[Nick] Throw sand, lime and soda into a 2,000 degree Fahrenheit furnace,
and you get liquid glass.
Skilled glassblowers gather the molten mixture using hollow pipes.
And when they blow,
glass inflates to form a bubble to shape and sculpt.
The tools and techniques date back to Roman times,
but we're about to turn up the heat.
We're back at North America's largest hot shop
to watch ten exceptional artists…
[blowing]
…fight fire with fire.
And now the fun begins.
[exciting string music playing]
Go big or go home.
[Nick] And with great risk…
Oh, God.
Rest on the bench. Rest on the bench!
-I always come out swinging. -…comes great reward.
-Yeah, baby! -[Minhi] Whoo!
[Nick] If they survive our fiery competition,
they'll win a life-changing prize package
that will establish them around the globe as Best In Glass.
I'm Nick Uhas. Consider this a warning. You're about to be Blown Away!
[crackling, hissing]
[intriguing music playing]
Good morning, glassblowers. Welcome back to the hot shop.
Going into the new challenge, I'm feeling nervous and excited.
My stomach's all tied up in knots.
I still can't believe I'm here, and I'm here. [chuckles]
Your next challenge is all about drinkware.
-Cheers to that. -[chuckles]
[chuckling] Oh, God.
The very first drinking glasses have been traced back to the 16th century BCE.
They were chunky and opaque, not much to look at, but they did the job.
Drinking glasses have come a long way.
But for this challenge, we want you to take them even further.
It sounds easy, but I bet it's gonna be really challenging, actually.
We've paired you each with a concoction.
So belly up to the bar for a taste of what's to come.
[suspenseful string music playing]
I have some experience in making cups. So, I'm excited. I think I have a shot.
Dan, tell us what you got.
-Non-alcoholic raspberry mojito. -[upbeat string music playing]
It's great.
I like raspberries.
I got the espresso martini.
It's gonna be a difficult one to make.
Irish coffee. I love Irish coffees.
Champagne.
I got the Hot 'n' Sassy.
I'm not sure what this is, but it kinda resonates with me.
I'm a little sassy.
[Trenton] My first-ever banana daiquiri.
[music stops]
It's actually quite delicious.
We expect you to create an original set of custom glasses
specifically designed for your drink.
And it's not just Katherine that you'll have to impress,
because our guest evaluator today
is Veronica Saye.
[upbeat string music playing]
How are you, glassblowers?
[Nick] She's a bartender who's racked up cocktail championships around the globe.
Glassware has a huge impact on how a drink tastes.
And even the most basic beverage can be turned into something beautiful
with the right vessel.
But you also have to keep function in mind,
because the shape, style and weight of your glass matters too.
Dan, as the winner of the last challenge, I promised you an advantage for this one.
So you can swap your non-alcoholic raspberry mojito for anyone else's drink.
Nice.
For him to get an advantage, it just elevates the whole game.
There's a lot, uh… a lot on the table.
I do not want Dan to take the Rusty Nail.
-[Nick] What do you say? -Well…
[suspenseful music playing]
You know, I think I'm gonna stick with my non-alcoholic…
[chuckling] …raspberry mojito.
[all chuckling]
I just had 12 years clean and sober two weeks ago.
So I think I'll stay the course.
-I like to hear that. -[Katherine] Congratulations.
-[Dan] Yeah. -[Nick] Fair enough.
[Dan] Being sober is one of the best things I've ever done.
It feels great to be present for my children.
I'm doing my best to go forward with good intention and a clear heart.
[dramatic music playing]
[Nick] You'll have four hours to design, create and present a set of six glasses.
You'll be evaluated on design,
originality, functionality and technical skill,
including how well your six glasses match.
The winner of the challenge will be named Best in Blow.
The artist that does not blow us away will be eliminated
and free to drown their sorrows.
Glassblowers, your four hours starts…
-Wait for it. -[giggling]
[Nick] Now.
[upbeat string music playing]
[Trenton] It's hard to find the right colors in here.
-[Grace] Hmm… -[spray can rattling]
So, I got a Belgian dark ale, which is brewed by monks.
