To fill the main pots in the furnace we gathered glass from the modern furnace in the studio and ran/walked with it for about 60 metres to the shelter where it was allowed to reheat and flow into the pots. Six or seven large double gathers were enough to fill each main pot. This saved a lot of time in melting cullet from cold as we had done at Stourbridge, and meant that we were able to begin to blow glass within 30 minutes of the last gather filling the pot. It also meant that the pots in the wood-fired furnace could be topped up through the day if necessary.

We filled the small pots with cold cullet of either blue or white glass. These pots, as with the large pots, could be swapped before the furnace was lit if a change of colour was wanted, thus avoiding contamination of glass colours.

Emptying the pots was necessary at the end of the blowing day as the less glass left in the pots, the more likely they were to survive the overnight furnace cooldown and the subsequent reheat the following morning. Correctly judging the amount of glass to put into the pots for the blowing day dictated how much was left to empty.

Each day the pot in the modern furnace was topped up so there was enough molten glass for the next day. This meant that the glass still contained bubbles, but these gradually fined out (but not completely) whilst the glass was in the wood-fired furnace.

We also soon worked out that the best way to hand-off the iron over the fence panel was to use a metal stand!