Hot Glass Bits #14

Contact Mike Firth

July 1993 [REPRINT]

Copyright, Mike Firth, 1993, 2000

Prev.Issue 13 Link to HGB Table of Contents Next Issue 15

BLOWER VALVE CHIHULY TECHNICAL PUNTY PAD
CANDLE HOLDERS BENCH WIDTH HANGER HEIGHT MARVER PLACEMENT
GLORY PICKUP GLORY REBUILD JAPANESE GLASSWORKER DYMAX UV GLUE
INDEPENDENT SKEELS FEEDBACK STRIKERS TWEEZERS
CGCA 1994 GLORY HOLE SESSION HEAT BLOWING EXERCISE
DIVAS ART PBS CHIHULY DIVAS VISIT GLASS ART
STEVE TOBIN GLASS MAGAZINE FACE SHIELDS TIL CULLET
CAMERA LINO FLOWER TOOL CARE EAST TEXAS
VIDEO GLASS 5,000 Y BRAD ABRAMS GLASS MISCELLANY
STAINLESS FACE SHIELD ODD BOTTLES COKE AD
COLOR SWAP

This issue contains deadline information, August 20, 1993 (also 11/19) for CGCA Fellowships.

Hot Glass Bits is a personal chronological record of my wanderings through glass blowing and the bits and pieces of knowledge I gather along the way. It includes things I try, thoughts I have, information I receive, and reports on things I do. In many ways it is an edited diary and events calendar about glass blowing. If it is useful to others, the effort is rewarded.

TIL - Things I Learned. In this issue, TIL is used at the start of some short items that represent useful items I learned.

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BLOWER VALVE - I added a gate valve to the blower plumbing, having fought several times with trying to adjust the flap on the side of the blower. 2" metal gate valves are about $25 and PVC ball ones about $18 and very stiff. So I built mine out of wood, with a sliding valve to open. 6/12/93

CHIHULY - With a little time to think back on the trip (and a glance at Hot Glass Bits #13, which just went in the mail as I start this), I recall the endless variety of glass and the many earnest people. G.A.S. is not just artists, but includes collectors and academicians, so a conversation at a session might well go off in a variety of directions. I stood in the Detroit Museum, watching Dale Chihuly hold court in the middle of his spectacular exhibition, with his girlfriend (as he introduced her) looking young and spectacular beside him, greeting collectors ("well, you have to get one of these too" at $15,000), fellow blowers, lady friends, and fans. I never said anything to him as I couldn't think of anything that half a dozen others were saying. I really like his work. One person I visited with said that he didn't think there where any great artists (of any kind) since 1940; I think Chihuly is and his pieces could and should be shown beside great pieces of other media.
TECHNICAL HOBBY - Glass is perhaps the second most technical hobby I have encountered in my life's wanderings, having been in on the early days of personal computers. And like computers, it is an area that rewards competence. Along the way, I met Mark Mathews and Frederick Burkhill two "mild mannered" appearing people (rather than "artistic") who are leaders of a niche area in American glass (stunning marbles and flameworking respectively.)
PUNTY PAD - I found it interesting that most of the well practiced artists I saw on the trip used a patch of glass on the bottom of their pieces for attaching the puntle. The bigger the piece and the thinner the bottom, the more automatically it was put in place. Besides spreading the stresses, it absorbs any tearing of the glass on removal from the punty and allows grinding for smoothing.
CANDLE HOLDERS - When I get some workable glass, I want to try some paperweight candle holders. I was struck by a design in a Kroger that was very much like a paperweight with the top pushed in. Of course, to be rational the hole must be candle sized and deep enough and to be artistic the interior of the design must play with or off the shape. Whether a design of this kind aims at catching the light of other candles beside it is another question. 6/13/93
The B Team, as a training exercise, did Pass the Punty, which we didn't do very well with. According to the "rules", after the piece was blown, it was punted in any way the blower wanted (presumably awkwardly.) The punty handler then had charge of the piece and was to seal the break and apply the punty of a third person, who then had to seal the punt mark of the second. This keeps going, with the glass getting heavier and perhaps colder if not reheated properly, until someone drops it. It should be fast and be focusing on glass handling problems. We tended to focus on adding decorative bits.
Thor, of the B Team, makes hearts ... two auricles, two ventricles, the stubs of the vena cava and aorta coming off the top.
One of the projects the B Team did (explored) was each of the four making a glass object about the size of a double handful (heart, piston, horse, and one I forgot) which were placed in the annealer to hold. Then two bowls about 15 inches across were blown and punted. Two of the smaller pieces were placed (with a hot bit) in each bowl and the bowl edges were heated and sealed.
Thor Bueno gave a lecture/demo at the B Team Workshop on painting glass, which he does as a main feature of his work. He uses silica based pigments (don't breathe them) in a pine oil binder from Paradise & Co. [2902 Neal Road, Paradise CA 95969 916-872-5020, they are a sponsor of the tour, say Thor sent you.] These paints are gooey. Thor advises using yellow with the red to keep the red from going brown. The color has to be thick enough to gather over (and blow) but thin enough to bring up to heat without cracking (he takes 2-8 hours.) He sandblasts his glass for tooth. The colors look wet when set (1550 or so) and the molten glass should not be super hot. Thor blows ball shapes, anneals them, pops the top with a diamond scratch and a small torch, paints the inside and/or outside of the cup and then reheats and picks it up with a new hot gather or globe. He makes sure the tip is especially hot so it fits, bubble free, in the bottom of the cup. 6/13/93

