Peering through the bars of the metal grate entrance along the sidewalk, we saw workers running back and forth. Most of them were holding long metal poles, often with a molten, glowing end. Our guide invited us just inside the metalwork gate. We squished in between bags of silica and two artisans forming glasses seated on benches.
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| Specialized bench for rolling glass blowing pipes |
The craftsmen were up and down working non-stop. An employee would bring over a long metal pole with a red hot ball of glass on the end. They'd hand it off to the seated worker who would start by blowing into the open end to expand the glass. Then, he'd sit at his bench and start rolling the pole back and forth with his left hand. His right hand was busy sculpting the glass using various metal tools. The bench was special. It had longer than normal arms which were plated with metal on top. At the front end of each arm, there was a peg to keep the metal tube from rolling off.
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| Blowing glass into mold |
In a minute, the artisan was on his feet again. The craftsman would blow some more air into the metal rod, step up on a small platform and plunge the glass end into a two piece metal mold. Swinging the mold shut with his foot, he'd give one more blow. Then, he'd toe the mold open and return to his bench. Another employee would be ready with red hot glass glowing at the end of a metal pole. The artisan would guide this hot glass onto the stem of the wine glass. Unused remnants fell with the end of the second pole to a foot square piece of sheet metal waiting on the floor. The craftsman formed this newly attached glass into the base of the wine glass.
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| Adding glass for base |
When finished, the craftsman handed the entire pole with wine glass to a waiting worker, who moved to another station to remove the piece from the pole before handing it off to another worker, who stacked it in a waiting kiln. The entire process took two minutes. As soon as an artisan handed off a finished wine glass, there was a worker handing him another metal pipe with a blob of glass waiting to be formed.
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| Forming base |
At first glance, the entire workshop looked like chaos with workers running all over the place, swinging around glass blowing pipes with red hot glass on the ends of them. Yet, it was a highly coordinated team of people who knew exactly what they were doing. We saw no accidents. Even though we, the tourists, pushed every possible space limit, the artisans knew exactly how much space they and their metal pipes needed to get around us.
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| Mass chaos to the untrained eye |
The safety equipment was minimal -- I think I saw two gloves and two arm guards total. No one worn any type of mask to protect from the silica dust. The foreman let us venture further into the bowels of the shop among the burning kilns. We formed tight knit groups of six plus our guide. Walking single file, we'd huddle together wherever the foreman said was safe. Workers raced around us with metal poles of glass, forming glass jars, loading kilns. We simply tried to stay out of their way. It was certainly the only time that no one had any questions for our guides.
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| Forming glass jars |
Tours of Tonala will return during summer vacation. For more information, please visit Tonala Tur's facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TonalaTur
For more information on the glass shop: http://www.elnuevotriangulodecristal.com/
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