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Kitengela
Hot Glass use the antique and venerated art of glassblowing to create
their wares. With a long blowing pipe, the glassblower gathers a
gob of molten 1100 degrees centigrade recycled window or bottle
glass from the 400kg in the furnace. Using a piece of moistened
newspaper, wooden and metal tools, the glass blower
shapes, cuts and twists the molten mass into the shape he desires.
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he will add colours to the piece, or a stem to make a goblet. Frequent
reheating takes place because the window glass cools very rapidly,
necessitating the swift
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movements of the glassblower as he creates his object. Once the
base is complete, he transfers the object to the 'punty', a rod
of steel with a small gob of glass on the end - this allows |
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the glass blower to work on the top of the object. He could open in
a smooth curve for a classic vase, or finally spin the piece on the
punty using centrifugal force to pull the whole object open into a |
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plate.
Once the object is finished, it is cracked off the punty, and placed
in the annealing oven for gradual cooling. The furnace is powered
by steam injected used oil - a system designed and invented by Mikko
Merikallio (FIN) and takes into account the fact that there are
no municipal utilities like electricity, water or gas in the bush.
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