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Comment by nwatson | Hacker News Reader

For a fun dive into "competitive glass-blowing" take a look at Blown Away, two seasons on Netflix. One of my daughter's favorites.

It's a good look at artists, technicians, creativity, and personalities.

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt9908860/

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I loved Great British Bake-off because it made me want to bake. Blown Away totally failed to raise any interest in glass-blowing, you learn almost nothing about the actual practice. After 3 hours I still have no clue how it is done.

It could be greatly improved by theming based on styles (i.e. making vessels, making sculptures) and discussions around why each pieces/techniques will be challenging. Instead it is literally the same shots of them rolling hot glass and putting fire on things for 15-20 minutes and then they judge it.

That's a shame. It's kind of a fascinating art that I think is very similar to chess, in that you have to be thinking a dozen moves ahead. I took a series of classes that exposed me to the basics, so I understand the tools and techniques that they are using and some of the why, but I still have trouble seeing the end result and explaining the why of any particular step.

I think all of these shows suffer from this same problem. It shows people performing their art in a very superficial way. I would absolutely watch a show where after each episode each of the contestants made a 15 minute YouTube video walking through their video segments explaining what they were doing and why in deep detail.

The one exception to this flaw I remember was a restoration show on History channel. I don't remember the name... some guy named Rick that liked sleeveless shirts working in the desert.

Anyway, for at least the first two seasons it was great: there was a lot of discussion on how to restore a piece, what it originally looked like, where problems might occur, how to find or make replacement parts, etc., and then showing the actual work in detail. My wife and I both thought it was great.

Then it had the fate of all such reality shows about actually making things: not enough drama. So the manufactured drama and "excitement" started and at that point it went downhill rapidly.

I did a glass blowing thing for a corporate off-site in Half Moon Bay. A skilled artisan helps you make a glass pumpkin, takes a few hours, lots of fun.

The experience is kind of on rails, the artisan/instructor will keep you on track so it's pretty hard to mess up, but also make it feel like you're doing the work. Everyone ended up with a nice pumpkin.

Agreed, I had been watching old episodes of Forged in Fire[1] while on the rowing machine (and I have taken a couple of blacksmithing classes, so I had some sense of what the challenges were), but Blown Away was disappointing as it emphasizes the 'art' aspect much more than the 'craft' angle, so pieces are made with lots of techniques, in lots of forms (and little real explanation), so comparing them can't really be done in terms of function, and the aesthetic critiques didn't do much for me. Looks fun, though.

1: https://www.history.com/shows/forged-in-fire

I don't disagree that Blown Away doesn't go into the techniques or that doing so wouldn't have made it a stronger show, but I still would recommend it if someone is interested in blowing glass.

My wife and I got into the show about a month ago, breezed through both seasons, and really enjoyed it. While I'd love to know more about the techniques (and my wife and I have talked about taking classes once things get back to normal), I literally have practically zero reference for how to blow glass, so to get into any techniques the show would really have to get into a Glass 101 type explanations, which I think would have dragged the format that they chose (30min slot, 22m of content) down a bit too much.

The other side is that while the technique is certainly interesting, it very much was an artistic show, not a technique show. There were some pieces that were better artistically that were "judged" to be better than more technically proficient pieces. That's just a choice the show decided to make.

I just finished binging that show! I really liked it but would have wished that each episode were longer. As it stands there was not enough time to really show off the work, especially in the early episodes that had a lot of glass blowers.

I love watching shows like this! The Great Pottery Throw Down was good too on HBO Max. I love watching creative people work. I find they have a lot more freedom to their process than I do. I’d probably logic myself out of 10 ways to do something, but creatives seem to have an easier time of “I’m gonna try it and see what happens.” Even when they don’t get a result they expect, they might find it lovely anyways and just go with it.

"Even when they don’t get a result they expect, they might find it lovely anyways and just go with it."

That happens to me in game design, too ... and other areas of computer art, or just UI.

But yeah, not what you can do while implementing buisness logic.

Same here. You may also like “The Big Flower Fight” on Netflix.

Thanks a lot, I just took a dive into it.

Edit: I really like the art, but not the format of the show.

it's fine, but watch it with the sound off.

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