a peek inside the fishbowl

17 Nov, 2011

Something fun for the blowhard in your life

Posted by andrea tomkins in: - Ottawa for kids|Easy ways to make kids happy|Ottawa

Today’s Ottawa edition of SavvyMom features a few of my favourite Christmas DIY crafty gift-making classes for kids that are off-site (a.k.a. Not At Home).

One of the activities that deserves special mention is glassblowing. (How’s THAT for something totally different?) Glassblowing, like beekeeping and parasailing, was something that had been on my List of Things I Would Like to Try for a long time. And I can finally say I DID IT. My family recently had the opportunity to hang out at Flo Glassblowing here in Ottawa. The place is co-owned by the mother of a good friend of mine, so we had extra special treatment while we were there. I was thrilled, because not only did this mean that I got the inside scoop but was able to try it out too.

No jokes please.

Blowhard

It was science! It was art! It was amazing. Would you LOOK at the kid’s faces? LOOK.

Glassblowing demo

Some notes:

1) This is a safe activity but I hesitate to give an age recommendation because kids are different. The owners have the party thing totally figured out and have taken measures to make it as safe as possible, but we ARE talking about hot molten stuff here… so it might not be the thing to do if you have an overly active toddler who likes to pull the Houdini act and doesn’t want to stay put. This is fun, but also, serious business.

2) It’s hot in there. Wear layers, and I would make sure the one next to your skin is sleeveless. Oy.

See? Hot.

Hot molten stuff! Kewl.

Glassblowing is equally enthralling for both boys and girls:

Bronwyn at Flo Glass

Sarah at Flo Glass

Blow harder!!

More blowing

And here’s the final product! They need to rest in a kiln for awhile, but don’t they look incredible? What a nice keepsake or gift for that special someone. Just think, you’re giving them your own hot air, encapsulated in a pretty glass sphere! :)

The final product!

Please note: all the photos here were taken by Susan McIntyre! Thank you Susan for letting me use these here today! And thank you to the Flo gals who took such great care of us while we were there! :)


8 Responses to "Something fun for the blowhard in your life"

1 | Tammi @ My Organized Chaos

November 17th, 2011 at 2:18 pm

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That is just all kinds of awesome, I’d love to try that one day!

Tammi
My Organized Chaos

2 | Pam

November 17th, 2011 at 2:50 pm

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That is just SO cool! I love how it turned out and I’ll bet everyone was thrilled. Thanks for sharing this!

3 | Chantal

November 17th, 2011 at 3:01 pm

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awesome! i want to try that too!

4 | Mike S

November 18th, 2011 at 9:58 am

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Talk about timing….Flo Glassblowing was just offered on Ottawa Saver at a great price. I missed out on it by a day. We were going to take my nieces for a different kind of outing. Thanks for the great info.

5 | nicolthepickle

November 20th, 2011 at 6:10 pm

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These are beautiful! I think that would be such a special gift.

6 | Sara

November 21st, 2011 at 3:12 pm

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Kids faces are precious:) Makes me want to try this, for sure!

7 | Scatteredmom

November 21st, 2011 at 11:58 pm

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Oh I love that! So awesome. We have something similar here and maybe one day Kev and I will have to drop by and see if we can watch them make things.

8 | A new thing: glass fusion jewellery! >> a peek inside the fishbowl

February 14th, 2013 at 9:57 am

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[…] If you think THAT’S cool, you may be interested in glass-blowing too. We tried that out while ago and it was VERY fun. You can read about that experience right here. […]

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My name is Andrea and I live in the Westboro area of Ottawa with my husband Mark and our dog Piper who is kind of a big deal on Instagram. We also have two human offspring: Emma (24) and Sarah (22). During the day I work as a writer at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. I am a longtime Ottawa blogger and I've occupied this little corner of the WWW since 1999. The Fishbowl is my whiteboard, water cooler, and journal, all rolled into one. I'm passionate about healthy living, arts and culture, travel, great gear, good food, and sharing the best of Ottawa. I also love vegetables, photography, gadgets, and great design.

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