Here in Santa Fe it’s all about the arts. Galleries and museums seem to be on every corner, at least those corners where there isn’t a restaurant or a government building. (Santa Fe is the capital of New Mexico so all it’s administrative functions are housed here, in adobe buildings of course.) Our new friend Kate, a fellow RVer staying next to us here at Santa Fe Skies RV Park, found a participatory art experience in town and we all joined in on the fun.
 |
| Ristra of blown glass chiles at Prairie Dog Glass |
Kate, her husband John, Rick and I piled in our car and headed to Prairie Dog Glass for an active tutorial in glass blowing. The hour long class was $175 for all four of us. Each student gets to select a small glass design as a finished product to take home with them. Prairie Dog Glass doesn’t have a website, but it is located at the Jackalope Market, 2820 Cerrillos Rd. in Santa Fe.
I’m going to try to explain the process and illustrate it with pictures of all four of us working on our glass pieces, so it may seem we were all working simultaneously. In reality, brave Kate went first and completed her piece, then we all followed one at a time. Our teacher Richard walked us through every step along the way.
The process starts by dipping the four foot hollow pipe into an oven filled with white-hot molten glass…
…and pulling a glob of it out on the end of the pipe.
