Glass blowers stroll around their workshop in cool street clothing and sandals, with molten glass blobs on the ends of long hollow poles. They use the poles to scoop up raw material through a small door of a brightly glowing furnace that keeps it in a thick liquid form. Then at different stations around the workshop they twirl the poles down their length; blow into the poles to give the blobs shape; place the developing work into a smaller furnace where they continue to spin the poles and keep the material hot and pliable; and stand on small platforms to lower the work into shaping and cooling boxes with the help of their colleagues. The process, with several pieces of glassware being created simultaneously, is not unlike a dance, with each dancer managing his own piece. They all seem to have excellent peripheral vision, each knowing where the others are at all times with their extremely hot molten glass on the ends of their long poles.
The Verrerie de Biot
