This was the second cup I made, right after the twice green cup. Another student did a technique which I believe is called engobing, where you cover a piece with a layer of colored glass. When you first mash the hot glass on, it looks a little like one of those frowning bad guys that super mario used to jump on. Things were going well, but then when it came time to open the end, I had a mishap as my jackline had closed the air hole. My opening got closed up, and I didn’t know the proper way to open it again, so I ended up making it worse. My fellow student called it an “off axis opportunity.”
Off axis is a technique I haven’t attempted yet, which involves creating a new opening on one side of a piece, attaching a collar of hot glass, then breaking off the original pipe and closing the original hole. It reminds me of when I was doing pottery in Japan, and someone asked what I was making. I said “uekibachi” which is what garden-obsessed apartment dwellers need a lot of. Only everyone laughed. I didn’t understand why, but they explained that “flower pot” is what they called it when you trimmed the bottom of the pot too thin, and it made an unintentional hole. I like the idea of mistakes as opportunities.
This isn’t the world’s prettiest glass, but it will likely still hold drinks or pens or something.
