Rev. 2000-12-04, 2003-04-24 (minor), 2007-03-18 (minor), 2009-06-29 (link)
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Factories for blowing glass are a fascinating aspect of life now that little is done outside studios in the U.S. There are people who have worked in the factories who believe that the studios are better.
What differences exist between a factory and a studio? In a factory, the goal is produce a uniform product as efficiently as possible. Normally the people who are forming the glass have no creative responsibility for the design of the glass; they are not, for example, choosing color combinations while making the piece. A factory is normally built around a team and the team is revised as necessary to include enough members to make the piece currently in production. In an example given by Walter Evans, the wood mold maker, if a pitcher has a pressed foot and the people pressing the feet can make them twice as fast as other operations can do the glass, then a team will have two people blowing bodies, each assisted by a gatherer, two finishing the lips, each assisted by a bit boy, and perhaps only one doing handles if that person works fast also. Each piece should be as nearly identical to others made that day as human skill can make them, backed up by calipers, form outlines and inspection.
In a studio, even one doing "production" work, one would expect a smaller team carrying out multiple operations each. For variation, each team might make several pieces during the day. And even the same piece might be made with a certain selection of color or from scrambled colors that require some color judgment (a good mix rather than poorly mixed frit.)
There are video tapes around of factories in India that give a clearer idea of what an old-fashioned factory was like - bit boys really are boys, lighting is minimal and dirt floors are the norm. A huge furnace in the middle provides glass and glory holes and a lower level or other side has people providing the heat, shoveling coal or manning the burners.
American factories are getting few and far between. Blenko Glass is perhaps the best known one, featured in "Hearts of Glass" a PBS special that is on as I write this. This Blenko online site shows a lot of their glass. Fenton Art Glass is still in business, making pieces for the Home Shopping Network, although in a given set, some of the pieces may have been made overseas and others at Fenton. Below is a thread on some factories in the U.S.
Posted by Tenn. Tom on 12/6/2000, 10:38 pm, in reply to "
Hire Studio for lamp line"
--Previous Message--
: I am interested in a studio to take on the glass blown parts
for a lamp line.
: I need hand blown glass cylinders approx. 10" dia.X 13"
high.
: Possible colors: milk, spotted amber, cobalt, aubergine, sage,
Chinese
: red, steel blue, ebony, forest, pumpkin, and brown.
: If you cant help, please send anyone you know to me......
: Thanks,
: Ms. Daina Ferguson
:
:Daina: if you're looking for volume in the size you requested
and all those colors about the only people to
contact are Southwestern Glass Co., Van Buren, Ar. or Davis Lynch
Glass co. Star City, W.V. otherwise you'll
probably be looking at an import. you might give Ed Skeels a call
in Calif. he might be interested. If you're
looking for imports, check out China, Mexico, Italy, and the
Czech Republic. If you need more info, contact me
fuhrman@hotcom.net , Tenn. Tom
--Previous Message--
: : --Previous Message--
: I am interested in a studio to take on the glass blown parts
for a lamp
: line.
: I need hand blown glass cylinders approx. 10" dia.X 13"
high.
: Possible colors: milk, spotted amber, cobalt, aubergine, sage,
Chinese
: red, steel blue, ebony, forest, pumpkin, and brown.
: If you cant help, please send anyone you know to me......
: Thanks,
: Ms. Daina Ferguson
:
: :Daina: if you're looking for volume in the size you requested
and all
: those colors about the only people to contact are Southwestern
Glass
: Co., Van Buren, Ar. or Davis-Lynch Glass co. Star City, W.V.
otherwise
: you'll probably be looking at an import. you might give Ed
Skeels a call
: in Calif. he might be interested. If you're looking for
imports, check
: out China, Mexico, Italy, and the Czech Republic. If you need
more info,
: contact me fuhrman@hotcom.net , Tenn. Tom
Try the boys at Blenko in Milton WV. They have the color and can
handle your volume. Contact Matt the
designer there at 304/743-9081.
Henry