Design Story: The Horse Ornament

The Horse Ornament is based off of a long history of glass making that is creating animals and figures quickly out of molten glass. There are a few approaches and I certainly did not invent these ornaments but I am making it my own. I remember being shown how to make one of these way back when I was still in undergrad and I loved the back then but little did I know I was going to make them. 

The Design 

Outside the basic corner stones of the features of a horse (head, legs and tail) there is room for specific choices that would make each person's approach different from one another. I decided to embody a more round and comical approach to making the ornaments. I don't pull the legs out very far and I aim to make them look like fat little horses with their heads well combined into the body and the tail is cute and defined. 

The Process

Making the Horse Ornaments is so simple they are difficult to achieve the right proportions and weight. Each one is made by pulling out pieces of glass out of the molten ball to create the lips, then the ears, the mane, the legs and the tail are all pulled out using big tweezers. After the head, legs and tail are pulled out and shaped, the body is inflated to begin shaping the glass from a small dense ball into a light blown ornament.