Nothing says Christmas like creating a festive bauble out of molten glass and your own breath, right? You don’t even need impressive lung capacity to get in on the action at London Glassblowing. I am yet to successfully blow up a balloon, but that doesn’t stop me from huffing and puffing my way to a spherical Christmas bauble. I still turn a shade of tomato: the process is melt-the-make-up-off-your-face hot.
The swirly glass orbs start life as jars of sludge-coloured sand. This is heated to a billion (ish) degrees in a furnace, where it becomes brilliantly transparent. With the help of studio manager Bruce, my bauble is carefully blown into being before it’s whacked off a stick and finished with a neat glass hook. The result feels like a real feat of festive achievement, even if the process is unseasonably warm.
London Glassblowing is a Bermondsey Street gallery specialising in artwork made by glassblowing.