TIL BENCH WIDTH - A bench can be too wide. If the arms are too far apart, the hanger ring and the glass will be too close and may bump the arms. (Of course, it can be too narrow, since most people work with their arms to the right of the bench's arms and need space for free movement for the left arm. 6/13/93

TIL HANGER HEIGHT - A pipe hanger can be too high. It is awkward to place a vertical pipe well above eye level and it can place the hot part of the pipe at too convenient grabbing level. (Of course, it can be too low, preventing hanging a big piece of glass and bumping people's heads. But most people don't hang big pieces. A hanger at 6' for a standard 54" pipe - with the hanger stop about 10" from the tip - leaves 28" clearance.

TIL MARVER PLACEMENT - I thought was convenient to put my marver plate across the front of my standup work bench ... until I put the water bucket for wood and paper on the shelf behind it and found myself dribbling water across it. Haven't quite decided whether to put the marver on a separate stand or see how it works on the left side of the bench. 6/13/93 [Put it on the side, with an angle brace and it is working rather nicely. 7/17/93]

Deborah of the A Team likes to use stainless steel paddles, having a pair with large diameter handles and a sort of spatula shaped blade very stiff with one square and one rounded corner. One use is cutting in a slot in a hot patch of glass added to a piece.

GLORY PICKUP - In order to blow out of a glory hole, besides needing a glory hole and a kiln/lehr, there has to be something in the glory hole to hold a modest quantity of melted glass to wrap the punty or pipe to pick up preheated glass from the lehr. My experiments with cheap little pot bases have ended. Now that I am consistently getting over 2100°F, they are coming apart early. I may try molding and firing my own with materials already on hand - clay and fire brick - and try some Castolite. 6/15/93

GLORY REBUILD - Rebuilt the glory hole to make it deeper and to move the burner port down and forward. This changed some of the insulation from 4.5" to 2.5". Drilled out the burner hole to #50 and built a gate valve for finer air control. Got up to 2050 while working (2100+ while door closed.) I got my diamond shears and worked some glass, fusing bottles and using some molten. Made a cute little pot on the 1/4" IPS pipe from molten bottle glass, necked it, transferred it to a 1/4" punty, worked the lip a bit and annealed it. 6/18/93