Mm.
[smacks lips] Ooh!
She's dark. [laughs]
So, I'm gonna make a chalice with three gold legs
to symbolize the Holy Trinity as an ode to the monks who brew this beer.
Bottoms up, bitches. I'm just kidding.
[dramatic music playing]
Thinking about a traditional Irish coffee glass,
trying to find, like, a new spin on it.
And I'm thinking about, kind of, a takeaway coffee cup
that has this lid that the whipped cream fits in.
[chalk scratching]
You'll think of a banana when you look at it.
It's gonna be yellow, and possibly add some, like, brown spots.
My father was the one that would have maybe a few too many,
so I'm gonna make a glass with eight sides.
It stands for the stop sign.
It's kind of a warning for when to stop drinking.
When I'm making glassware, I typically use molds.
So I'm not as comfortable doing just straight vessel blowing.
This'll be a bit of a challenge for me.
Mojito.
I'm gonna make a glass that I feel is functional and has some flair.
I think it'll be beautiful.
[Minhi] When I think about drinking champagne,
generally, you want the cup to be really thin,
really lightweight, really tall,
so that you can really see the bubbles in the champagne.
[pleasant music playing]
So bubbly.
-[belches, laughs] -[music distorts]
[music resumes normally]
It's an espresso martini, so I've decided to make an espresso cup and saucer,
but with a stem, so that it still keeps, like, the elegance of a martini glass.
This isn't my favorite drink at all.
I'm going to design something that really enhances the experience
of drinking a vanilla milkshake.
My glasses are the udder of a cow,
and the feet will be the nipples. [chuckles]
[exciting orchestral music playing]
There's this color, which is gonna be…
[in high voice] …fun!
[Brenna] All right.
Let's blow some glass.
[Minhi] Come on, glass, get hot!
[chuckles]
All right, let's hit it.
[dramatic music playing]
[steam hissing]
[sighs happily]
Boiling already.
But that was expected.
[intriguing music playing]
So, right now, I'm making these feet that are gonna be coated in gold leaf.
Trying not to burn all the gold off, but so far so good.
I love it.
So, I know we have a lot of sculptors in this group.
Do you think making glasses is gonna be a challenge for them?
It could be. It's probably not something they've spent a lot of time
developing that repertoire and skill set.
So they might struggle a little bit.
If it was hands or skulls, I would have no problem.
For cups, it's a little bit more tricky.
It's not my specialty, it's not the thing that I'm the most comfortable with.
I'm much more focused on the sculptural side of glassmaking,
but I was trained to do this.
I've gotta kinda find my old hands and have them come back
so they help me through this challenge.
Blow lightly, please.
I've been known to blow a bubble or two.
Slow down, big guy.
-[humming] -[upbeat string music playing]
I have made thousands of glasses.
Production glassblowing is glassblowing for money in a factory,
which is how I started in glass.
Paddle on.
Off.
To work in a factory, you've gotta have the chops or you don't work there anymore.
That'll work.
I've probably made about 20 glasses in my career so far.
Soon to be 26. [chuckles]
Yeah, I want to prove that I'm not just an assistant,
and show off my own work. [chuckles]
[clacking softly]
Beautiful, thank you.
-One, two… -[whooshing]
As soon as I'm done, I'm going to the bar and ordering a Hot 'n' Sassy.
I mean, John is kinda Hot 'n' Sassy in his own way, in his nerd way.
[laughs]
I'm kind of nerdy.
Combined with a wacky, wavy inflatable arm tube man.
They're the guys at the dealerships, the inflatable tubes that just go…
[imitates warbling]
I love them. I love them.
Katherine, I'm dying to know, what is your go-to cocktail?
My go-to is a Dark 'n' Stormy. Like my personality.
-[both laugh] -Yeah, I was gonna say.
[Maddy] My usual drink is generally a dark rum and Coke.
I'm a bit of a pirate, I think. [laughs]
[Brenna] My regular drink of choice is water.
[laughing] It's so much fun!
That's good.
