More Able Trips

Our trip to Barleylands Craft Village

We arrived at Barleylands Craft Village	We watched the different processes used to make a beautiful paperweight	First the hot molten glass is brought out of the furnace, stuck on the end of a long tube
The tube is made of metal and is very hot, so the craftsman puts water on it to cool it down so he can get close enough to work on the glass	The craftsman wore a very thick glove and used damp newspaper to mould the hot glass. He rolled the tube and rubbed the glass into shape	He added the colour and rolled some more. When he was happy with the shape he carefully made a groove at the top. With a gentle tap the paperweight was finished
The apprentice helped tidy everything away, sweep up and helped to clean the tools ready to be used next time	We couldn’t wait to take the challenge of recording the skills and processes we had seen. We remembered different details, so we shared our work and helped each other	We saw the workroom where the paperweights were labelled, boxed and ready for collection by the people who had ordered them
From molten glass to a beautiful paperweight!