The weather at the Iowa State Fair on Friday, Aug. 8 was sweltering — but at the Hot Glass Academy, one of the newer attractions at the fair, it was even hotter.

A 2,000-degree oven burned bright under a peaked white tent. Surrounding it, a flurry of movement. Three glassblowers from the studio based in Americus, Georgia, worked in tandem to keep the centerpiece of their exhibition — a black and white spotted cow — from cooling off too quickly in the Iowa heat.

The head glassblower, or gaffer, of the group is Forrest Buford, who has been blowing glass for nearly 10 years. He bounced between many mediums before finally settling on glassblowing.

"Certain mediums limit you," Buford said. "You can create any form of photo on a flat ground. I could make a flat ground or a three-dimensional

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