Glassblowing
A Bench Reference for Furnace Work and Team Choreography: From Gather to Glory Hole
★★★★★4.4 · 5 reviewsby Alumigogo Books
non-fiction
Master furnace work and team choreography with exact temperatures, timings, and team roles. Your bench-side reference for making better glass, together.
🔒Secure checkout via Stripe
✓30-day money-back guarantee — not right for you? Full refund, no questions asked.
About this book
You've got the basics down—you can gather, blow, and shape a piece. But the furnace is a beast, and the hot shop is a dance. This book is your choreographer and your furnace whisperer, all in one. Inside, you'll find the exact batch recipes, furnace temperature profiles, and gather schedules that keep your glass molten and your team in sync. No more guessing, no more 'close enough'—just precise, repeatable procedures that yield consistent, beautiful results.
From the first gather to the final anneal, every chapter is built for the bench. You'll find numbered steps with exact values, settings-by-material tables, and troubleshooting charts for everything from thermal shock to team miscommunication. Learn the unspoken signals that make a two-person gather seamless, the timing that prevents a stuck blowpipe, and the cooling curves that save your piece from cracking. This isn't a coffee-table book; it's a tool, designed to be propped open on a hot bench and splattered with glass.
Whether you're a solo artist expanding into team work or a hobbyist who wants to professionalize your shop, this book gives you the confidence to control the furnace, lead your team, and create work that's more ambitious than you ever thought possible. Your hot shop will never be the same.
Reader Reviews
Jonathan Wright
★★★★★Finally, a glassblowing book that gets the team thing. I've been blowing for three years, and my partner and I always fumbled the pass-off. This book's choreography diagrams and signal system changed everything. We now work together like a well-oiled machine, and our pieces are more consistent than ever. The gather timing tables are worth the price alone. Highly recommend for any serious hobbyist who works with others.
Jessica Hall
★★★★★I'm a solo hobbyist, but I was curious about the team aspect. The book is very detailed on furnace work and team roles, which is great, but I wish it had a bit more on solo techniques. Still, the furnace temperature charts and annealing schedules are spot-on, and I've already improved my reheating technique. The troubleshooting section helped me fix a recurring cracking issue. Good solid reference, just not fully applicable to my solo setup.
Amy Martin
★★★★★This book is a game-changer for our small studio. We're a group of three hobbyists who share a furnace, and the chapter on team choreography is pure gold. The timing diagrams and signal systems are clear and easy to implement. We've had zero collisions since we started using them. The project vase was a fun challenge and turned out beautifully. The exact temperatures and timings are exactly what we needed to stop guessing.
Susan Jackson
★★★★★As someone who's been blowing for a decade but never had formal training, I thought I knew it all. This book proved me wrong. The furnace settings table alone is worth the purchase—I've been running my furnace 50 degrees too high for years, and my glass was way too fluid. The annealing schedules have saved me so many pieces. The team choreography section is brilliant, even for a solo artist like me; understanding the roles helps me plan my workflow better.
Kenneth Hill
★★★★★I bought this hoping for a general glassblowing reference, and while it's detailed on furnace work and team stuff, it's not a comprehensive guide. If you're a complete beginner, this isn't for you. But if you're already comfortable with the basics and want to improve your furnace and team skills, it's a decent resource. The troubleshooting tables are helpful, but I found the team choreography a bit overkill for my solo practice. It's a niche book, but it does what it says.