It's not yet 8 a.m., but Geoff Lee wipes the sweat from his forehead in a gesture he will repeat dozens of times over the next 10 hours.

Deftly, he slides an iron rod into the pit of a white hot furnace, gathering a molten glob the consistency of honey on one end and setting in process one of the oldest arts known — blown glass.

For the next 30 minutes, Lee and assistant Corey Avecilla perform a kind of semi-choreographed "dance." Each must anticipate the other's movements, since the glass can't be put down until the piece is finished. The glass must constantly be rotated on the rod to prevent losing its shape. If it cools too much, it may crack.

The pace is fast. Working as a team, Lee and Avecilla shape, blow, reheat, shape again, add color, more glass, reheat, apply ground glass detail, and finally an oxy-acetylene torch finish before placing the completed vase — part of Lee's cobalt blue and white "Ocean" series — inside an annealer (cooling oven).

"Each piece is one of a kind," Lee said. "They may look similar in shape and size, but the way color is applied, for example, changes with each piece; that's the essence of handblown glass."

Lee is a professional glass blower. He's worked in Seattle, Ohio and Pennsylvania. He's also blown glass with some of the best artists in the world at the Pilchuck Glass Studio in Washington state, the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine and Centro Studio Vetro, an organization of glassmakers from Murano in Italy. He has a master's degree in fine art from the University of Hawai'i and is one of about 30 professional glass blowers working on the Big Island, Maui, Kaua'i and O'ahu.

Lee opened Island Glassworks in May. The Kailua foundry gives him the chance to sell Hawai'i-inspired handmade glass, teach classes to the public and rent out studio space to Hawai'i's glass-blowing community. His classes range from beginners' half-day workshops on making paperweights to more advanced classes in hot and cold glass and blowing techniques.

In the gallery that fronts the Island Glassworks studio, vases, bowls, glasses, paperweights and glass flowers ranging from a few dollars to more than $600 are on display.

"What we're producing here is heavily influenced by Hawai'i's geographic location, the mix of cultures here and especially nature, in colors and design," said Lee, who searched for the right location to open his "hot house" for months.

Finally he found it, in Kailua's small industrial center on Hamakua Drive, a location he regards as "perfect." A canal backs onto a marsh several feet from the back entrance, and birds and native Hawaiian wildlife drift peacefully by.

Establishing the foundry meant shipping professional equipment from the Mainland. The glass furnace runs nonstop at a temperature of more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit; the "glory hole" or reheating furnace is even hotter, at 2,200 degrees.

Lee built the benches, rolling tables and auxiliary equipment himself. He works every day with the help of a handful of enthusiasts. It's a labor of love. "Professional glass blowers aren't in this for money," he laughed.

So what is the draw? Lee says it's the process more than the finished product that fascinates him.

"It's very physical, more interactive than any other art medium I've been exposed to; you're constantly moving, not sitting, and I like that. And, of course, it's dangerous! That's very appealing ... once you've tried it, it's quite addictive," Lee said.

The art form was once "exclusive and secretive" in Europe and on the Mainland, Lee notes. It's "a process unchanged for more than 3,000 years and yet continues to generate enormous excitement."