Girlie glass on the high seas

A fond hello to everyone as I have happily returned to my ship home away from home on the Celebrity Solstice! After several trips on the ship it has become a seamless transition getting used to living and blowing glass on a floating city that takes you to beautiful locales around the world.

In the past my glassblowing team of three has always consisted of one or two boys and me. I know that when there is a team of all males they often get asked if females blow glass at all. For the very first time I find myself paired with two other female glassblowers and it has been absolute girl power dynamite. By sheer coincidence my first cruise began a couple days before Valentine’s Day and we embraced it with an explosion of girlie glass the likes of which I’ve never seen or experienced before. We created hearts with arrows, a cupcake goblet, flower vases, and to top it off a unicorn/pegasus sitting on a pink cotton candy cloud with a rainbow behind it.

Let me take you back and explain the creative inspiration for this gallantly gaudy unicorn piece that brings back fond memories of my delightfully tacky trapper-keepers from long ago. Every cruise we have an entertainment meeting with our Cruise Director, musicians, production cast, singers, AV operators, and activities staff. On the Celebrity Equinox the Hot Glass Show team made a very special piece of glass sculpture called the “Starfeesh” that would be handed off each cruise to a new person to recognize their exemplary performance or random act of kindness. The Starfeesh winner then gets to enjoy the glass sculpture for a cruise until they award it to the next deserving individual. Our wonderful Cruise Director, Stuart, thought it would be amazing to start this somewhat cheesy but beloved tradition on the Solstice, but with a new glass sculpture that he titled the Unicorn of Unity. This reminds me of our Captain who tells the passengers that our 1300 crewmembers come from 70 different countries and through all of our cultural differences manage to unite and work together in harmony. He then recommends that the UN should come and see how it’s done.

My team leader, the wonderful Helen Tegeler who I dub the glass sculptor extraordinaire, took this idea and ran a glass circle around it. During the last Hot Glass Show of the cruise we crafted this hilarious piece and the audience was coaxed into sharing our contagious giggles and high spirits. Of course us girls simply had to come up to our stage on a formal night and have an impromptu photo shoot with our beloved Unicorn of Unity before gifting it to our fellow entertainers. We promised everyone that to counteract the extreme girlie glass fest we would make a manly monster truck next cruise.

Until next time,

Ryan