From a molten blob of glass to a meticulously crafted masterpiece, the works of art at Wheatonarts round into shape a little bit at a time.
A day after working to create some of the world's largest Christmas ornaments, Deborah Czeresko and her team have their sights set a little smaller, but no matter the size of the piece, it's a process that requires patience and teamwork.
"I'm learning more and more that it's incredibly important to communicate nonverbally. That only comes over time," said Czeresko.
"Once the bubble is the desired width, we'll let it cool down a little bit and then basically wrap the pattern around this bubble. So if all the math is correct then it's nice and even," explained Czeresko's 1st assistant Skitch Manion.
It's a 25-pound piece of glass on the end of the blowpipe, and on top of that these artists fight gravity and ccentripetalfforce which could throw off their desired pattern.
"It's really dangerous. It's very hot and dangerous. It takes years to get to the point where you can make something that looks good," explained Czeresko.
And even longer without a good team to help you.
"There are very few people who do it alone, but if you wanna make something really big like we are, it's really really hard, almost impossible to do it this good if you're by yourself," said Joshua Raiffi, Czeresko's 2nd assistant.