JAPANESE GLASSWORKER - I was watching Japan Today on PBS last night and they announced a story on a glass blower, which I captured part of. Hisako Yasuzawa became interested after seeing glass work in an exhibit four years ago of artwork from recycled material. She studied for three years Okazaki Iichi prefecture. Her husband, Kizo, took 20,000,000 yen ($190,000) from his retirement fund so she could build a two story studio standing alone next to a rail line. She has 40 students, who are shown reacting with hilarity to each other's efforts. She uses recycled glass, broken bottles with label removal required. Kids were shown bringing bottles and admiring little freehand formed solid animals. She does mostly colored vessels. 6/19/93

DYMAX UV GLUE - Dewey Associates, Inc. [2019 Fourth Street, Jackson MI 49203-4572 1-800-448-2306] sends a flier & price list on Dymax UV curing bonding and repair products along with UV sources. This is what you use to assemble the pieces of glued up glass sculpture. Recommendations are given for glass-glass, glass-metal, polycarbonate-PVC, etc. The smallest quantities of adhesive are $15-17. Curing lamps are $77-$200 and up although test curing could presumably be done with sunlight. 6/19/93

INDEPENDENT GLASSBLOWER #29 [Gruenig Glassworks, HC 30 Box 25, Barnet VT 05821 $25/yr] arrived today with a long article on copper ruby and several recipes some of which are built on proportions others on 7-15 pound batch or other base material. Letters include one from me on my lehr and couple with details or detailed answers on fuming, fiber by the pound and furnace making. Full page ad from Wilton Tech for their burner. 6/21/93

SKEELS FEEDBACK - Got feedback from Edward Skeels on entries in HB#13. Skeels Glass [101 S. Coombs D-4, Napa CA 94559, Voice&FAX 707-253-2287] is representative for Keith Orr Blowpipes and produces, according a photo ad and bio flier, air twist stem goblets and tall champagne glasses based on production shop techniques. Edward Skeels either copied or returned #13 with comments. He objects to my word "introduced" as the Keith Orr pipes have been around since '86, which I accept, but I had never heard of them. He also says the pipe is heavier because of greater wall thickness, not the different grip, but I think I was matching equivalent pipes. He suggests a higher rate studio is not $30-35/hour, but $500/day, which seems likely, but the numbers I had were for public access; any studio might rent time at any rate - I have heard $300-500/day on occasion. He is against fiber on doors or in glory holes "too many airborne particles." He reacts to my quote of Art Allison about getting bubbles some days with "...only if you don't know what your doing." At least somebody reads these things. 6/21/93

STRIKERS - While I am running corrections, I have found that spark strikers with round wire handles come in two grades and just because there is a wire handle doesn't guarantee it will fumble. The better ones, wire or flat handle, have a cylindrical striker bar inside the cap, rather than a flat stamped one. Unfortunately, most of the strikers I have seen in stores are shrink wrapped with the cap covered

TWEEZERS - Found a giant pair of tweezers in the hardware store el-cheapo bin, marked stainless steel. Had a use even if they heated up wildly, but found they did not conduct heat and nice for some touches in working glass. $4. Have a pair of nice shears, Fizar, also marked stainless, that the dog chewed the handles on. Also don't overheat and cut reasonably well. I am blowing and pulling bottles every couple of days. (Gather a ring of glass on a 1/2" pipe, pick up a bottle from the lehr, sealing to the neck, go from there.) Also working molten, this time from a clay bowl I molded and fired in the lehr. (Made one a bit thicker and didn't let it dry long enough and it exploded all over the inside of the lehr.) Took most of the glass out of it and will see if it will cool and survive. 6/21/93 [Did once, melted later.]

