Last Rev. 2010-01-06
Home Page: start.htm
Like other online issues of HGB, this one is in reverse date order (for online reading of the newest stuff at the top.)
GAS 2006 - The Glass Art Society will hold its 36th annual Conference in St. Louis, June 15-17. There will be workshops before and after those dates at the Third Degree Glass Factory and Craft Alliance and about two dozen exhibitions will span the dates. Based on demonstrators listed, a lower proportion of blown glass and a greater proportion of Flamework, Flat glass, and Kilnwork compared to some years. Nominal Conference fee is $270 with reductions for registering by April 6, for working at the conference, and for students. Many details on the web site. www.glassart.org 2005-12-21
ROSECO has informed me via e-mail that the situation with metals purchase that I encountered when buying investment has gone away. See here
OPEN HOUSE VISITS - On Saturday, December 3, I went to the initial open houses of two relocated studios and pictures and report are at dalgls05.htm
BOTTLE REDUX - Today I took various parts I had around and combined them into a rotating bottle holder and "cut" a couple of bottles with a fine tip welding torch - worked good with and without scoring. Bottle Cut with Torch I have also revised the page into a bit more logical order. 2005-12-02
BUD HURLSTON - If you look through the early issues of Hot Glass Bits and various places on this site including the Hot Walls page, you will find mention of Bowling Green State and the workshop I attended in 1993. Henry Halem reports on CraftWeb "I was notified that Bud Hurlstone has died. He taught glass and headed the program at Bowling Green State University in Ohio for many years. He studied with Bill Boyson and early on made some fine blown pieces which were very distinctive for their grace and scale." 2005-12-02
DALLAS VETRO OPEN HOUSE - annual Holiday Bash coming up
this Saturday! Holiday Bash Open House 2005
Saturday, November 19 10:00am - 10:00pm Truth or Consequences starts at
7:30pm But be sure to arrive at least one hour early! Vetro
Glassblowing Studio & Gallery 701 S Main St, #103 Historic Grapevine TX
817.251.1668 www.VetroArtGlass.com
We'll be serving wine and appetizers in the evening. One more quick tidbit
of information: Tune into KTVT CBS Channel 11 this Saturday morning at 8am to
see David and Gary featured on television!! The station was so excited to hear
about Vetro's very own "Truth or Consequences" that they wanted to do a story on
it. So check it out on Channel 11 at 8am this Saturday (11/19)!!
2005-11-17
DALLAS MARRSART OPEN HOUSE - MarrsArt, the glassblowing operation of Ron and Chris Marrs has relocated from near downtown Dallas to west of I-35 at 2031 Valley View at Senlac Drive in Farmers Branch and will hold an open house on December 3, 1-8pm. www.marrsart.com 2005-11-15
DALLAS CEDARS OPEN HOUSE - The artists studios in the Cedars area near downtown Dallas, including Jim and Mary Lynn Bowman's glass operation, are having their annual open house this Saturday, Nov. 19, 10am-6pm. By DART train it is just a matter of getting off at Cedars station which is served by all trains. For information on the artists and automobile directions see www.cedarsopenstudios.com. Many of the studios offer snacks and there is a good mix of media. There are three concentrations of artists, one of which is not evident on the map. The old Sears store across from the new police headquarters is now called South Side on Lamar www.southsideonlamar.com and has 10 artists listed under one number (6). A few blocks nearer downtown on the divided portion of Griffin Street called Griffin St. East are half a dozen operations including Bowmans' www.bowmanglass.com . And a substantial number of blocks away from town beyond Corinth and the railroad tracks, seven artist studios will be open. In between, nine studios will be showing stuff. There will be some sort of shuttle between the various studios - last year it was a mix of tractor drawn trailers with hay bales and truck drawn trailers with benches. 2005-11-14
DALLAS REES BOWEN SPIRALGLASS - sends an e-mail to announce the opening of their relocation to 3500 Commerce in Dallas in the area between Deep Ellum and Fair Park. www.spiralglassinc.com [Caution: I am not sure there is really anything on the site as all that loads in several dialup minutes is a MacroMedia Flash logo with no apparent bypass.] With the studio they are opening The Firehaus Gallery and having their annual glass open house, 3-9 pm, the weekend after Thanksgiving (03 December, 2005). 2005-11-14 [3500 Commerce is a long narrow building running between Main St. and Exposition where streets take some strange bends and technically Commerce doesn't exist right there. Three buildings built wall to wall and the parking have four different street addresses, two of which are the old names of adjusted sections of streets. The building next door facing the bent section of Main Street is 3511 Pacific, the parking on the other side is 3606 Main, and the building beside the "Commerce" end of the building, across the parking lot is 110 Exposition. Ah, the good old parts of Dallas. Amuse yourself on the Dallas interactive map you will have to put in 3500 Commerce, the map URL's are too big for FrontPage. Select 2005 Aerial Photos also.]
UPDATE - After a small flurry of messages that contained clues about how to do it, I threw together a bottle neck melting/stretching rig that worked nicely bottle I was surprised that the bottles don't seem to require annealing, probably because of the thin glass and the relief due to stretching while hot. I have also been editing and adding stuff in the Tool Glossary and the narrative about blowing a piece - adding more description of what is happening with the glass and added optical glass related items, like lenses, to the Glossary of Other Words. 2005-11-08.
