YAYA Glass Blowing

This weekend I accomplished something on my bucket list, taking a glass  blowing class!

I signed up for a lesson at YAYA (Young Aspirations Young Artists Inc.). They’re a really great organization that originally started as an after school program in New Orleans for high school students. Its purpose was to help students achieve academically as well as creatively through the different art programs. They also now go into schools in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes where current and previous art students teach workshops.

The class that I signed up for was a 30 minute time slot where I was given hands on instructions on how to make a glass bowl, vase, or pumpkin. I chose to make a small vase, as did Christian. The first step was to choose our colors, which at first reminded me of fishbowl gravel.

Can you see the resemblance? Also, in the top right you can see three example pieces  that we could choose to mimic shape- wise. I went with two shades of blue and white while Christian selected the ‘rainbow’ colors in the far right bin.

Next, we actually started! I spent a lot of time spinning a pole where the melted glass was connected to one one side and transferring it from the table to mold it and back to the fire to help secure the mold. (If that makes sense! These next few paragraphs have my trying to explain some of what we did, but it is by no means something I have a lot of knowledge about.)

Here is a picture of my piece as it was just starting out. We had to transfer a big blob of melted glass onto a pole and after it was in a circular shape, I literally blew it in order to create a bubble in the middle which would create the vase. For some reason I had never actually thought that glass blowing required you to blow. But here pictured is the pole connected to tubing connected to a small whistle- like object that I blew into.

Here Christian is rotating their piece to help keep the round shape and keep it centered. Rolling it back and forth like this kept the glass from slipping into a different shape. Also, it is hard to see here, but their glass kept coming out of the stove in shades of oranges and reds from how hot the glass was! So cool.

After rolling our pieces, we brought them back into the stove to secure the shape, but only for a few seconds at a time. All of the stoves are kept at a mild 2120 degrees!

Following the class we were told that it would take about 15 hours before our pieces were finished to take home. For some reason we had thought we would be able to bring them right home, so we waited (Christian patiently, me not as much) until today to finally see them!

So, taadaaa!

Here are our masterpieces! I love that though we were making the same shape, they turned out so differently. We both agree that Christian’s (on the right) is our favorite, but I also love mine (on the left). On the drive home we stopped at Trader Joe’s to get flowers and properly welcome them into our home.

Here they are in full use! (Fun fact, I put my cardigan on the table to take this photo, with the metal design it was harder to see the swirly designs on the vases.) This was such a fun experience and I really hope to do it again. If you are in the New Orleans area I really recommend taking a class at YAYA’s, it was really fun and simple and it is a great organization that does a lot of work in the community.

 

-Alexis

Oktober Day Off

This Friday I took my first vacation day since starting my new job in July. I’ve been feeling low on moral and energy and thought it would be a nice way to perk myself up– and if definitely helped!

Not wanting to spend my day indoors and without plans (though those days can be wonderful, too), I found a few things happening in New Orleans and spent the day their with Christian.

As touristy as it is, I really love spending time in the French Quarter, so that was first on our list. A few of my co-workers taught me last year that if you park at Harrah’s Casino and spend 30 minutes gambling, your parking becomes “free.” This has become one of my favorite spots to park as a result, I go to a few cheap machines and enjoy some fruity beverages. The most money I end up spending is on tips.

After Harrah’s, we walked over to House of Blue’s New Orleans, a bar and restaurant that I’ve wanted to visit for awhile now. We didn’t want to spend too much time there, but it was really nice talking and listening to music. I also really enjoyed looking at all of the art and decorations– the outdoor bar was voodoo themed (I couldn’t get a good picture of it) and outside there was a hanging chandelier.

After House of Blue’s, we headed across town to Oktoberfest. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but it was pretty fun! One of the things I saw first when coming into the festival was a cheese stand which… looking back I should have passed on, but I was caught up in the moment of beer and cheese.

After drinking a literal liter of beer at Oktoberfest (seriously– look at how big that cup is!), stuffing ourselves with cheese and pizza, and listening to the chicken dance three times (I had no idea that this was an Oktoberfest/German song, but here’s a funny information piece if you’re interested), we headed to our next spot!

One of my friends who lives in New Orleans had invited me to see them perform at Greetings, from Queer Mountain, an LGTBQ+ storytelling venue. This  week was loosely horror themed, though, as the woman in charge said, anything really goes as long as its about 8 minutes long. That night there were five performers who told stories ranging from wedding revenge to Tegan and Sara concerts to sickness to lesbian nail horror stories and so many more.

In college when I was in my second and third year, some fellow queer students created the Queer Creative Collective (QCC), where people were invited to read poetry, sing songs, or do anything else that was creative. They hosted it in their backyards and it was something I looked forward to every month– this really reminded me of that and I’ll definitely be back if I can!

We ended the night back at Harrah’s where we put a few last dollars into the machine, I mostly sat and sipped hot chocolate, and then started the drive back to Baton Rouge. Overall it was a very successful mental health day and one of my favorites that I’ve spent in New Orleans in awhile. Mental health days are so important so hopefully everyone takes care of their mental well being and not just physical!

–Alexis