CGCA 1994 Artists Fellowships [Creative Glass Center of America, 1501 Glasstown Rd, Millville NJ 08332-1566 Denise Dendrinos, Program Coordinator, 609-825-6800 x 2733] are available for Feb.21-May 20, May 31-Aug.26 and Sep.6-Dec.2, 1994. Deadline for the first session is August 20, 1993, and for the latter two is November 19. "Preference is given to artists who have had several years experience outside the educational environment." Four fellowships are given per session. The fellows live together in a four bedroom house, receive $500 a month for expenses, have 24 hour access to the studio and all the glass they can use. Fellows assist each other. Studio space is shared with Wheaton Village staff who demonstrate to the public. The public can observe the artists who are expected to work 12 hours/week during public time, but they are not required to demo. Application requires 10 slides and ten copies of paper work, which includes two letters of recommendation, resume, statement and application form. 6/27/93

The application for the CGCA includes a list of past fellows. I have a data base of artists that I have found in ads, have visited, or otherwise send HB to. 40% of the fellows were already on the list. Included was Peter Andres, the blower at Scarborough Faire I mentioned in HB 13. 7/3/93

Judy Weilbacher is the first blowing artist that I knew by name from a show here in Dallas and she has dropped me nice notes in response to questions. I had planned on visiting her studio in the area of Penland whenever I got near there. Having just gotten back from Ohio, I get a note that she has moved to a home with a building for a studio in Chillicothe. 6/28/93

MORE GLORY HOLE - Changed the orifice size on the burner, much bigger than the #50 (haven't measured it yet) and got the glory hole up to 2300 with the front half open. Also shattered the clay bowl that was holding the glass for blowing and picking up stuff, which had twice previously gone to 2020 or so. I will need to get some castable and practice making some small crucibles. 6/29/93

SESSION HEAT - Have taken the glory hole up a couple of times in the last four days. Having little trouble getting to 2150-2200 or more. Tried a Corning Ware bowl as a crucible. It didn't seem to be bothered by the overall hole temperature even as high as 2270 (measured near the wall up the side), but melted and actually ran in the flame of the burner as it bounced off the brick wall. Much whiter heat, easily a hundred hotter, maybe 200. 7/4/93

BLOWING EXERCISE - Convert a Classic Coke bottle into a glass.
Reason: Work with glass with a narrow working range, work to pickup cool glass, work to keep all of the piece heated to avoid cracking, work to heat just the part needed to avoid damaging the rest, release without cracking.
What to do: Buy a six pack of Classic Coke bottles at the grocery store ($2.99) and drink the most expensive Coke outside an airport hotel. Clean the bottles and place one or more upside down against the side of or on a wire frame in the cold lehr. Run the temperature up to 1000-1050. Prepare a punty, fairly hot (one of the points to practice. You may wish to put some cheaper - disposable - soda bottles in for pickup practice.) Pickup the bottle, being careful to center the punt point on the bottom and then to center the bottle in line with the rod. Work in the glory hole to do initial heat evenly and then to keep the bottle centered. Bottle glass is very "short", having a narrow working range, sagging suddenly when hot, hardening up quickly when out. It may be necessary to work the glass standing up to gain working time. Open out the neck and let it contract toward the bottom. Try to avoid overheating and blurring the words on the bottle. While working reheat the whole bottle. If the bottom gets cold it will crack going back in. Work the lip to make a glass or flared lip vase. Carefully drip the punt end and watch the glass closely while preparing to release. You should see the cracks form and get to the annealer quickly. Tap the puntle very gently or you will lose the bottom of the bottle which is thinner than many pieces. 7/4/93

You are invited to submit an exercise that you have learned or developed that is useful in training or practicing for a specific skill. Write it up or talk it out on tape and drop it in the mail.

