Q: What does a typical Honey production day look like at Hot Haus?

A typical Honey sesh looks like this: Cut the colour the night before so it is ready to launch in on the day.

We usually have our assistant turn up an hour early to turn everything on for us. We need to turn the glory on first as that takes the longest to heat up, usually an hour, unload the annealer with the previous days work and turn that on. The annealer sits around 515 degrees and it allows the work to come down gradually.

We then launch that colour into our little Tetlow kiln that we use for a colour pick up box, sweep up, set the tool benches and make our paper pads for the sesh.

Go and get the mould and refresh the water then most likely, put the coffee on…

By now myself and Laurel have rolled in and we are ready to go. A typical session runs with one person picking up the colour, heating and popping a bubble in.

This bubble then gets a dip of clear from the furnace and inflated further. After it cools a little it is ready to hand off to the “gaffer” (whoever happens to be in the drivers seat that day) and they take the final dip of clear glass and start to blow the form up.

I usually take this role and I will heat and blow, I’ll add in a jack line, this is where the work breaks off from, then I will take a good heat and drop it into the mould. My assistant is opening and closing the mould for me while I am blowing into it. From here the shape is set, I’ll take a final heat then I am ready to break it off the pipe and put it away into the annealer to cool down over night.

While all this was happening the first assistant has been picking the colour up and repeating the first steps so it is ready to go into my hands again.

Amanda described the process as a dance. “Everyone knows the steps, and when everything is working in rhythm, it's a beautiful thing to watch.”

— Amanda Dziedzic, Hot Haus

We aim to work a 3-4hour shift then break for lunch. I prefer the morning sessions myself, everything feels a little easier when its cooler.

Q: Are there any particular challenges or interesting techniques involved in producing the Honey forms?

The thing about the Honeys is, there is nowhere to hide, and what I mean by that, is that it is such a beautiful and simple design that you really can’t hide any flaws or mistakes!

Everyone has to be just so, that is the beauty in a hand blown piece. Sometime we run across bubbles in the colour which you really don’t want in a light as the imperfection becomes apparent pretty quickly, but we do our best to quality control as we go along.

Also even though we blow into a mould, we have to be so careful in how we approach the mould as any imperfections can become apparent in that beautiful flat face of the light. Keeps you on your toes that’s for sure.

Q: What do you enjoy most about continuing to make Honey with Coco Flip?

At heart we are production blowers and this kind of job/product lets us flex our skills as production blowers. It allows for us to get in that flow state and do what we do.

I’m not sure how long exactly (years??) I have worked with Kate and Has, but over that time I have really loved working and getting to know them. They run such an impressive design and product based business that really champions the handmade, I feel very lucky to get to make work for such impressive creatives. I like what they do, I admire their ethos and I am constantly inspired by what they produce and how they conduct themselves in the design landscape.

It is a joy to make the Honeys because they really are standing the test of time. Good design never goes out of fashion.