DEATH - "As a note of interest I thought I would inform you that Steve Mc Carroll, a well known glass artist from the Seattle area was killed in a motorcycle accident in Portland Oregon on Oct.7-2005. Thought you might be able to pass this on to others who knew Steve. Thank You, L.E. Carroll" 2005-10-22
G.A.S. 2007 - While the 2006 Glass Art Society Conference
will be held in St. Louis, a call has been issued for lectures, demonstrations,
and panels that incorporate the theme, "Transformational Matter" for the 2007
Conference in Pittsburgh, June 7-9. These are due Jan. 1, 2006 (about 70
days from now) For more information on the conference theme please go here:
http://www.glassart.org/Pittsburgh_2007.html To submit a proposal 1)
Fill out the presentation proposal form:
https://www.glassart.org/files/docs/2007CallforProposalsPittsburgh.pdf
2) Send the completed form and support materials no later than January 1, 2006
to the Glass Art Society office, 3131 Western Avenue, 2005-10-20
FLICKR - if you haven't encountered FLICKR, the photo place with keywords to bring images together here is a place to start http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/glassblowing/show/ which is a slide show of glassblowing images. It really really helps to have a high speed connection (I don't). It really also helps to know that mousing over the upper border shows some controls and over the lower border shows a bunch of thumbnail previews that can be clicked on. Some of the pictures are really neat. (and some are of course, not, either as photos or glass.) If you have a slow connection, it is faster to let the browser run the slide show while doing something else then pause the show (at the top) and back through the already loaded and cached images. If you let it run to the end of the images on that page, it asks if you want to see more or loop and loop runs through them at a speed set by a slider in the top mouseover area. 2005-10-15
A GALERIE OF GLASS is being held here in Dallas at Carlyn Galerie with opening reception October 20th and running through Nov. 13th. http://www.carlyngallery.com/ (out of date) 214-368-2828, 6137 Luther Lane. Usually a pretty good annual show. About 40 artists listed.
REC.CRAFTS.GLASS
the news group had posted a note about a furnace made in Italy which has the
interesting feature of draining out the bottom and tilting for pouring or
getting at the glass. Because it uses frames, to look at it you will have
to go to http://www.falorniglass.com
skip the intro, choose English, choose products at the top, choose microglass.
SOFA - The annual Chicago Sculpture Objects & Functional Art show, which includes a lot of glass, runs October 28-30 on Navy Pier. Check it out, along with extra features at www.sofaexpo.com
FURNACE NOTES - Have added to the furnace page a link to a
neat site showing a commercial pot furnace
rebuild at Kokomo glass and a discussion of
the state of gas vs. electricity.
EMPTY BOWLS 2006 - Also, first notes on the 2006
Empty Bowls project here in North Texas. 2005-10-01
FIDLER WORKSHOP -
Tsunami Glassworks Presents Glass Artist Greg Fidler for a glassblowing workshop
!
Tsunami Glassworks is proud to host a three day glassblowing workshop by glass
artist Greg Fidler, themed “Methods of Manipulation”.
When: October 24, 25, 26, 2005
Where: Tsunami Glassworks
1167 Mercer Street
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
N9A 1N8
519-258-7620
info@tsunamiglassworks.com
www.tsunamiglassworks.com
Greg Fidler will be demonstrating varied techniques resulting in forms from
traditional functional vessels to organic sculptural shapes. Slide presentation
and open discussion included.
The cost of the workshop is $300.00 Canadian Dollars or $240.00 US Dollars per
student.
All skill levels welcome!
Class size is a maximum of 20 students.
Discount accommodations can be arranged with the assistance of the Tsunami
Glassworks team. PLEASE REGISTER BY OCTOBER 10th TO SECURE YOUR SPOT
[Because of the relatively large number of people involved and the relatively
low cost, I wrote to confirm this was not a hands on class. The answer was
that hands on work might be possible for individuals evenings. Check
ahead. MF]
GLASSCOLOR.COM sends out a monthly (or so) e-mail sales reminder if you are interested in what they have on sale. The one that arrived recently has color sale discounts tied to Katrina relief and CERF and sale prices on items from gloves to split molds. www.glasscolor.com 2005-09-18
JOB WANTED - I am looking for work that does not involve continuous standing or sitting, either of which is causing problems because of my bout with Lyme disease. An ideal would be take advantage of my writing, teaching, and computer experience (more than a decade of each) while working at a computer, either here at home or in the Dallas area where I can arrange the equipment for use sitting or standing alternatively. Let me know if you know of something. 2005-09-08
CORNING STUDIO - The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass (www.cmog.org) has announced its Winter 2006 one week classes starting 9 Jan. with Glassblowing classes including Challenging the Vessel, Graphic and Color Systems, Beginning, Intro to Venetian Techniques (2), Next Steps, Advanced Venetian Techniques. Also, in week 5 includes Rollups of kiln fused tiles, and week 3 has a class with Paul Stankard on imbedding lampworked ideas in clear glass. Each week also has sessions in 2 or 3 additional topics, most often in Lampworking and Kiln-Working but also Cold Working, Stained plus Fused, and Painting. Each weekly class costs $675 tuition, $430 R&B, and air fare (~$330 Dallas-Corning via Detroit or Phil. over Sat. advance purch) and $50 for two rides Corning-Airport. A rental car is not needed. 2005-09-07
VERMICULITE Board - a discussion interlocked across several newsgroups points at
this Heta UK Skamolex
Vermiculite Panels with wondering about being sold in USA. It turns
out that Bullseye and Seattle Pottery carry it.