[pleasant string music playing]
[flame whooshing]
Obviously, functionality is huge,
but they're being evaluated on originality and aesthetics.
That's the hardest part.
It's gotta be functional, but it's also a piece of art.
One thing though, the artists really wanna be careful with color.
You really don't want to camouflage the drink itself.
[Trenton] I have the banana daiquiri for my challenge.
Everyone around me is doing transparent, they're using a lot of clear,
so I wanted to try something different.
[flames whooshing]
I kind of take a lot of pride in being very consistent with my cups.
I mean… let's be real. I'm a perfectionist.
I'm gonna try it again.
We've asked them to make six identical glasses.
What's the point of that?
[Katherine] It's just one more thing that'll really test their skills.
You know, making anything identical, twice even, is kind of tricky.
I notice a lot of the glassblowers have calipers on the benches,
so they can get exact measurements, so they can match as they're going.
Nice. That was a good one.
I'm feeling pretty confident.
I really like the pattern,
the texture and the unique, kinda, quality that it has.
Pretty much everyone knows Rob Stern.
He's one of the most creative minds I've ever known.
[Rob] I'm not scared of anybody.
[chuckles]
Perfecto.
[Brenna whistling melody]
Veronica, what's more important,
the taste of the drink or the glass that it's served in?
Well, it's all about practicality and the function of the drink.
For example, icy drinks like the daiquiri or even a mojito,
you'll definitely want a stem so it's not too cold to hold.
[blows]
[crinkling]
[dramatic string music playing]
[Grace] This is a huge deal for me.
I might be the youngest here, but to me that doesn't matter at all.
-This'll work. -You got it.
[Grace] I'm really happy.
My design came out pretty much exactly how I wanted to.
-[shatters] -Shit!
[tense music playing]
It just hits the floor. [inhales]
And so now, we're like 45 minutes in, and I don't have one piece.
I'm realizing how long they're taking.
Um, I'm just thinking if we should re… replan this.
So, instead of long-stature legs, I have little gold balls.
It still fits my idea,
and I know I can make six of them with the time left.
One hour down, three to go.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Minhi] Whoo!
Come back, come back.
[music continues]
[Dan] Yeah, baby.
-[ominous string music playing] -[Veronica] What's Rob doing?
You know, he's actually using chunks of graphite to make a mold.
-[sizzling] -[Rob] Whoops, sorry.
So we don't want them, ultimately, to move at all.
Because I've grabbed parts and we're trying to keep them together,
with the expanding bubble,
I find it quite difficult to replicate the glasses.
I realize that they're not exactly alike.
We'll have to make it a little smaller.
[dramatic music playing]
[music fades]
[shatters]
[Grace] Are you kidding me?
[groans]
[tense music playing]
[Rob] I know that sound.
I know that feeling. It's not a pleasant one.
If glass didn't break, it wouldn't be valuable.
-It's done. -[woman] Wanna try to heal it?
-No. -Okay.
The glass is not happy.
I need a break.
[music swells, fades]
It messes with your head.
[pleasant piano music playing]
[flames whooshing]
[Brenna] I got the vanilla milkshake.
So, here are the nipples to the udder.
To make the udders, I'm going to add hot bits to the glass.
Nice.
I'm so happy I got vanilla milkshake.
My glasses are inspired by my children.
I have a two-year-old daughter named Arabelle,
and then my one-year-old son, his name is Baker.
I make my kids superfood smoothies every morning,
which are like vanilla milkshakes, they think.
[laughs]
Oh, so cute!
[suspenseful music playing]
[flames whooshing]
[sighs]
[humming merrily]
Makin' cups!
I'm relaxed. I'm feeling good.
[imitating sound effects]
The energy in here is so cool. It reminds me so much of back in the day,
when I first started bartending in clubs Saturday nights.
[Brenna laughs]
It's a good vibe.
Ninja moves here.
-[shatters] -[Minhu] Oh! There it goes.
I immediately know I have to remake it.
[breathes deeply]
Glassblowing in general is just such a mental game.
So it's important to keep a level head. You really learn to just let it go.
And just move onto the next one, take another dip.
[Maddy] Yep.
