I'm sacrificing my next Saturday morning (one of my two precious weekly sleep-in days, mind you) to take a little half-hour drive down to Racine, WI. One of the few things that could lure me out into the cold and snow early on an weekend morning is a class. And I'm taking a great one — glassblowing. This isn't my first time working with glass: I've taken a number of lamp-working classes, and I have a small kiln in my home studio for fusing and slumping. But glassblowing is another beast entirely, and one I've wanted to explore for quite some time.

During our first class last Saturday, the other 4 students and myself toured around the Hot Glass Shop, learning about all the equipment and terminology from our enthusiastic instructors Amanda and Doug. We then each took our turns creating paperweights — each one just a round, clear solid blob with decorative bubbles inside.

After I put the finishing touches on mine and popped it into the annealing kiln, I realized I was beaming. It seemed almost silly to be that proud of such a simple creation. But what I was mostly excited about was that this little beginner-level paperweight was such a challenge to me. While I wasn't terrible at it, this was obviously not going to come as easily to me as many other techniques have.  

If you've ever tried it, you'll know that in glassblowing there are an awful lot of different variables and actions that you need to keep track of at once. And the realization that I'd need to really work on all these factors until they (hopefully) become second nature was invigorating.  If you hadn't guessed, when it comes to learning new techniques I enjoy a good, healthy uphill battle.

So we'll see how my first actual blown hollow vessel attempts come out this Saturday. If the results are halfway decent I'll try to take a photo or two to share. Wish me luck!

I'm curious though, what sort of student are you? Do you like a challenge from the start, or would you prefer a quick accomplishment for a positive first experience?  Or if you're an instructor, how do you approach teaching a new technique to students...any tricks or tips?