I asked the company for samples to see how it crumbled, etc., and got 3x4x1"
blocks and a nice notebook. The hard board seems suitable for walls of
kilns, especially well below its fairly high temperature ratings (typ.1100C,
2012F) and is supposed to take grooving for elements. Since it is created
by pressure without significant binders, it should not burn out. This
discussion is completed at refracto.htm#SKAMOL
NEW BOOK: From: "paul" <phaywort@bigpond.net.au>
Subject: new glass blowing books Date: Thursday, August 18, 2005 4:46 AM
Hi Mike, Glassblowing from the Furnace by Charles Bray very good
Society of Glass Technology £25
Paul Hayworth, RMB 279 Lake Cathie, 2445 NSW, Australia 2005-08-18
GAS NEWSLETTER - has become a good source of Resources (including competitions), Classes & Workshops (2 pages), Exhibitions (2 pages), and Seminars, etc. www.glassart.org
EUGENE GLASS SCHOOL - has announced their schedule for July through December 2005. www.eugeneglassschool.org The schedule includes a lot of torch work and fusing, but mixed in are a Beginner Hot Shop (Sept.24-25, Dec.10-11, $145), Youth Hot Shop (Oct.15-16 $145), an Elderhostel 3 way class (Oct.17-28), Intro.to Off-Hand Sculpting (Nov.19-20 $145), Hot Glass Sculpture with Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen (Nov.28-Dec.2 $795) 2005-08-01
TRAVELS - Back from my longish trip driving the upper Midwest. Visited 6 glassblowing operations in four states along the way and had reasonable visits at most of them. The trip also involved a 45th high school class reunion, a couple of serious museum visits, time with my sister after over ten years, and research on my great aunt, a painter. A summary exploration of all aspects of the trip is posted here.
SNOW FARM - is the long running craft program in western Massachusetts. www.snowfarm.org Over the next few months, glassblowing related stuff includes Intermediate Aug.11-14; Beginner Aug.15-20; Beg to Int Aug.21-26; Beginner Sep.3-5 and Sep 2-Oct.1; Int.to Adv. Oct.8-10 plus add-on 11-13. For instructors and costs, visit the web site. Typical is (Tuition $355 plus $100 lab fee) room & meals $140 for a 3 day, (Tuition $360 plus lab fee) room & meals $190 for a 4 day. Attending can be a family affair because many other crafts are offered: flameworking, welding, ceramics, metal smithing, fiber arts, woodworking, photography, painting, polyclay, and much more 2005-07-01
GAS 2005-2006 - "The 36th Annual Glass Art Society
Conference will be held in St. Louis, Missouri, June 15-17, 2006. Brochures with
conference details will be mailed in late October 2005; registration will open
November 2005.
For a complete list of 2005 GAS Conference presenters, additional details, and
photos please contact the GAS office. A full report on the conference will be
published in the 2005 Glass Art Society Journal, available in February 2006."
Release
In looking through the press release, I found the International Student
Exhibition results curious. Out of "126 pieces by 86
students enrolled in glass programs in 10 different countries", three places and
11 honorable mentions were given. Exactly one came from the USA, Erika Tada,
Rochester Inst.of Tech. who took First Place. Ten of the awards went to
Australians, 2 to Japanese and one to a New Zealander. Now I am not familiar
enough with native names of the last three to guess their sex [Miyuki, Yukako,
Vashti], but of the other eleven, two are guys and nine are gals. The judges
were two from Bullseye Glass and the other from Britain. 2005-06-23
CGCA - The Creative Glass Center of America [CGCA] in Wheaton Village NJ has announced the application deadline for their 2006 fellowships as 9 Sept. 2005. Since the application involves multiple copies of several items, I refer you to the online information www.creativeglasscenter.com or call 800-998-4552. This year the application will accept a CD-ROM of images in a specific minimum resolution (4x5"@350 dpi) as well as slides. CGCA provides a monthly stipend, free housing, and studio access with assistants for either 3 months or 6 weeks. Four artists are selected for each of 2 long sessions and two for each of 2 short sessions spaced throughout the year. I visited the Village in 2003 and studio images are here. 2005-06-10
URBAN GLASS FALL 05 - UrbanGlass has sent out its fall 05 schedule [with, incidentally, a cute picture of a gal in overalls with a gasoline powered leaf blower and ear protectors, blowing a thick layer of fallen leaves off the tile floor in front of a furnace! Considering the urban location, it is even funnier.] Skipping the weekly classes useful only to residents, the most interesting items seem to me to be an open mold casting weekend (Oct 15-16, $250) using clay sculpting and refractory molds and an Intro to Neon the same weekend and Dec. 5-8 ($400) and workshops in Rollup (Oct. 10-14, $800), Keeping it Fresh with alternate furnace techniques - garage, large torch, etc.- (Nov 7-11, $800) with one day workshops Dec. 3 and 4th ($185) in blown glass ornaments with two different instructors. www.urbanglass.org 2005-06-07
DOLLY - It is with great regret that I report the sudden death from intestinal sepsis of my wife's Seeing Eye dog, Dolly, with no prior warning illness. This is part of a number of problems that are creating financial constraints that I had not anticipated and which may prevent me doing a number of things I had hoped to do during my "retirement." 2005-06-06
GOOGLE GLASS - If you have not discovered the directory operation of Google (I hadn't), you might start with Google Directory - Arts > Visual Arts > Sculpture > Sculptors > Glass or Google Directory - Arts > Crafts > Glass > Blowing which on further exploration is the Open Directory Project used by several search operations.
