Today’s post comes from Ryan Doolittle, one of our glassblowers currently onboard Celebrity Solstice based in Barcelona.
Buongiorno from the CMOG Hot Glass Show on the luxurious Celebrity Solstice, the first cruise ship ever to have an electric hot shop! Currently we are docked in Civitavecchia, the port for Rome, and tomorrow we will be on our way to yet another fabulous city in the Mediterranean. This is my first time in Europe and I have been floating on cloud nine for the past month or so. I don’t expect the euphoria will lessen one bit the rest of my 3 month contract since every day brings another adventure in places that until now I’ve only read about in my history books.
A vase inspired by Roman columns
To top it off I get to blow glass with an amazing team of glassblowers (Tom Ryder and Bob Swidergal) every day for several hours! Our goal is to first and foremost entertain our audience with whatever inspiration has recently struck us while educating them on the glassblowing process so that they never look at glass the same way again. For example, this past cruise I went to Athens to see the Acropolis and countless other ruins. When I left I had columns on my brain and after I took a ship nap (which are standard occurrences out here) and dreamt about how I would incorporate Doric columns in a glass vessel, I made it happen in that night’s show. This was the absolute perfect way to end an epic day.
I also found the perfect purple kitty purse in the Acropolis’s Placa neighborhood, which absolutely had to be recreated in glass form the next show. Can you say high hilarity? It only got better when Bob gave me a mystery box during last night’s show. I opened it with a bit of trepidation since I thought a party snake might pop out at me. Inside was the matching purple kitty coin purse! I screamed a little (on the microphone) with excitement and told everyone the history of my love of purple and cats and how the two together are the best combination ever. Bob got a big old hug, even though he was right in the middle of making a beautiful vase.
Purple kitty purse and glass replica