We packed up early and caught the 8:30 ferry to town to meet at Granville Island, where we explored:
- the Crystal Ark, with its polished rock room, petrified wood, and countless amazing minerals
- the great playground and waterpark (even dry, it's still fun to run around in!!)
- New-Small & Sterling Glass Studio demonstration (WOW!!)
- Granville Island Broom Company broom-making demonstration
- awesome lunch with guitarist outside the market
- ...exploring!! After which, some of us went skating at Robson Square, too. :-)
We love our community, and we love the ability to gather for such wonderful, beautiful adventures!!!
Herewith, photos:
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| The sand mixture is heated to a glass in the kiln, and is pulled out on the end of a blowing pipe. |
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| He had Tali take a pinch (with pliers!) of the molten glass, and then pulled it all the way to the back of the room, hooked it over a kiln and brought it back again, leaving an extremely long thin trail of glass, which then hardened. |
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| Then he passed around a piece of thin glass for the children to feel. |
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| He got another blob of glass and gave Sorcha a try at blowing a glass bubble. It was so thin it looked like a soap bubble! |
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| Then he demonstrated his own technique for making a goblet. He rolled a blob of clear glass in some coloured glass pieces... |
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| ...then blew a small bubble and shaped it ... |
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| ...and blew and shaped it a few more times... |
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| ...until it began to look more like a goblet. |
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| Then he melted the bottom a little, attached that to another rod, and cut the goblet from the blowing pipe, leaving a nice edge, which he smoothed and shaped. |
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| Ta da! This goblet then went into an extremely hot kiln, where it would "cool" until the next day, so as not to become too brittle. |
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| Next up (and next door): Broom making! The wet broom-corn was tied onto the stick using this very strong cord and a foot-controlled wheel, to keep it taut. This broom was a "quidditch broom" destined for a Harry Potter display in an American Museum. Traditional broom-making is a rare art, these days, and they are working with antique machinery. |
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| After been attached to the stick, woven, and tied off, the brooms (or at least those that are destined to be flat) are put in this vise and sewn flat. |
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| Those leather straps she's wearing on her hands have a steel plate on the palm which she used to push the giant needle through the broom. |
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| Then, those brooms destined to be blunt-ended (like most house-brooms) are trimmed in this guillotine-style machine. |
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| Broom! This one has a hockey stick handle. :-) |
