We’re suckers for unique date experiences, especially when we get to create something together (like making macarons at the Macaron Bar!).
So when a family member gifted us a private hot glass lesson at GRT Hot Glass Studios in Indianapolis, we knew it’d be a date we’d never forget!
We’ll share all the details here, so you can plan your next hot date 🔥🔥
During the private, two-hour lesson, our awesome instructor – also named Emily – showed us the ropes. She made it easy for us newbies with no experience to have a fun (and safe) time creating our pieces.
We got to choose three designs from the following options:
- Flowers
- Ornaments
- Birds
- Paperweights
- Pumpkins
- Hearts
- Bubble bowls
- Mushrooms
What we didn’t realize is that we would each get to make three pieces! We chose to make ornaments, birds and flowers, and we got to customize them with whatever colors we wanted.
Our favorite part was gathering the molten glass from the 2,100-degree furnace and rolling it out like dough.
For the birds and the flowers, we did a lot of rolling and manipulating with various tools. You can see Mike holding one of those tools in the photo below. It was like a large, wet ice cream scoop, used to help mold the glass into an egg shape for the bird’s body.
Another tool we used was a pair of large tweezers to create the tail and beak of the birds (watch in the video below!) as well as to pull out the flower petals.
For our final lesson, we got to learn how to make blown glass ornaments, which is harder than it looks! To create them, we gathered molten glass on the end of a hollow metal pipe. On the other end of the pipe was a tube with a mouthpiece. While our instructor rolled and molded the glass, we blew on the mouthpiece at the other end with just the right amount of pressure – not too hard, not too light.
Mike, of course, blew his ornament perfectly on the first try. Me, on the other hand… I blew the glass too hard at first, then not hard enough. I ended up with a smaller ornament, but I love it just the same ❤️
Take a look at our final creations below and visit grthotglassstudios.com to book your next date!
