Glass ornament may prove to be world's largest

The Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center has developed a holiday tradition that gets bigger every year.

More than a dozen glass blowers were at the center's glass studio over the weekend trying to create the world's largest glass ornament for the third consecutive year.

Glass blower Deborah Czeresko started the project at Wheaton in 2006, as a crew of five created an ornament 24 inches in diameter. Last year, a crew of nine people created a 30-inch ornament. This year's crew was confident they broke their record Sunday, but the final call wasn't expected until today because they had to wait for the ornament to cool before they got an official measurement.

"We keep fine-tuning the process," Czeresko said, comparing the process to sprinters who keep breaking a world record by a few fractions of a second at a time.

The crew made six ornaments Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They created a 32-inch ornament Saturday, but it broke.

"It was too thin on the bottom, and it couldn't handle its own weight," Czeresko said.

The artists gather melted glass inside a large furnace with a rod. The glass is cooled and remelted during each of five gathering stages. The entire process takes 30 minutes. The crew can gather only so much at one time, because if the glass is left inside too long it will melt. The blowers also need to make sure the object isn't so big that it can't fit through the furnace's door.

The crew could use more modern equipment to make the ornament bigger, but Czeresko said they want the process to be as pure as possible. The crew still has not figured out what to do with the objects that remain in storage at the center. Czeresko hopes a charity could auction the items.

Glass blower Nicholas "Skitch" Manion said the artists will continue the tradition. "We'll keep doing it every year," he said, adding more and more people have become aware of the project.

Sam Geer, an assistant at the studio, said larger crowds turn out to watch the crew make the ornament each year. He thinks the glasswork eventually could reach more than 60 inches.

"We keep getting better every year," he said.