DIVAS ART GLASS - Had a good chat with Shirley Daniel and Terry Maxwell about their operation, Divas Glass, in Burleson, just south of Ft.Worth. They have shut down for the summer and are rebuilding their furnace while working with flat glass in the cooler part of the day. They expect to start up again in September and do some teaching starting in October. They will be charging $25-35 per hour for blow time including use of tools, normal annealing and a rough grind. They use Steinert pipes as well as several lighter ones made by Terry's husband. Terry started out with a glory hole about three years ago and "apprenticed" at Prosper TX at Pipe Dreams (Jay von Koeffler's place) working with Mark Boutte' as he built equipment. As reported earlier, she and Shirley set up their studio last fall. 7/5/93

Terry also reports that Jay has rearranged his stuff in Wimberly, where he moved last summer. He now has gallery space downtown and has moved his studio from five miles outside of town to about three miles outside (if I read my notes correctly.) He also charging $5 for his public nighttime blowing sessions on Friday and Saturday. 7/5/93

PBS CHIHULY - PBSis running a documentary called Chihuly (July 5 at 2:30 pm and July 8 at 12:30 am here in Dallas) that is stunning. It covers the prep for the Seattle Art Museum show last year. It includes very close-up photography of the blowing, plus a lot of Chihuly talking about the people and the process. I video taped it, but can't copy it under copyright laws, though I will show it when possible. Catch it if you can. This is not the same as a show called Chihuly, Glass Master. 7/5/93

DIVAS VISIT - Visited with the ladies of Divas Glass, to show them pictures of my trip, see their cold equipment and chat. I try to get to Ft. Worth museums every couple of months or so, and this was my primary reason for being in the area. The three FtW museums are in walking distance and seem to average better shows than Dallas. Well worth the trip this time. Got to look at Terry's husband's commercial machine shop next door, very impressive equipment, which Terry and Shirley have used to make a cane marver (grooved) and which was used to make most of the nice looking pipes they use. 7/6/93

GLASS ART '93, the annual juried show of the East Texas Glass Artists [Barbara Williams, Treasurer 102 W. College, Longview TX 75601 903-753-8103, meets second Tuesday of Feb.,Apr,Jun,Aug,Oct & Dec.] will run July 17 to August 29 at the Longview Art Museum. The deadline for the show, July 10, will pass before I send this, but I just heard about it. Entry is for members only, $15 membership may be paid with entry fee ($10 for one/$25 for three.) Entries from all over the nation were received in 92. 7/6/93

STEVE TOBIN, who blew a record breaking bottle mentioned in a previous HB, sent be a Polaroid of his 43' Water Column at the American Craft Museum with a note, "Anything is possible." You can see roughly the same picture in the June/July issue of American Craft magazine.

GLASS MAGAZINE #52 - Summer '93 [647 Fulton St., Brooklyn NY 11217 $28/yr, $52/2yr.] has a review of the whole show, "Glass Installations", and Jane Dodds really doesn't like the show or the piece. "The work was so physically excessive that is was nearly impossible to turn one's mind away from the sheer quantity of tubes. ... at home in atrium of a Hyatt ..." The issue includes an interview with Patterson Sims, curator at the Seattle Art Museum; and articles on Ann Gardner who combines old cut glass with blown pieces; on Anna Skibska who makes large (30 cm to 40 feet) pieces from "shoestrings" of flameworked glass; Gaetano Pesce and his experiments in France; and flameworked jewelry. Seems a good issue, with lots of good photos. If nobody in your group is getting it, you might, or pay the library to subscribe. 7/12/93

FACE SHIELDS - Connie & John Sullivan participated in the B Team Workshop with me and brought face shields with welding shading. They had cut them off just below eye level to blow underneath them. I tried theirs and just bought a similar setup for $4.50 for the face shield and $12 for the adjustable head unit. I liked working with it, although I will look for a darker shield (or pair two), since this is about a #2.5/3 and #3/4 welding was recommended in the articles in Independent Glassblower #18 on eye protection where infrared was found to be the greatest risk. 7/14/93

TIL CULLET - I have been blowing molten Spruce Pine batch cullet given me by Divas. Last night I got a couple of nice sized (for my 8" glory hole) globes worked. But I also was working some scrap bottles from the annealer and having the softer SP on the punty became a real problem as the piece flopped all over on its softer connection. 7/14/93

