Fall Samhain Moon
Glory hole. Boil. Jacks. Crimpers. Gathers. Honey rods. Annealer. Diamond shears. 
Taglia. Paddles. Tweezers. If you encounter this unusual constellation of tools and equipment, you’re about to work with glass. Molten glass. Molten as in 4,300 degrees molten. Molten as in droops off the end of the honey rod if you don’t keep rolling, rolling, rolling.
(Frank ready for his first gather.)
You dip a honey rod into an oven, a 4,300 degree oven filled with about 350 pounds of molten, transparent glass. Twist two or three times and get a good gather on the rod. Pull it out, orange, heat blasting back from the oven. Roll it. Roll it. Over to a table that might be an Indian spice sellers tables with small mounds of wares, dip the molten glass in yellow or white or blue, move it back and forth so the color coats the gather.
To the bench. Rolling, this time maybe pull out the tweezers and grab the end of the 
gather, pull it, twist it. Then maybe the shears to make a few cuts. Still rolling. Rolling. Always rolling. Another gather, bigger this time, over the first gather, the one with color. Rolling, rolling. Always. This time layers of newspaper soaked in water. Yes. Newspaper.
(Charlie with newspaper.)
Wet newspaper. Thick, wet newspaper. In your hand, against the heat of the second gather, rolling still rolling, you shape the whole, now headed toward that most mundane, but forgiving of glass shapes, a paperweight. Back in the gloryhole for a heat blast.
Back to the bench. This time the jacks grip the molten glass at the rod’s end, making a line around it, a line that will make breaking the cooling glass off the honey rod possible. “It perforates the glass.” Oh?
(the glory hole)
Whatever it does, sure enough, after gently tapping the gather at the jacks imprinted line, the paper weight falls off. A blow torch comes out, heats the rough edges and makes the bottom molten enough to receive initials. Gotten know which one is yours.
Then they go into the annealer. It gradually steps down the heat so the coefficient of 
expansion doesn’t overtake the masterpiece and shatter it. Ready on Wednesday.
What the Woollies did this Monday night at Minnesota Glass Arts.
(Jen releases her demonstration paperweight from the honeyrod.)