I work on and I’ll be talking to you about glassblowing. Blocks and paddles that we use are made from cherry wood and they are cut while the wood is green and that’s why the blocks are kept in water because the green wood will remain water logged as long as you keep it wet. We keep those in our buckets of water behind the bench and that way we have easy access to them when we’re sitting working with the glass. What you want to do, the best way I’ve heard it described is take that block and sort of cradle it like you would a baby’s head you just want to let the glass rest and roll easily in the block without forcing or pushing, you don’t want to push the glass back on the pipe, you don’t want the let the glass just sort of sag into the block either so keep the glass turning, bring the block up underneath while you’re turning and then just give it a nice easy roll up and down the bench maybe two or three times and that should give you a nice parison shape once you get that done you can take the glass on a cap. Paddle is the same way, you want to keep the paddle wet but when you’re ready to flatten the bottom, come in not at a ninety degree angle but give yourself a little bit of an angle to sort of snow plow the bottom initially. What that’ll do is push and center the bottom in one direction. Once you’ve got that sort of a point formed on the glass, go a rotate your paddle around flat, or bring it to ninety degrees and just a firm push on some hot glass should give a nice bottom form for your piece then you’re ready to put in the dimple and that’ll prepare the glass for the putty and then you’re ready for the transfer.

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.