CAMERA - I used to carry a camera easily and often, then I got pinholes in the shutter and didn't replace the old Exacta for a dozen years. I bought a lower grade older Pentax a couple of years ago and have taken some good record photos, but I have yet to get back the reflex of taking it and the assertiveness of getting film and asking for the pictures. I have missed several good sets of pictures recently and my regret may drive me to keeping the camera at hand. 7/14/93

LINO FLOWER - Lino Tagliapietra created a flower at the G.A.S. Conference. The glass for the blossom was a clear core to which a purple tip was added that was marvered back over the core, all of which was then cased in clear. The whole was marvered to a slender cone. For each petal, the tip was touched to the flower, stretched and cut. The petal was patterned with a crimper and then gently pulled to a tapered point. 7/16/93

TOOL CARE - In talking with blowers, I find several levels of sensitivity, each of which has to be considered when using a blower's space or when giving classes. The first level is the pipes - blowers are proud that they threat pipes ("even if it looks a bit rough") in a way that makes them last. A bent pipe or one that is overheated is not a way to make friends. The second level is the tools, particularly the jacks, which a beginner may not notice are being used precisely in one area (like the blades) and rather roughly elsewhere (like using the spring area to rap a pipe to crack off a piece.) And finally, there is cold working, a tedious job, which many people don't like, but which, especially polishing, requires patience and not too much force. 7/17/93

EAST TEXAS GLASS SHOW- I went to Longview, Texas, 125 miles east of here, on 7/17, to visit the East Texas Glass Artists show, mentioned above. The show was less than last year and, unfortunately, almost none of the artists were present. It opened with a reception shared with the Citation Show of the East Texas Fine Arts Association, mostly painting, with many people present. The glass show was mostly stained glass, rather nicely done, but was overwhelmed with two pieces from Stephen Rolfe Powell, who makes huge brightly colored single and double bag shapes that sell in the $6-8,200 price range. I was told that last year's larger show, which was a lot more strain and work, had pieces with an average price of $2200. If Powell's pieces are omitted, the average of the other 18 pieces in this show came to $387. I thought the pieces well executed. The most interesting "didn't quite work" items were fist sized chunks of colored glass etched with fossil images; my feeling being that the etching wasn't bold enough for the scale of the chunks. The easiest piece to underrate was an etched mirror with overlapping African animals with delicate shades of etching. The show juror was Jim Bowman of Dallas; all pieces submitted were displayed, 8 place awards and 6 honorable mentions were given to the 20 pieces. 7/18/93

The trip was fun, as I explored a couple of libraries and parts of the town. LeTourneau University has a marvelous CD-ROM access system which I wandered through, coming upon an article in the Smithsonian, February, 1992 on Dale Chihuly, which includes a lot of glassblowing history and how he fits in. Well worth reading if you have missed the (rather shallow) roots of our movement.
If you would like to have a poster of a large brightly colored piece of blown glass, one of the Powell piece is available through the Longview Museum for $25, serving as a fund raiser for the Museum and the East Texas Glass Artists (see above.)

VIDEO - The video of Bill Gudenrath that I mentioned in HB#13 is also available from the The Book Exchange [1-800-752-0196, 90 W.Market St., Corning NY 14830] for the same $45 price, according to an ad in Glass magazine. They are also pushing a $60 book, GLASS 5,000 Years Edited by Hugh Tait as having a step-by-step section by Gudenrath on techniques. "The Book Exchange maintains the world's largest selection of glass reference books." 7/18/93

BRAD ABRAMS, who has been involved with glassblowing in Dallas in various ways for several years, is setting up his own studio on the east edge of Dallas, having split from the Texas Hot Shop. He has just laid his pad slab and will be moving equipment, etc., as summer passes. Brad was trained in California and has provided some training for the women at Divas that I have mentioned. 7/18/93

