Back in 2016 I visited Jason Mack's glass blowing studio down in Champaign, Illinois to interview him for a class project. We had a ton of fun making small little pendants and figures.

12991958_10103465734452400_1717757200_o
loading...

He helped me make a small glass leaf and I was BEYOND impressed. So when I saw Jason working on a 31 FOOT TALL GLASS Christmas tree, I obviously had to know more.

But first things first, just check this thing out.

31 feet of hand spun glass, seems easy enough right? One of the coolest parts of this project is where the glass is coming from. It's all glass that has been donated to Jason by the community. He put out a call asking for clear and green glass, and the community SHOWED UP!

The tree site has boxes on boxes of donated glass. That donated glass goes into a furnace that heats it up to over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and that melted glass gets spun around and around. But obviously you can only walk in circles for so long before the whole 31 foot aspect catches up to you.

So that's when Jason thought, okay, I'll just put this furnace in the air on a fork lift, that should work right?

From step ladder -

To a furnace 20 ft in the air on a fork lift -

And the craziest part? It worked. And it worked really well. Jason is almost done with the 31 foot tall Christmas tree!

The tree can be seen at the corner of Neil and Washington down in Champaign, Illinois until at least January 30. Jason said they’ll assess how it’s held up to the weather, and it could stay up longer.

Posted by Brandy Puckett on Saturday, December 12, 2020

You can follow along with Jason's journey on his Instagram and his Facebook.
Check out The Steve Shannon Show's full interview with Jason below.
Listen to MJ on 97ZOK every morning 6:00 to 10 AM.  Follow her on Instagram and Facebook.  

 

LOOK: 20 tips to help your houseplants survive the winter

 

More From 97 ZOK