CARLISLE SCHOOL - As a furnace glass site, lampworking is a peripheral interest to me, but some of you might like to take in the school that has been created in Millville NJ by the Carlisle torch people as promoted in a .pdf file sent me. The school is located next to the manufacturing facility and will be adding warm glass kilns in the future. http://www.carlisleschoolofglassart.com "The Carlisle School of Glass Art will feature a highly engineered facility including twelve flame-working stations and one teacher or demonstration area. Each station is ergonomically designed and has a stainless steel worktop and a personally manifolded and regulated fuel/oxygen supply. 'Our ventilation system is ground-breaking,' and involves an air curtain to provide forced ventilation at each station. 2005-05-25
2005-05-19 This have been a fairly dull time for glass for me. I have been working on some molds for glass and some quirky stuff for brass casting goblet stems. I should be looking for glass studios around the upper mid-west for my trip later this summer, but I haven't started yet. I have started selling on eBay, starting off with unused (non-glass) tools and old computer magazines, with some thought of offering unique glass later on.
DIGITRY GB5 - Digitry sent me a lovely large, glossy,
color post card announcing their new GB5 system. Since details were
missing, I jumped on their web site,
www.digitry.com , to get more info. Nada. After a follow up e-mail, I
learned that the webmaster wasn't keeping up! Given how long it takes to
produce high quality color printing and doing a mailing, and what kind of
sharing of resources should be going on .... So they mailed me printed info.
In any case, the DB5 is an upgrade of the DB4 which has been around for
years and is apparently discontinued. The GB1 single unit is still in the
price lists. Not having the GB4 specs in front of me, I can't guess at changes.
The features being promoted for the GB5 include communications, remote display,
and power sharing. More here
The GB5 can control up to 5 units, kilns or furnaces. As always,
there is the question of whether having the whole shop controlled by one unit
that might fail is a good idea. My questions have always included the
cost. The basic cost is $1465 with two sending units, adding $275 for PC
software and additional fees for other stuff. Each additional sending unit
(one per oven) is $55. Staying with basic pricing, 5 units are $327 each
unit controlled,
4 are $395 each, 3 are $508.33, 2 go $732.50.
MY WORK - Not melting glass right now. Got on a kick of making a two piece clay mold that might make a golf trophy bottle and followed that with an idea about blowing glass in the shape of a head and/or doing wax to make a brass helmet or form that would make the glass fill the holes in a head shape.
WINDSOR ONT - Tsunami Glassworks Inc.: Grand Opening of
Windsor’s First Hot Glass Studio on April 15, 2005 !
Tsunami Glassworks Inc. is pleased to announce the Grand Opening of the first
hot glass studio in Windsor, Ontario on April 15, 2005, in conjunction with the
State of Michigan’s Glass Month activities. The studio will be the first of its
kind in the Windsor area, and will serve as a unique gathering place for local
glass artists and an important cultural resource to the Windsor and area
community.
In addition to state-of-the-art glassblowing and hot glass casting capabilities,
the studio will be open to the public for studio tours, beginner and advanced
glassblowing classes, and rental by other glass artists.
The Grand Opening will be followed by a weekend Studio Open House and Sale, and
you are invited cordially to attend. We hope to see you there!
When: Friday April 15 Preview: 12:00 to 6:00 Reception:
6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Studio Open House and Sale Saturday April 16, Sunday April 17 10:00 am to 6:00
pm
info@tsunamiglassworks.com
www.tsunamiglassworks.com
studio: 519-258-7620 1167 Mercer St., Windsor, Ontario N9A 1N8
GLASS ART SOCIETY DEADLINE - April 15th is the last day to
register for the GAS conference in Australia at the reduced rates, $270 vs $295.
After April 15, please register onsite.
Glass Art Society's 35th Annual Conference,
GAS@Ausglass, Adelaide, Australia, May 7-9, 2005
Register on-line with Visa or Master Card:
http://www.glassart.org/2005conference.html
Conference information is available from the Glass Art Society web site:
http://www.glassart.org/Australia_2005.html
MICHIGAN GLASS MONTH - I find it impressive that
this has continued over the years with coordinated openings and shows (in a time
of year that is usually pretty slow)
"The 25th Anniversary Michigan Glass Month has begun!
From small personal studio glassblowing demos to fantastic exhibitions,
Michigan Glass Month has it all.
The full schedule can be found at:
http://www.reedonline.com/glass/mgm
Photos from previous years are in the gallery - take a look to get an idea
of the scope and variety of Michigan Glass Month.
Thanks to the many artists, studios, galleries, museums (and more) who
open their doors for Michigan Glass Month."
2005-03-31 - Had a pretty good session yesterday blowing glass, mostly into clay molds. Added insulation around outside of furnace - fiberglass - and covered with a sheet metal wrap. I got some new tiny thermocouples in with considerably higher temp insulation so measured several things. The outside wall of the furnace without insulation was showing 400F, while between the insulation and the wall it was 990F. Lot of heat loss, I may repackage the furnace. The glory hole burner orifice got partly clogged so while it was glowing, it was only a yellow heat. Turned off the gas, took out the orifice mount, reamed it with welding tip cleaners, reassembled - lot more heat. Got the SSR in for the 220 volt annealer2, will rig it soon.
