Blowing Pittsburgh Glass Center Away

We finished up our week long trip exploring glass and ceramics at the Pittsburgh Glass Center. There we were able to watch skilled artisans make glass art and blow our own glass art creations. This was a great culmination to our trip as we go to create glass ornaments in any color combination we chose.

Mural on the outside of the Glass Center

There were many colors of frit that could be chosen for our ornaments

Kelly provides the blowing power for Bekka's ornament.

Glass artists adhere a new glob of molten glass to hone the bottom of the ornament

A speckled ornament that is being blown

A new piece of glass is pulled into a handle to hang the ornament

In addition to the glass blowing studio, there is also an art gallery with various models and glass creations. The above piece shows how detailed and lifelike pieces can be designed. The inspiration for the show were models of cells and other microscopic organisms that glass artists created before powerful microscopes were readily available to scientists.

Questions:
1. You see Kelly and Bekka blow an orb or glass ball ornament above. How do you believe the art piece above was created?
2. Why would glass models be useful to scientists?