GLASS MISCELLANY - I enjoy looking at glass and am willing to consider ideas. Community Kitchens [1-800-535-9901] primarily sells food products (coffee, spices, sauces) related to southern Louisiana. My wife buys from them the dark roast coffee she grew up with. In recent years, their catalog has come to include wonderful yuppie gadgets ($900 Capucino maker) and a fair amount of glass. They like cobalt and dark green. Among designs I like is a tapered footed Pilsner glass that has no stem (sold in a set that includes a board with cutouts at the corners to hold the foot. There is a really ugly, plumpy crystal heart with color inside sold as a bud vase. The most interesting source of variations might be the "Double-Walled Bain Marie" in borosilicate. In concept, think of a round bottomed scientific flask caved in on one side near the neck and flattened on the other; boiling water is to be poured down the neck, which also acts as the handle, and gravy or other sauce is placed in the caved-in part. How well does it pour? Ah well, it costs fifty bucks to find out. Would our blown glass handle hot water or ice water. Ah .... 7/19/93

STAINLESS PIPE - While I was waiting for the glory hole to get to heat, I cut a stainless tube I have had around for a while, keeping it with much anticipation. This tube was much lighter than the pipes I have been using and when I put a piece in the hole, it discolored and got very hot much further up its length, so it's no good. I could have chosen to cut this piece first and been very discouraged with the results, while I have been happy with my first pipes. The main reason I made the choice was the second pipe was straighter and more highly polished, i.e. it looked better. 7/21/93

FACE SHIELD - I've been doing some research after using the face shield for a while. I like it a lot, but can feel the strain on viewing the furnace. It is about #2.8 on the welding scale (transmits about 10% of the Infrared) while IG article suggests a #3/4 (9% to 5%) is needed. The company which made my shield, Jackson, doesn't make a denser shield. After talking to their rep, a competing company, Glendale, makes #4, 5 and 6 shields, though only #5 is stocked locally. Unfortunately, while the lower rated shield was four and a half bucks, the others are closer to $15. 7/23/93

ODD BOTTLES - Got a very odd gift on the street in downtown Dallas. I was picking up my wife after work and had parked around the corner. As we walked back, there on the sidewalk was a neatly packed box of 24 glass bottles, including many Cokes, but also Dr.Pepper, Sunkist Orange, and A&W Root Beer longnecks, which I didn't know existed. In mixing clear and green glass for my aquarium things, I particularly like the green shade of Heineken beer. 7/24/93

COKE AD - Coca Cola is running a series of ads where a person talks about (or is shown as) being attracted to a person of the opposite sex. One of the silent ones involves a male glassblower being watched by a woman through old fashioned windows. Some nice globes are shown, but the guy is apparently blowing a Coke bottle and the ad ends with him drinking from a full one! (Seen on CBS race coverage.) 7/25/93

COLOR SWAP? Not having done enough blowing to accumulate color bars, I wonder whether it is common for blowers to end up with bars they hate (or just don't want to use.) If you have some color you want to dump, describe it somehow (brand-color #-weight/length) and drop a note. Or drop a note saying it's dumb idea. 7/26/93

I hope the rest of your summer goes well and if you have stopped blowing for the summer, as the heat of the air dies, the heat of your furnace rises. I would like to learn of your activities and places of blowing and showing glass. Cheers.

Three groups of people get Hot Glass Bits at this point: Those who are mentioned in an issue, those I feel like sending a copy to, and those who have paid some money. The only ones guaranteed to get the next issue are the last group.

If you have paid money there should be a date at the top of the label showing the last payment. A payment of $10 a year helps defray costs and guarantee continued receipt. This is not a subscription with a guaranteed number of issues, with 4 being the fewest likely to be sent in a year, 12 the most and 8 or 9 being likely.
36 Artists & 31 DB & 22 Friends total sent

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