
It’s that Pumpkin time of year! Autumn is officially here and as we see the first leaves begin to turn we put up the sign in front and invite everyone down to the glass pumpkin patch!
We make pumpkins through the summer to be ready for the fall of course. But, after a while we want to stretch our glass blowing legs and do something differently for a minute. And then, of course, shop talk turns to “Why does it blow so thin here?” “How could we get more definition in that there?” and then the brainstorming starts.
Most glass pumpkins get their ridges from molds like this…
The hot bubble is pressed into the ribs of the optic mold and when blown out, these create the ribs of the pumpkin… These molds are a staple tool in glassblowing shops through the ages.
But we had an idea… a hybrid creation… part fin mold, part hinged two-part mold, this would be a 4-part fin mold!
After some sketches, assembly begins…
And then, The Test!

Care must be taken to have the temperature of the bubble just right. If it’s too hot it will just flop to the ground before the mold can be quickly closed around it. If the glass is too cold it will chill further in the mold and then fail to blow out into the molds contours or simply crack inside the mold…

The pumpkin takes a heat. The pumpkin must be warmed back up from the mold in order to have it’s final shape adjusted. Using jacks (a glass blowers most important tool) the gaffer will trace around the connection to blowpipe. We will crack the glass cleanly here to transfer the pumpkin to the punty.
The punty rod is a solid iron, unlike the blowpipe which we can blow through. The little gather of hot glass at the end sticks to the pumpkin and allows us to crack the glass free from the pipe and have access to that hole we blew through.

That twisty stem is made from a drop of glass; colored and pressed quickly into a mold and then stretched and swirled around and trimmed.
Some classic pumpkins and gourds, with some of the new pumpkins in the background. Stop by and visit us at the glass pumpkin patch!