First shaping of the glass (Photo: Edden Ram)

As a present before she started Sherut Leumi, I took my 18-year-old granddaughter to a glass blowing workshop. And what a wonderful experience that was.

The workshop took place on the second floor of a Crusader fortress in Caesarea. As we waited for its start, we sat in the pleasant lounge of Speculo Glassblowing Studio watching the lapping waves, relaxing with a cold drink in hand.

Sticking a handle to a beer glass (Photo: Yogev Peled)

The workshop was led by Grisha, one of the three partners of the glass studio. After we were shown some of the possibilities of what could be made during the hour that we were there and the multiple colors available, we decided to make a colorful vase. Grisha carefully explained to us the strict security regulations and showed us the three red-hot ovens operating in the studio.

A crackle patterned plate about to go into the cooling oven (Photo: Yogev Peled)

With infinite patience and obvious enthusiasm for his profession, Grisha slowly led us through the process of how to blow through the rod to get the glass to the correct shape, how to securely remove the melted glass from the oven and build the shape that we had chosen, how to add the color that we wanted and how to remove the final product from the rod on which it was placed. All that remained was the wait for the finished product to make its way to us with a messenger after a lengthy cooling down period of approximately two days in the studio.

The workshop is available for all ages from 5 to 95 and is highly recommended for anyone that wants to try their hand at something unusual and have fun while doing it.

https://speculo.life/ or call 053 820 5475