Wimberley Glassworks - a hot place with a cool demo

A while ago, "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That", an animated television series for kids, used to be a big hit at our house. In one of the episodes titled "Marvelous Marbles", the cat takes the kids to a sandy beach where they are shown how sand is used to make glass. For once, I felt like I could play the role of this know-it-all cat. After all, Wimberley Glassworks, a glass-blowing studio with free demos, was less than an hour's drive from our house. My husband's colleagues had recommended this place to him a long time ago but we had not visited yet. Now that the kids were interested, we should visit. Two years rolled by as we kept thinking and planning !

The plan to visit materialized only with external force or out of town visitors. When someone visits, you keep thinking of cool local places you can take them to. A glass-blowing studio sounded like a "cool" place. In reality, it turned out to be a "hot" place. The high heat required to turn sand into glass keeps the studio heated, making winter the best time to visit this place.




On a Saturday morning in January, we headed to Wimberley Glassworks, driving along huge ranch houses and vineyards through scenic hill country roads. When we reached the studio, we were allowed to walk in and watch the demonstration that was already in progress. We watched in awe as the glass was being shaped and molded into a fine piece of art.

The main furnace operating at 2100 degrees

Shaping the glass piece

Well, that was quite interesting but kids wanted to see more. They wanted to watch a piece being made from start to end. So, we waited for the next demo that started in 15 minutes.

Waiting to see the next demo

Glass-blowing !

Rolling over mineral bits to add color

The artist started off talking about the history of glass-blowing and went on to show us the various tools. His passion for the art was quite evident as he detailed each step during the demo and also answered questions from spectators patiently. Starting from a few grains of sand or silica, he and his assistant went on to create the next piece of beautiful art. The furnace in the studio is kept running 24x7 at 2100 degrees and usually never shut down. It was used to melt the silica which was then shaped by blowing into the stainless steel blow pipes. To add color, the  hot piece was rolled over crushed mineral bits. It was amazing to watch the different minerals transform into vibrant colors. A few other tools were used to further shape and smooth the glass piece. The final result was a beautiful vase. It was gently removed from the pipe and placed into an annealing chamber. This helps to cool down the piece slowly and prevents the glass from cracking.

The final result !

All of us, including my brother and sister-in-law who were visiting us, loved the demo. After that, we browsed the store looking at the exquisite display items in the gallery.

As each piece was uniquely hand-crafted, the prices, as one would expect, were on the higher side. However, the informative and fascinating demos were free of charge. It was not required to buy anything either. Though most of the bigger pieces were expensive, there were a few small things that we would have loved to check out. Maybe, next time!

Store/gallery

Before curious little hands could break any delicate artwork, we quickly exited the store heading to the next "cool" destination to show off to our visitors.

If you are visiting Texas hill country and interested to view a demo or purchase a few of these exquisite hand-crafted pieces, you may check out Wimberley Glassworks website.