Word formation

Few crafts look as effortless, or prove as 1., as glassblowing. In Hannah Okafor's workshop, a converted boathouse on the edge of town, the furnace runs day and night at well over a thousand degrees, and a moment's 2. can turn an afternoon's work into a heap of shards. Okafor served a seven-year 3. before she was trusted to make anything that would be sold, and she still remembers the frustration of those early years. 'People assume it's about lung power,' she says, lifting a 4. thin bowl towards the light. 'It's mostly about timing. You learn it through sheer 5., gathering and shaping the same simple form hundreds of times until your hands stop thinking.' A common 6., she adds, is that the glass does what the maker wants. In reality, the material is 7., reacting to the slightest draught or change in temperature, and the skill lies in reading it rather than forcing it. Visitors who watch a demonstration are often surprised by how much is left to judgement. There are no digital readouts on her bench, only experience, and that, Okafor insists, is something no amount of 8. can replace.