Glassblowers Shaping Molten Glass

A stone-walled workshop centers on a brick furnace where firelight glows against the shadows. A bearded man in a blue shirt turns a long blowpipe tipped with a glowing orange bulb of molten glass, while across from him a young woman in a green apron shapes a second glob at an iron-plated bench. Shelves climb from floor to ceiling, crowded with finished pieces: cobalt vases, striped tumblers, painted bowls and speckled bottles in dozens of colors. Tongs, forks and pincers hang near the furnace, and broken shards scatter the stone floor beside a barrel of raw glass. A second craftsman bends over a rear table, and beyond the open door a cobbled lane leads toward timbered houses under open sky. Each crowded shelf keeps its own cluster of color, as if already sorted into separate pieces.