Cullet Furnace open Sat
A steel rod pushed into the glowing white opening of a glass furnace in a dark workshop.

Glass blown by hand, in an old forge, at 1,100 degrees

Two of us, one furnace and a gallery by the door. On Saturdays the rope comes down a little and you can watch from four metres, or book an hour and blow your own.

Book a furnace hour

Cullet is the broken glass that goes back into the pot. About a third of everything we make started as a piece that didn't work.

Out of the annealer

Everything cools slowly overnight and comes out on Tuesday morning. What's on the shelf is what we made last week; there is no warehouse and no catalogue.

How to buy a piece
A deep blue glass vase with fine vertical ribs on a white surface.

Ribbed vase, cobalt

£85 · 24 cm

Tall vases and cups covered in a speckled pattern of many colours, standing close together.

Speckled cups

£28 each · no two alike

A heap of round glass floats in swirled reds, greens, blues and golds.

Floats

£22 · the ones you make yourself

A glassblower holding a glowing orange gather on a long pipe beside the furnace, tools all around.

Saturdays, the rope comes down

From ten till four the furnace is open to anyone. Stand behind the line, ask whatever you like, and watch a piece go from a lump of honey to a vase. The kettle's on in the gallery.

What happens in eight minutes

Blow your own

You hold the pipe and do the blowing; one of us stands beside you and does the turning until you can. Everything you make is yours, a day later, once it has cooled.

A smiling woman in dark glasses and a heat sleeve turning a glowing piece at the end of a long pipe.

A float

Half an hour, one colour, one round ball to hang in a window. Ages ten and up.

£45

A man in a pale shirt holding a long pipe with a clear speckled bubble of glass on the end.

A tumbler

An hour, two colours, and a glass you'll drink from. The one most people book.

£85

A glassblower in a knitted hat bent over the bench, shaping a hot piece with a tool.

A whole day

Two people, six hours, vases and bowls. For anyone who's done an hour and wants more.

£320 for two

A glassblower turning a gather on a long pipe in front of the orange mouth of a furnace.
Tongs pulling a long red stem out of a blue glass bubble, rubber hoses behind.

Eight minutes at the bench

A small tumbler, start to finish, the way you'd see it from behind the rope.

  1. 0:00

    The gather. Dip the pipe into the furnace and turn it, like honey on a spoon.

  2. 0:40

    Colour. Roll the hot glass through crushed colour on the steel table.

  3. 1:30

    First breath. One short puff into the pipe and a thumb over the end. A bubble appears.

  4. 2:30

    Back in the heat. The glory hole, to soften it again. Every step needs this.

  5. 4:00

    Shape. A wet wooden block, then the jacks, while the pipe never stops turning.

  6. 6:00

    Onto the punty. A second rod on the bottom, the pipe knocked off the top, the rim opened.

  7. 7:30

    The annealer. Into the cooling oven at 480 degrees, and down to room heat overnight.

A gloved hand holding a pipe with a glowing orange bubble of glass on the end. Tall slender vases in clear, green and blue glass on a gallery shelf, red lamps above.

Before you come

What to wear
Cotton, and closed shoes. Nothing synthetic and nothing floaty; the furnace is at arm's length. We lend glasses and a heat sleeve.
Collecting your piece
From 11 the next day, or we post it for £8, wrapped the way we'd want ours wrapped.
Children
From ten, with a grown-up who stays. Under ten, the Saturday rope is the best seat in the house.
If it cracks
About one in twelve do, usually overnight. We tell you, and you come back and make another at no charge.
Buying from the gallery
In person, by phone, or by asking at the rope. We don't sell online; glass looks different in every light and we'd rather you saw it.
Commissions
Lighting and sets of glasses, from about four weeks. We'll make a sample first and charge for it only if you don't go on.