Page 35 of Against Ebony Irish Seas

Kathleen inhaled sharply. “That would be so— I’m reining myself in.”

“Andyouwere teasingme…” Ellie nudged her friend before pointing to the large workspace. “Tell me about your tools. I love sharp, pointy ones. I’ll even show you my glass grinder.”

“Oh, Ellie—” Kathleen groaned.

Sophie only laughed. “Tools are pretty standard. Blowpipes. Punties. Soffietas. Tweezers to pull the hot glass into shapes. Jacks are tweezer-like but have springy handles so you can insert them into the glass you’re blowing and expand its shape. The tag is a square-shaped knife that shapes or sculpts hot glass. Then straight shears and diamond shears to cut the glass. I adore my diamond shears.”

“What’s the difference?” Kathleen asked, walking closer and peering over at them on the table.

“The straight shears leave a long, flat cut mark in the glass.” She picked them up and showed them the flat surface, aware that the tool didn’t yet feel like it was hers. Broken in, so to speak. “The diamond shears are named for the shape, not the material. See. They make a diamond shape when the blades are partially open. They’re used to pull the glass together. I’m probably getting too technical. You both know there are layers of details and reasons for why we do what we do in our art.”

“I’d be happy to blow your mind with the rhyme and reason for stained glass making anytime, Sophie,” Ellie said with a grin. “You’re welcome to any of my classes—”

“Like I said, shameless,” Kathleen said with a grin. “Tell me about the blocks.”

Sophie picked up the 6 block, which was the first block in the row. “They’re used to shape glass into uniform shapes, usually early on in the glassblowing process. They’re made of fruit tree wood like cherry, and they constantly live in buckets of water. Observe all my special water buckets, ladies.”

They made the required oohs and aahs before she continued with a laugh. “Blocks come in different sizes starting at a 6 block through 8, 10, 12, 14 and up. Now for the really technical tool: the newspaper.”

Ellie and Kathleen watched her cross to where she’d dropped her large purse on the worktable. She held up the last copy ofLe Mondeshe’d collected before leaving France. “Wet, this baby becomes a glassblower’s best friend. It gives you the chance to be reasonably close to your hot piece while you’re shaping it.”

“I’ve always found it ironic that my bare hands can never touch the metal I’m welding,” Kathleen said. “I’m shaping it by proxy, and that makes it a little less tactile than stained glass.”

“Yeah, but I have to watch myself every second or I get little scars and cuts.” Ellie pointed to a few. “It’s not like painting or ceramics where you can use your hands dead-on.”

“Exactly!” Sophie paged through the newspaper, beyond psyched to get working again. “Every glassblower I’ve met has their own way of sizing and folding a newspaper. My secret is seven sheets, both because it’s a good thickness and a lucky number.”

“No wonder you and my dad get along,” Ellie said with a fangirl sigh. “You know he called our ranch in Oklahoma the Lucky Seven.”

She shook her head, wondering how his meeting with Malcolm Coveney was going. They would soon find out. “I didn’t actually. How funny. So this thin wad of paper curls into my hand and helps me make the magic, girls. Some glassblowers prefer to use newspapers already broken in, but not me. I suppose I’ll have to get a subscription toThe Irish Timesnext. I like to use a local newspaper.”

“Solidarity.” Kathleen nodded. “Like me using Irish steel. I see that you use safety glasses with a #3 welding glass. Me too.”

“Gotta protect my eyes from the UV and IR that come out of the furnace and glory hole. Plus, I can see more easily into the tank.”

“Glory hole?” Kathleen snorted. “That probably doesn’t mean what my brothers used to joke—”

“Oh, God!” Sophie cringed, well aware of the other reference. “No, it’s the reheating furnace I mentioned earlier that has a temperature of over 1000 degrees Fahrenheit.”

“Can’t imagine anyone being able to perform sex acts of any kind in that heat,” Kathleen said with a snort.

“What?” Ellie asked, confusion on her face.

“Ask Brady.” Kathleen smirked. “Later.”

Sophie bit her lip to keep from smiling. “Moving on… You use the long pipe with the start of your blown glass piece on the end and heat it in the glory hole before—”

“You blow it again, right?” Kathleen’s shoulders were shaking.

“Funny,” Sophie said, batting her eyes. “We glassblowersdolike to blow a lot.”

“Oh, stop,” Ellie said, covering her ears. “Kids on-site.”

“Yeah, you’re such a juvenile,” Kathleen said, coming over and half hugging her friend. “So that last kiln in the corner?”

She turned and looked to where Kathleen was pointing. “It’s the annealer. You put your blown glass in it to cool slowly so it won’t crack, which takes at least twelve hours for standard pieces, but upward of twenty or more with my bigger ones.”

“And this is going to be a pretty big installation,” Ellie said, bouncing on her heels again.

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