ISTAMBUL FOR GLASS - I get these notices. Interesting. A long way
away and a fair amount of money to get there.
"The Glass Furnace is now getting the applications for 2005 courses. The
students who apply until April 30 will receive 10% early application discount.
Please note that class sizes are limited to 6-12 students.
At the Glass Furnace, students from different countries have a chance to work
with world renowned glass artists/masters and discover the mystic city of
Istanbul. They stay in the fully equipped modern campus located less than an
hour from the center and five minutes from the shores of the Black Sea.
The program will start with an Equipment Fabrication course which will be taught
by Eddie Bernard between May 16-27. The students will have a rare opportunity to
learn the essentials of designing and building 'a glory hole and a pipe warmer'
and 'an electric annealing oven'. The summer courses will be run between May
1-October 8
www.glassfurnace.org | tel : +90
216 433 36 93
The Glass Furnace 2005 Course Program
Technical Course: May 16-27 Equipment Fabrication / Eddie Bernard
Session 1 : May 1 - 14 Glassblowing / Bibi Smit
Session 2 : May 22 - June 4 Glassblowing / Davide Salvadore;
Beadmaking / Ulli Egger ; Fusing / Gerry King
Session 3 : June 12 - 25 Glassblowing / Tim Shaw; Lampworking and Neon /
Michael Cain; Kilncasting / Anna Boothe
Session 4 : July 3 - 16 Glassblowing / Fritz Dreisbach; Beadmaking /
Ursula Distler; Mixed-Media / Jonathan Tepperman
Session 5 : July 24 - August 6 Glassblowing / Eddie Bernard&Pamina
Traylor; Beadmaking / M.Michaela Möller
Session 5a : July 31 - August 13 Kilncasting & Hot Casting / Mitchell
Gaudet
Session 6 : August 14 - 27 Glassblowing / B.Jane Cowie; Beadmaking / Julie
Anne Denton; Fusing & Kilncasting / Angela Thwaites
Session 7 : September 04 - 17 ;Glassblowing / Boyd sugiki; Fusing &
Kilncasting / Chantal Royant
Session 7a : September 18 - October 1 Sandcasting & Painted Glass / Robert
Carlson
Session 8 : September 25 - October 8 Glassblowing / Petr Novoty
GLASS MAG MINI-RANT - The latest issue of GLASS, The
Urban Glass Quarterly, #98, Spring 2005, has come over the sill and it is "The
Education Issue". The good news is that the issue does a pretty good job
of covering several major topics of glass education, including the Australian
scene and Klaus Moje; the early history of the Art Glass movement; teaching
philosophy -sculpture vs. vessels; and British and Italian attempts to
have glass schools. And of course all those lovely pictures of glass from
galleries and with gallery and museum show reviews.
My need for a mini-rant comes from an increasing impact of several
remarks in the issue. "Moje and Rae in the pioneering technique of
roll-ups" (page 28) "Littleton ... Leafgreen ... Gulasso ... proper bench
technique" (33) "John Northwood [1884] designed the special tools to hand form
the flower heads and other details."(41) "Every maestro in Venice has his
own highly optimized factory ...."(47)
Hey, wait a minute, "technique", "technique", "special tools", and
"optimized"? Is there the slightest chance GLASS is going to tell us more
or show us any of the details? No. When the new editor came on
board, I sent a note expressing my desire that the best glass magazine would
show techniques for the historic record as well as the entertainment of
collectors and the education of workers and was told that the board requires and
she had committed not to show technique. Thus there is no hot glass
magazine recording and showing technique.
Do you and I know what Australian rollup is? Probably. Bench
technique? Maybe. Special tools? Wait, aren't we supposed to
do everything with a couple of jacks and blocks? Optimized?
What is there to optimize about a bench, a furnace and a couple of helpers?
The first can be found on the internet and maybe the second, which is
somewhat covered in books. But it takes real digging to discover that most
production shops past and present have special tools to speed repetitive tasks,
more digging to find what some of those look like and even more to get a
suggestion of how they are used. Crimps, special punties, hand molds?
Nope.