-[clinking] -Oh! Oh, dear.
This one's not good.
I'm pretty competitive. I was a ballet dancer for about 17 years.
I turned my nerves into adrenaline.
And it makes me work really hard in the hot shop.
Perfect. Thank you.
[exciting string music playing]
Glassblowers! You have one hour left!
Man, it goes quick.
[intense music playing]
This yellow's so stiff!
Yellow. Not an easy color to work with.
It's going rough.
Different colors react differently to the heat.
And yellow is a stiff color. It heats up slow and it cools off quick.
I'm watching mainly Dan, 'cause he's right there,
and then we got Brenna next to me.
And I'm just realizing that my cups are taking a lot longer than theirs.
They're getting two cups for every one that I'm making.
I never really thought about how much the color was gonna affect this piece.
I've already invested and committed to my plan.
There's no turning back at this point.
Never pick yellow.
-[sizzling] -[water bubbling]
[flames whooshing]
[sizzling]
-Hi, Rob, how's it goin'? -Pretty good.
-Yeah? -Yeah.
Do you think you're in the running to win this challenge?
I hope I am.
Do you wanna remind me what your drink is?
It's a Rusty Nail.
I, uh, had this idea for kind of a…
of it being unique.
So, even though you have to make six identical?
Well, they're essentially identical.
It's a risk. I'm a risk-taker.
Okay. All right. Well, good luck.
Quickly I start to realize I better change my game plan.
[dramatic music playing]
-[Katherine] Hi, Grace. -Hi, Kathy.
How's it been going?
Uh, not so well.
I'm just trying to get six in the box at this point.
We have these kinds of days all the time in the hot shop.
Things aren't going your way.
But the client still need their numbers,
you still want to make the sale, you want to get the glass out the door.
So, glass is always a numbers game.
-And it's a tricky bitch but… -[laughs]
[laughs]
-All right, well, good luck. -Thank you.
I'm definitely in survival mode right now.
[tense music playing]
Everyone has had these days where you almost are like
losing control of the material.
All right, let's party.
And I think that we all kind of pray to the glass gods in these moments.
Looks good.
-Okay, grab it. Pull. -Got it.
[John M] Yeah. I'm good with that.
Glassblowers, we have 45 minutes left!
There you go.
[Rob] Katherine made me nervous.
[chuckles] So I'm going to my contingency plan.
I'm gonna simplify my piece a little bit
and try to really knock out six exactly the same.
So I decided that I would just put the texture on the bottom of the glass
rather than all around the glass itself.
This is number one.
I have one glass done and five more to go.
[suspenseful music playing]
I have a couple cups to put in the box, so we're gonna cut it down to the wire.
These are huge. I don't know if I wanted to make these this big.
Pull. Go quickly. Pull, pull, pull. Pull it. Slower, slower, slower. Pull.
Feeling pretty good, almost there.
Everyone, you have 30 minutes left!
Now is not the time to relax.
We are making a twisty cane blown straw.
My daughter will only drink from a glass straw.
[chuckling] Not a paper straw, but from a glass straw.
So I have this light blue and white on here.
And we'll pull this.
I've never done a blown twisted cane before,
but I'm going for it.
All right, so start to turn slow.
Turn a little faster.
All right, let's start to pull now.
Oh! I love this straw! My daughter's gonna love it!
Uh, it's going better now.
So I ended up with six cups.
I'm gonna try to make one, like, accent piece.
So I'm making a little cheese platter,
because this beer, it goes really well with cheese and savory dishes.
[music intensifying]
-Get back in there. Open, open. -[Dan] Left side, left side.
Five minutes left!
-Oh, God. -[music intensifies]
I'm definitely trying to raise the bar and rise to the occasion.
Clearly, Rusty Nail, gotta make a nail.
Running out of time here. I'm in a rush now.
Three minutes left! Get your glasses into the annealers!
[shrieks softly]
[Rob] Go ahead.
Beautiful.
So I'm gonna open one side.
Okay.
-Whoo! -Good job, dude.
[clanks]
Yes!
[shrieks playfully]
[chuckles] Down to the wire.
