Pulling back her hair as a safety precaution, Chelsea Morrissey, senior in architecture, starts looking over several stainless steel tubes, or irons, heating up. She is getting ready to start her first project of the evening. Picking an iron, she opens the furnace door, revealing the glowing heat inside. She slides the rod into the furnace and while slowly spinning it, pulls the rod up and out, getting her first gather of glass. Morrissey rolls the rod on the marver, a sheet of metal, shaping the glass. She pauses to add color, and after blowing air through the top of the iron, a bubble forms at the bottom of the glass. Morrissey is a member of the Gaffer’s Guild, ISU’s glass blowing club.

Michael Skinner, senior in computer science and a Gaffer’s Guild instructor, looks over her work, offering a few suggestions on how Morrissey could get color to stick to the piece more effectively. He brushes the tip of his fingers over the red-hot glass.

“There was a fleck of something I needed to get off,” Skinner explains. “I usually tell kids not to do that at home.”

Justin Peters, graduate student in materials engineering, and Justin Slater, senior in mechanical engineering, are president and vice president of the club, respectively.

Tonight, they have teamed up to make a project, with Slater doing more of the shaping of the glass and Peters helping out with the furnace and getting the right tools.

“Glass blowing is very much a two-person project,” Slater says.

When first sliding the furnace door open, there is a burning, 1200-degree Celsius orange glow coming from the opening, Slater starts heating up a blowpipe, a hollow iron. He then uses the rod to gather the glass by turning the rod as he pulls it up, gathering a ball of glass that was liquid, but thick enough to stay on the rod.

Slater begins to blow into the tube at one end of the rod, creating a bubble in the ball of glass. He then gathers more glass, explaining that you have to keep going back for more until you are satisfied with the size — similar to the concept of dipping candlesticks.

“It really is kind of fun to blow a glass. You don’t have to be an artist-type person,” Peters says. “A lot of people [in the guild] are engineers.”

The ball of glass is then shaped using a block (a wet, round hollowed out wooden tool), and Slater continues to blow into the glass to create a bigger bubble.

Sitting at the bench, Slater uses the two horizontal bars on either side of him to roll the rod as he works on it, sticking the glass back in the furnace every several minutes to keep it hot.

When the glass has reached the desired size and shape, Peters, who has heated up a punty, uses the heat and a small gather of glass to transfer the glass to the end of the punty.

Jacks are then used to mark the place for the neck of the newly formed vase to be broken off. A little water is drizzled on the mark to cool it. With three well-placed taps on the rod, the piece breaks off exactly where marked, leaving the hot glass attached at the bottom.

With the glass now attached to the punty at the bottom, the glass is reheated in the furnace, and the neck and top of the glass are shaped and smoothed using the jacks.

Lastly, the piece is broken off the last rod and placed into an annealer, an oven which will allow the glass to cool down at a safe speed. If not allowed to cool slowly, usually over approximately 36 hours, the glass will explode at some point, whether in 10 minutes or 10 years, Peters says.

Within the space of 20 minutes, a piece of art is created.

Both men say there is pride in the work they create, and they enjoy the challenge of continuing to learn the trade, as well as the chance to be creative.

“You get to be really creative. There’s a lot of challenges in it. It’s appealing to people who aren’t artists,” Peters says. “I like to see the technique.”

Peters and Slater say they have both made Christmas presents for their families and friends.

“It’s cheap — it just takes time and it means a little bit more,” Slater says.

Although members may make as many pieces as desired throughout the semester, it is expected that for every piece they take home, they will leave one to be sold by the club, so the price of dues can be kept down. The Gaffer’s Guild is involved in the Holiday Art Mart Dec. 3 in the Memorial Union to raise money for the club.

“You don’t take everything home — you leave certain things,” Peters says. “Dues are incredibly cheap for what glass blowing really costs.”

Skinner, who works in the lab several times per week to develop his skills, says he gives most of his projects away either to be sold or to friends and family and reserves the favorites of his work for his mom.

“The biggest challenge is just sitting and staying focused,” Skinner says. “like working with my hands.”

Skinner, who has been with the Gaffer’s Guild for almost three years, says he enjoys teaching classes and being able to do creative work.

“The idea of mixing fire and glass and working with your hands just seemed really neat,” Skinner says. “I teach people how to not set themselves on fire. [Safety is] actually a big issue.”

Despite being careful and taking necessary precautions however, glass blowing is still a very hot process, and Skinner says he gets a “sunburn” from where the skin is exposed to the high temperatures of the furnace.

“I feel like a toasted marshmallow,” Skinner says.