Husband & wife, Penny and Mike Stevens take turns being working as the “gaffer” in their Salt Lake City Glass Studio.

The gaffer creates the design with chalk on the studio floor. The gaffer also gathers the hot molten glass (2000 degrees Fahrenheit) from the crucible inside the furnace onto a blowpipe.

They use wooden blocks (molds) and a marver (steel plate) to shape, form and cool the glass. The blowpipe is continually returned to the heat of the glory hole to reheat the glass so the gaffer can continue to blow and shape the art.

Once shaped, it is transferred to another pipe called a punty. This allows the gaffer to use a tool called jacks to open the shape into the desired final form. The art is then put into the annealing oven for cooling and tempering.

Each piece is signed by the gaffer, numbered and dated and is a unique individual piece of art glass.