Whitehorse, YK

Glass Blowing at Lumen Studios, Whitehorse YK

By Dennis | Published September 18, 2020 | No Comments

When we first entered the Yukon, we were forced to self-isolate because of Covid. Spending two weeks cooped up at an RV camp ground meant two weeks we couldn’t visit Whitehorse. On the other side of our trip to Dawson City before heading back into BC, we decided to do one big outing to see Whitehorse.

We paid a visit to a glass blowing company in Whitehorse called Lumen Studios.

We each got to choose a particular style of artwork, from paper weights, to flowers, to hollow spheres. We were able to create our own with the help of their artists.

They recycle any extra glass that ends up being broken, or otherwise would be thrown out. Most of it is coloured glass of various shades. Everybody assumes the the colour of all of that mixed glass would be some ugly, beer-bottle brown, but its actually blue. That’s why most glass blowing places have an abundance of blue artwork.

The glass is super-hot, so the staff would handle the more dangerous manoeuvres while the kids assisted.

The how glass is shaped by being rolled in a water-soaked mold.

The glass cools rather quickly so you have to keep heating it up with a quick trip in the furnace.

Mark showing Abby how to stretch out the glass.

The staff get you to sit at special stations where the tools are laid out.

Showing Abby how to handle the hot glass.

Little blob of glass cools down quickly and has to be reheated often.

The heated glass is clear, but you can dip it into some smaller coloured pieces to give your artwork some colour.

A little chemistry talk about how the colours work.

Left over glass of various colours are mixed together to produce… blue!

Luann explains how the different colours are produced.

Bags of small colours glass pellets.

Pink is the most expensive colour as it includes either gold or copper.

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