The Making of a Cat

This is the Glory Hole, at a working temperature of about 2300°	I use a metal punti to gather molten glass from the furnace which sits at about 2000°	This is the first gather of glass
I roll it on a marver to make it smooth	I put a piece of topaz glass, which has been heated in the annealer to about 900°, on the end of the punti	I heat it in the glory hole
Glowing glass	Again on the marver to make it smooth	I go back into the furnace for a second gather of glass
Now I roll it back and forth at the bench	I use a wooden block, soaked in water, to round the glass	Back in for a 3rd gather of glass
This is the 3rd gather fresh out of the furnace	Back to the bench	This time I use a bigger block
I blow a bubble in the glass	Compare to the pictures above to see how the bubble has elongated the glass	I blow more to increase the size of the bubble
Close up of the bubble	Dumb Dog (it's not hot!)	I use big metal tweezer-like jacks to score the glass
I use the jacks to pull out the ears	Another angle	I lengthen one ear
Then the other	Back to the glory hole	I use a second punti to add the tail
Carefully	Kinda like blistering hot taffy	I snip the glass off
Back into the glory hole one last time	I drip cold water onto the jack-line to prepare for separation from the punti	I hit the punti with the jacks to crack off the piece onto heat resistant padding, called frax
I pick it up with fire-resistant gloves and set it into the annealer	Here it is sitting in the 900° annealer	After the annealer is full, it cools the glass down to room temperature over about 2 days
Here he is awaiting his face	Masked and ready for sandblasting	Finished cat