“Crimp and release,” instructs glass blower Jim Sammarco, of the Hot Glass Works studio. We’ve already rolled a small nub of molten glass on a table and dredged it across a blue powder for color, and then thrust it into an open furnace called the Glory Hole, which keeps the glass hotter than 2,000 degrees. It looks like glowing honey.

Now, with a pair of crimps, I grab the glass and give it slight tugs, making petals with nice grooves. “Crimp and release!” Sammarco repeats, his voice a bit more urgent. Because, amazingly, despite all this heat, the glass is cooling and hardening fast. And I’m working too slowly. And did I mention that this is, um, really hot? Like, “This is going to melt my hand off!”

Moments later, Sammarco has effortlessly teased a curling stem from the end of the glass, and as my flower “cools” in a kiln at 900 degrees, I’m pretty well convinced that glass blowers are about as cool as rock stars.

Glass blowing demos, 6-9 p.m. on Mondays, Hot Glass Works, 5115 Dean Martin Drive, 739-9955