Museum journals may report on finds, yet glass workers sneer that the
researchers don't understand the basics of making glass. UrbanGlass is
ideally situated to have knowledge of techniques, old and new; to demonstrate
them; and to record them in their quarterly. They refuse to do it and that
deserves a mini-rant if not a criminal sentence. 2005-03-22
ANNEALER 2 - Doing continuing work on Annealer 2 2005-03-10
GLASS TALK RADIO 2 Hi everybody this is just a note from The Glass Talk Radio Show. www.glasstalkradio.com For today's show March 8 2005 I will talk to Yvette Sterbenk from the Corning Museum of Glass, Jim Williams from the Steinert Glass School, and Wendy Meeres from Red Deer College in the first in a series of educational shows for those of you that would like to take classes in the coming spring and summer. MORE
KITTRELL-RIFFKIND - is the principal place to see blown and other worked glass in the Dallas area. Located north of the Galleria in the upper class area of Dallas, it is far enough away that I get to see it less often than I should. There is a way to get there by bus, but when I rented a car for the weekend and my wife had an appointment not too far away, I wandered over for a look around. The arrangement and layout haven't changed much since I took pictures at the Blowout they sponsored. If I had to say anything, the current holdings are more ordinary than the lead displays I have seen in the past but looking very good. I particularly noticed a large bowl with patinaed copper around the edge with added wire so it looked like a forged rope adhered to the bowl rim. On a considerably smaller scale I noted brightly colored aluminum wire, fairly thick, formed into a tapering spiral to hold a couple of fairly large marbles that spun in the draft. A couple of putters on the wall have flat triangular glass heads shaped to take the stress and can be used for golf "but not the part about throwing your club" says Barbara Kittrell. Non-functional perfume bottles were created by looping out and back (kind of a diamond shaped donut) and then putting a stem in through the top that projects into the open hole - no perfume space. And near the door, I liked a hanging ornament of spiral design that turned on its string and a flattened disk, not unlike a large compact. And in general, I liked having a number of the pieces hung so they could move - not just on hooks, but on lines and hooks. 2005-02-26
MY GLASS - During the last session, I once again blew into a hammered copper tube and once again had to chip the glass out of the tube even though the glass was shattered, because the copper shrinks down on the glass. More 2005-02-24
500 GLASS OBJECTS+ - "Lark Books is pleased to
announce that we have expanded the concept of 500 Glass Objects to include a
wider variety of glass forms. The title is now 500 Glass Objects, Functional and
Sculptural. The deadline for entries to be received by us has been extended to
April 15, 2005. As originally decided, the entries are to be juried by Maurine
Littleton of Littleton Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Our popular 500 series showcases the best in contemporary craft. In an 8 x 8,
gallery-style format that allows only one large image per page, 500 Glass
Objects will focus on stunning, contemporary studio glass using a variety of
techniques. Call for Entry as well as the guidelines/entry forms are available
on our website at:
www.larkbooks.com/Submissions/ArtistEntryForm-500GlassObjects.asp . Susan
Mowery Kieffer, Editor Ext. 730,
susan@larkbooks.com "
2005-02-16 Spent more than a couple of hours re-cleaning up my scan of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica article on Glass http://firthm.home.mindspring.com/ebglass.htm after finding that none of the images were loading. Particularly frustrating because FrontPage apparently persists in resetting names to original (with capital letters) even after changing in Properties page, so have to go into HTML view, change and save there. This all came about when my hosts moved to Unix based system which is case sensitive and I put files up all in lower case with CuteFTP. Ironically, XP does a real good job of allowing DOS programs and I have QBASIC and can SHELL out to DOS, then rename files to lower case, which DOS never used to let you do. I have no idea how to rename a group of files with wild cards in Windows. Is that enough jargon?
Did
a blowing session yesterday, along with (too much?) other stuff.
Images are on the molds page along with
comments. It was a "learning experience", which means most of stuff failed
in various ways. By melting some clear glass I had on hand I was able to
experiment with my newer rose crimp. Learned I need a lot more clear glass
- at least 3 inches long and 1.5" diameter with full support behind - like a
blow pipe head - not a tapering cone where the cone heats before the end.
The idea I had of necking down the bottom of
rose
clearly works well. I started making bowls with the folded rim that I want
to arrange and drip water from. One okay, one fumbled, but getting heat
down closer to the base for more flare was not working, probably need to shape
base more before going to punty. Really bad glass, picking up rust from
marver plate before I sanded it off. Used the well cast optic with the slipped
core and got a good shape that I twisted just for the heck of it. 2005-02-15
FREE EVENT
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!
SLIDE SHOW & LECTURE
BY RENOWNED LAMPWORKER
SHANE FERO
SATURDAY - February 19, 2005
7-9pm @ EGS
VIEW MORE OF HIS WORK AT:
http://www.bluespiral1.com/fero/fero.htm
Flameworking with Shane Fero Workshop
February 17-21, 2005
10-5pm $695
http://www.eugeneglassschool.org/ClassSchedule2005_First.cfm
THERE ARE STILL A FEW SPOTS AVAILABLE
IN THIS CLASS, SO SIGN UP SOON!
EUGENE GLASS SCHOOL
575 Wilson St
Eugene OR 97402
541.342.2959
www.eugeneglassschool.org
SNOW FARM, the New England Craft Program in western Massachusetts, [www.snowfarm.org, 3 Clary Road, Williamsburg MA 01096, 413-268-3101] has sent out a booklet with all the 2005 Adult Intensives and Art Indepth Programs. Snow Farm offers a variety of crafts and could be a good choice for a family week or weekend. Most of the glassblowing is Beginning or Beginning to Intermediate, offered about once a month, with Gabriel Colwell-LaFleur. A unique Glass Meets Metal Weekend in May includes casting and blasting but not blowing. An Intermediate to Advanced glassblowing is offered in October. 2005-02-08
2005-02-05 I did the Art in the Hood
tour. The plan was to take my bike on the bus
down to the southeast corner of Dallas to the furthest away studio (See
where, zoom as needed) then catch the bus half way back to do the other
studios by bike. The first part went okay, but the scheduled return DART
bus didn't show up. Instead of waiting an hour, or moving to another route
point in half an hour, I began riding north in beautiful weather. 35.2
kilometers (21.87 miles) later I got home after visiting all the open studios.
Now, I don't enjoy riding this far on a bike and my reaction to climbing hills
does not include the word joy. This is further than I have ridden in
decades. Admittedly, it was done in phases.
Brad Abrams' studio is bigger that the last time I visited. The wooden
building next to the space burned and damaged equipment, but now the space has
been extended twice with concrete slabs metal supports and roofing. A pit
with sand permits casting bronze for Brad's wife's sculpture, her studio being
next to last on the tour going north. Brad was on the verge of shutting
down (tonight) the current furnace to move the insulation to a new unit that
stands waiting. Brad is giving classes and rents time at $25/hour.
