i want to know why these two people who never dreamed of making stunningly beautiful glass wear never dreamed of doing the same thing. that s heavy. that is. what was it made of originally? spaghetti sauce jars, you name it, whiskey bottles, clear bottles and jars. this place exists only because this region was insanely good at recycling glass. so a consortium of residents thought they would create a way to use that glass locally. this is where it starts, bottles and jars from the recycling center. that s sad, empty. but making stuff like this is not easy. it takes a lot of work before you even get to the hard part. the glass has to be sorted, crushed, color tinted and then melted in a 2400 degree furnace whether it s ready to be poured and poured. and then you have to be fast because it cools and hardens almost immediately.
andy, explain to the folks what makes me so dog-gone funny? we ll be back after this. it s pretty good. yep, the beer is really good. but this is not a story about making beer. this is a story about making a glass. and here at fire and light, they ve turned glass ware into an art form. making each piece is hard, sweaty work and they wanted me to experience all of that. what exactly are we doing? we re going to have you pour some glass and see how that goes. i can tell you how it s going to go. oh, you ll have fun. don t worry about it. i didn t really want to do this. but that is the point. john and natalie mcclure didn t really want to own this difficult business, but they put in years of hard work and have made it a success. i wanted to find out why. but first do you want to make a big
bowl, a vase or a drinking glass? a wine glass? let s make a glass. let s make a glass. something that might hold a frosty beverage. [ male announcer ] he doesn t need your help. until he does. three cylinders, dual overhead cams and 50 horsepower. go bold. go powerful.
put it down. i ll take it. that might be a little warm. go ahead and push it in there and press it. pull a handle. pull it, pull it, pull it, pull it. okay. not enough glass? really. yeah. pull it back out. have a look inside there. see what you see. oh, it s perfect. it may have a slight crack. you want to make another one? all right. right in the center. hey, poor it, roll it back, roll it back. okay. slow, slow, slow, slow, up, up, up, up whoa.
we re making colored glass. they probably can t tell you why they went out on a limb but the last few years have made it pretty clear. the recession was pretty tough. people got moved around from one place to another, and jesse who s worked for us from out of high school j i came out here one time to thank him and he says, no, thank you for the job. i went home and told her, that s why we re going to make this work. it s only 16 jobs but it means a lot to all of us and it means something. it was a long way to go for cold beer but those 16 jobs, that s something to drink to, no