Once I have made the individual lampworked elements for an encasement (Click here to see how it's done), I use a very tiny oxy-propane torch to attach them together to make a complete assembly. This flame is less than 1/16 of an inch wide. I do all of the assembly on a hotplate to keep the work at a uniform high temperature and prevent cracking.

Here's what the complete assembly looks like. It includes a gray octopus, several anemones and sponges, and some red fish. Now I need to gently lift the assembly onto a warm spatula so I can transfer it to the vacuum chamber.

I have experimented with different types of vacuum chambers, made from either graphite or steel. The graphite vacuum chambers in this photo are in a small electric kiln, ready for encasing to begin. The assembly I just made is in the right-hand chamber. The tube from each chamber leads from its base to a vacuum pump outside the kiln. To prepare for the next delicate step, I need to raise the temperature in the kiln to 890 degrees Farenheit. At that temperature, the assembly is still solid but is not likely to shatter as molten glass is sucked around it.

Encasing is a two-person job. I gather molten glass from the furnace on a pontil and shape it into a cylinder that will fit into the chamber. Colin turns on the vacuum pump and helps me guide the molten glass into the chamber, where the vacuum sucks it around the delicate assembly. With luck, no air is left around the elements of the assembly, so there will be no ugly bubbles in the final paperweight.

Once I lift the pontil with the newly-encased assembly out of the chamber, all that's left is to fuse the encased assembly to a mass of glass on a second pontil that will eventually be the base of the finished paperweight. In this photo, the pontil with the encased assembly is to the left (mostly behind Colin's head), and the new (still molten) base is on the right-hand pontil. Colin is guiding the two together so that they fuse into a single mass. I then break the fused mass free of the left-hand pontil and finish the piece as I would with any normal (that is, non-encased) paperweight.

This brief description makes encasement sound pretty easy. In fact, there are many ways that the process can go wrong and leave me with nothing to show for a day's work. Avoiding all of those problems takes a lot of experience, skill, and teamwork -- plus a bit of good luck!