B & A Glass
Pneumatic mold
Visiting the residential studios of the yarn, jewelry, metal, fabric, and
painting artists was interesting. I was amused that so many had water
features and/or pools/hot tubs ... and how many of these were damaged.
Considerable variety of arrangements were on view. One steel artist works
outdoors under shelter next to the compact enclosed storage for tools. A
painter and a sculptor live in a space best described as studio with bedrooms,
perhaps 2/3's of the space (est.) being the big open work space. One of
the announced studios did not open due to illness and another was manned by
friends due to a funeral.
2005-02-04 Today I did a round trip by bus to deliver
about 25 glass bowls I fused up to Trinity Ceramics for the Empty Bowls 2005 -
also brought back 25 pounds more of clay for trying some clay molds to blow
into. In the paper while riding I found
12th Annual Scent Bottle International at
Kittrell-Riffkind Art Glass [5100 Belt Line at the Tollway, 972-239-7957
http://www.kittrellriffkind.com/
] with reception tonight and show through March 5. KR is the best place to
view a lot of hot glass in Dallas and I haven't been out there for a while.
This show has 50 national artists. Site uses frames, click on Events and Visit
the Exhibition.
TX GLASS WORKSHOPS - The 15th annual flier from Coastal Bend College has arrived to announce Beginning Glassblowing May 23-29 and May 30-June 3 plus fusing June 6-10. All cost $250 with meals and lodging separate and are taught by Jane Duryea, head of the arts division at the college. duryeaj@coastalbend.edu Paperweights and small vessels. www.duryeaj.cosastalbend.edu 2005-02-01
DALLAS ARTIST TOUR this coming weekend, February 5th in southeast. The third annual Art in the Hood tour opens a number of studios, including Brad Abrams glass studio from Noon to 6. A map and discussion of the artists is available at Art in the Hood. 214-381-9191
WARM GLASS BOOK REVIEW - I have gotten a review copy of Warm Glass, A Complete Guide to Kiln-Forming Techniques: Fusing, Slumping, Casting by Philippa Beveridge, Ignasi Domenech, and Eva Pascual, Lark Books, Sterling Publishing, ISBN 84-342-2554-9, originally published Oct. 2003 in Spanish, printed in Spain, 160 pages. http://www.larkbooks.com This is an oversized book with high quality images and good detail. I consider the 21 pages of history of glass to be pleasant but flawed in that it includes too much blown glass and fails to include kiln glass that was being produced by the same people (notably Galle). Ten pages on the nature of glass includes most of the basic information on making glass and kinds of glass. This is followed by excellent detail on materials and tools related to kiln working glass including building molds, etc. The balance of the book goes into considerable detail on the methods of kiln working glass in various projects. A whole series of drawings of profiles of 1, 2, and 3 layers of glass at various temps of slumping and fusing with detailed narrative notes. I find it nice that a couple of pages detail cleaning glass before getting into cutting it. Considerable attention is given to molds and molding methods. Several complete and complicated items are created. Surprisingly, to me, the gallery is extremely modest - 6 pages - although a lot of glass is shown throughout. I consider the glossary (3 pages) inadequate and the index (3/4 page) ridiculous. The glossary would rise to bare minimum if it had page references and the index failed on the first three things I tried to check. If the book is to be used as a reference after first reading, the owner will spend a lot of time searching for half remembered clues unless an index or contents have been made while reading. During reading, I encountered two typos, one minor - the first line of the index is duplicated at the end of the glossary - and one medium - all the viscosities on page 63 have lost their formatting, so 1013.14 appears for 1013.14or 10^13.14 using Spanish period spanning. 2005-02-01
GLASS TALK RADIO is an online show available for download http://www.glasstalkradio.com/index.htm At glasstalkradio@surfsideexpress.com a request for email reminders will give information about upcoming shows like: "Hi everybody this is just a note from The Glass Talk Radio Show. For today's show Feb 01 2005 I will talk to Constance Smith about her book Art Marketing 101 that we have been going through chapter by chapter. I hope you find this to be a true learning experience as well. Each time we talk either I learn several new things or she reminds me about something I should be working on and don't. Following that interview I will talk to Hugh Naggar, who has been doing glass sculpture for 25 years. Hugh gives us not one but two different how to lessons on how to make glass sculpture...." The presentation IS radio, with still images, of the book cover, a drawing of the author, and photos of the small glass pieces and steps in making them. Now each show is also available as an MP3 file.
2005-01-30
I have been fusing thick window glass into bowls for the Empty Bowls project and
casting brass stamps, learning more. The bowls, with the temp I have been
using (3 hours to 1450F, no soak, no rapid vent) are giving a glossy surface
that looks sharp and clear with very slight rounding to the edges. Four bowls
are shown right from various clay molds.