Ooh! Ooh!
[gentle piano music playing]
[clunks]
[Maddy] For this challenge we have to make
six identical glasses for a specific drink.
I'm just really pleased that I managed to get six done. [chuckles]
[Dan] It is a delicate piece of glassware.
I put some very delicate implements on it.
I think I have a shot.
[Rob] I feel really excited about my piece.
I decided that the first pieces I was making
were gonna actually be inverted and be the base for these cups.
I think I may have "nailed" it.
My design and the title of it is "Udderly Awesome."
Get it?
Because of the udder and the cow?
[laughs]
I hope these glasses show my technical abilities.
Not being a cup-maker, I'm really happy with what I put out.
I did my best.
I'm hoping that the color application and the form gives me the win.
The main thing I'm worried about is the identicalness
of each of these cups.
I want my flutes to show my respect for tradition,
but to also have my flare.
Given everything that happened, my pared-down design,
it still represents me as an artist.
But we'll see.
[intriguing music playing]
[Nick] Call me old-fashioned…
-[all chuckling] -…but I think this gallery looks great.
-Uh, we'll be the judge of that. -[Veronica] Yeah.
-Fair enough. -[both chuckle]
[Nick] We're gonna start with Maddy's. This is her espresso martini glasses.
My first feeling is that this is a little bit cheesy,
and perhaps a little bit too literal of an interpretation.
I like the design.
I don't think the execution is great.
[Veronica] Functionality-wise,
when you're talking about an espresso martini,
you're gonna be making fresh espresso at the bar.
And you want those aromas to really come through.
With a smaller-mouthed glass,
-you're gonna miss a little bit of that. -Mm.
[Nick] This is John Sharvin's piece. And he had the Hot 'n' Sassy.
To me, this is a really fun glass.
And it's not opaque,
so you are still able to get a sense of the drink.
But I can see that there's different heights,
there's different widths on the opening.
John might have struggled a little bit with that.
[Nick] This is Dan's.
And he had the non-alcoholic raspberry mojito.
I think these match pretty well.
There's obviously some variations, but they're the closest we've seen so far.
[Veronica] These are really pretty.
[Nick] If you grab it here,
-the glass would go into your fingers. -Mm, that's a good point.
Yeah. Looks cool. Functional, eh…
These are Grace's glasses.
Their drink was Belgian Dark Ale.
How do you feel about consistency here?
With a really curvaceous shape like that, it's a little harder to be consistent.
[Nick] It's just too thick.
-[Veronica] It is. -I want it to be thinner.
[Veronica] Look at the cheese plate that they've presented to us.
That is actually a really nice thickness.
It'd have been really great if that was reflected in the glassware.
-Thank you. That's exactly what I wanted. -[all chuckling]
-Yeah. -That!
These are Brenna's glasses.
I think this is actually a functional straw.
And it totally is.
[all chuckling]
Kind of cool. Uh, reusable.
I just think these are so cute.
There's so much whimsy with a vanilla milkshake.
And most of the other glasses we're seeing are based off of alcoholic cocktails,
and so this had a chance to be childlike.
And she really nailed it.
She's done a really great job of matching.
And there's a lot of elements on each glass.
Are you guys ready to "moo-ve" on to the next?
[all chuckling]
[Nick] "These are Minhi's champagne glasses."
"By design, Minhi's flute set encourages connectedness,
as participants gather every time they need to set their glass down."
[Katherine] I feel like there could be a bit of refinement
in how these sit in there.
But I actually-- I love the idea.
[Nick] The silver base is, by far, my favorite part.
Mm-hmm.
[Nick] These are Rob's Rusty Nail glasses.
He originally started with this eight-sided glass,
and it didn't really work out, so we ended up with these bases.
The literal sense of the rusty nail is kind of cool as a stir stick,
but this representation of a garnish, or a peel of some kind,
isn't something that you would, certainly, need in a cocktail,
because you would be literally putting the garnish in the cocktail.
If he'd just kept with a simpler idea,
but refined it and executed it better,
we'd be looking at a much different arrangement here
than what we are right now.
[Nick] Here are Trenton's banana daiquiri glasses.
Well, I have to say I'm a little "split" on the way that I feel about these.
-[Nick] That's bananas. -[laughs]
[Veronica] I do think these are whimsical,
but I would have liked to see him do something
a little bit more like the Hot 'n' Sassy glass,
where it was a little bit more transparent.
And that way, we could actually see the liquid.
-[Katherine] Mm-hmm. -The base doesn't match.
[Katherine] The color's not matching, the diameters aren't matching.
And even the profile of some of the cups really varies.
The only thing he's got going for unifying these
is the color of the cup part, the bowl part.
Yeah.
[Nick] This is John Moran's Irish Coffee.
Over here, we can see that it says "Joe S" on the front.
And that is reference to the inventor of the Irish coffee, Joe Sheridan.
When I think of Irish Coffee, I think of, you know, sipping it by the fire,
kind of taking your time and savoring it.
So I'm not really sure if the to-go cup makes sense with the drink.
I actually have to disagree with you.
There's a bar in New Orleans called Erin Rose,
and their frozen Irish coffees to-go are very, very famous.
All right, shall we bring the glassblowers in?
I think it's worth a shot.
-[both chuckle] -Ah, hoo-hoo!
[suspenseful music playing]
I had a great day in the hot shop, I did what I love,
and I feel like I killed this challenge.
I'm definitely not safe in this competition.
There is so much talent in the room.
[Trenton] Going home is always in the back of your mind.
But you can only take it one challenge at a time.
I gotta say, the gallery today certainly raised our "spirits."
[chuckles]
Dan…
In hindsight, are you happy about your choice to not steal anyone else's drink?
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, I don't drink.
It just allowed me to kinda reflect a little bit on that.
And when I quit drinking, I thought I was kinda done having fun.
That was not true.
I think I made the right decision to, one, stop drinking,
and not take someone else's cup.
Thank you, Dan.
Mr. Hot 'n' Sassy.
-[all chuckling] -[Nick] John Sharvin.
I mean, it does seem like you struggled a little bit
with getting the shape pretty consistent.
Yeah, I agree.
I mean, it's tough to get all the sizes all right on the bottom and top.
Thanks, John.
Rob, tell us about your glasses.
I wanted to elevate the cocktail
and allow the elixir to be the star of the show.
[Veronica] So, with the base and the glass and your stir stick and the peel,
I think that if you had maybe removed one or two of those things,
the message would've been a little bit clearer.
Agreed.
Yeah. Thank you.
Minhi.
So I loved these. I thought they were super cool.
Really interesting play on the togetherness.
They could have been a bit more delicate.
Champagne, in particular, merits a really thin lip.
But overall, it was a really great design.
Thank you.
Thank you, artists.
We just need a few minutes to discuss.
[suspenseful music playing]
This competition is so much more than just making glass.
Your self doubt, your fears…
This is a mental game.
I loved those glasses the first time I saw them.
And every time I look at them I like them even more.
I'm worried that I'm going home.
You want the truth? You can't handle the truth.
How do we decide between the top two?
We go to a bar and just keep taking shots?
[Veronica laughs]
I did have a rough day, and I think that it is possible that I go home.
Thank you for waiting.
The artist that had the best drinkware collection
and is still in the running for the grand prize is…
[suspenseful music playing]
[music stops]
-Minhi. -Yeah.
[John S] Nice.
Having a win under my belt makes me feel like I'm supposed to be here.
-Nice job. -[chuckles]
Where's the champagne? [laughs]
Now, sadly, for one of you, it's time for last call.
[tense music playing]
The artist whose glasses left us feeling empty is….
[music stops]
-Rob. -[melancholy piano music playing]
Please say your goodbyes and exit the hot shop.
[Rob] You know, I didn't get, maybe, as far as I hoped.
But this was definitely, overall, an incredible experience.
There's such an incredible level of talent here right now.
[John M] Rob Stern goes home.
That was a hard one.
It was, uh, not expected.
Good for me, not so good for him. [chuckles]
[closing theme music playing]