The brass stamps are discussed here
EUGENE GLASS SCHOOL in a booklet which arrived today tells of winter and spring 2005 classes which began Jan.22 most of which run 2-3 days and are listed through June 26. The school, www.eugeneglassschool.org , [575 Wilson St. Eugene OR 97402, 541-342-2959] offers the majority of classes in torch and bead work with some fusing and some Hot Shop, mostly beginning. In the hot shop listings are an Rebuilding Foundations - Intermediate Glassblowing, May 24-28 with Randy Walker, $695, 35 hours and Strictly Murrine, Feb. 25-27 with Hans Ittig pulling cane and rolling up on bubbles and collars using the pasterelli plate. There is also a roll-ups class in March using fused tiles from the kiln. No mention is made in the catalog of housing or meal availability. The catalog is supported with full page color ads. 2005-01-28
GLASS WEEKEND has been announced by the Creative Glass Center of America and the Art Alliance of Contemporary Glass for July 16 & 17 at Wheaton Village in New Jersey. This biennial event is primarily for glass collectors with 20 participating galleries. Demonstrating artists will be Jose Cardiet, Shane Fero, and Hank Murta Adams. www.glassweekend.com 1-800-998-4552. 2005-01-28
PITTSBURGH GLASS CENTER Summer Classes have been announced, May 16 to June 30, one and two week classes, 3 offered each session, Hot Shop, Flame Shop, and Kiln Casting Shop with a couple of special cold working sessions. Some attractive names are included, such as Stephen Rolfe Powell, Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen, Tom Farbanish and Paul Cunningham. Coldworking will be with Jiri Harcuba and Frantisek Janak. Of unique interest might be a session in May (16-21) Building a Glory Hole, Nick Mount with 2 weeks of More Time in the Glory Hole (June 13-25) to improve skills at an Intermediate level, Rick Schneider applying Image in Overlay (6/27-7/2) adding surface color and carving it away and Ben Edols with 2 weeks (7/11-23) of Gather to Garage, building cups from pieces garaged. Costs are $600|$1100 for 1|2 weeks until March 15, then $650|1200 plus $275/week (or more) housing, $40/week for optional brought in lunch plus morning and evening meals and transportation. www.pittsburghglasscenter.org 412-365-2145x201 The hot shop (2560 sqft) is 2.5 times the size of my house and has 2 975 lb furnaces and 8 gloryholes and 8 benches. Class size is 10. 2005-01-28
URBAN GLASS SUMMER classes have been announced, May 2 through June 30, weekend intros, week long workshops, and night classes meeting twice each week for the whole month. Besides furnace glass, there is lampworking, beadmaking, and klinforming. www.urbanglass.org The most interesting classes to me are Exploring Pate de Verre, $700, July 11-15 which has no prerequisite and Solid Off-Hand Sculpture, $750, June 6-10.. More directly related to blown glass is Exploring the Surface, $750, June 20-24. 2005-01-24
Please note that I had a wrong phone number and address for Spiral Arts, now corrected, glos-src.htm#SPI 2005-01-21
HotGlass in the BlueGrass Date: Friday, January 21, 2005
10:53 AM
Hello--I found your website while searching for glass sites, forums and bulletin
boards. If possible, please post
The Lexington Art League, in Lexington, KY, is hosting a juried glass exhibit,
HotGlass in the BlueGrass, from March 11 - April 24, 2005. The juror is
well-known glass artist, Stephen Rolfe Powell. We are extending the postmark
deadline to Friday, January 28! The prizes for this exhibit are exceptional:
$1200 for first place, $700 for second, and $350 for third, plus three merit
awards of $100 each. To download a prospectus, go to our website at
www.lexingtonartleague.org and
click on "call to artists" on the front page. We are accepting slides or digital
images (JPEG files) For more information, please call 1800-914-7990 or send an
email to ksprengnether@lexingtonartleague.org for more information.
Thanks for your assistance! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kate Sprengnether, Visual Arts Incubator, Lexington Art League, 859-254-7024,
www.LexingtonArtLeague.org
GLASS #97 This is the Winter 2005 issue which features a look at Ben Moore's vessels, touring New York for $2 to see the glass installed in subway stations, glass bathroom bowls, history with Scarpa and Venini in 32-42 and a celebration in Tuscany. GLASS info 2005-01-05
THE STUDIO 2005 - The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass (www.cmog.org) has announced its spring and summer courses. Details will be found on the website, which is set up so a direct link is difficult. In spring three are 10 week weekly courses, and weekend and one-day workshops. The newest addition to the weekend is Flat Glass, which includes fusing and enameling, painting on glass, stained glass, photosandblasting, and a course that merges all of these as Flat Glass Techniques (April 16-17). The summer courses run one or two weeks. Every session includes Flameworking, Glassblowing, and some version of cold, flat, or kiln worked glass. In session 2, the glassblowing includes solid cast work. 2005-01-05
GAS 2006 will be in St. Louis, June 15, 2006, and planning is going on now http://www.glassart.org/St.Louis_2006.html for submission by Feb. 1, 2005 [GAS 2005 will be in Australia May 7-9]
URBAN GLASS has announced classes for Spring 2005. Classes are held weekly while workshops are consecutive days. Obviously, classes are appropriate to people living in the area, while workshops are possible for more distant travelers. www.urbanglass.org Workshops include Building a Hot Glass Furnace (1/22-29), Lampworking with Emilio Santini (1/24-28), Beginning Glassblowing (2/19-20), Open Mold Glass Casting (2/26-27), Melting Pot - variant hot and cold glassworking (3/14-18), Photosensitive Glass (5/14-18), Kilncasting (3/14-18), Adv. Beadmaking (3/14-17), Beg. Glassblowing (5/12-13), Sandblasting Glass Beads (3/26), Hot Casting (4/4-8), Creative Lampworking (4/18-22), Venetian Cane (5/6-8) and April weekend workshops in Stained Glass, Neon, Beginning Glassblowing, and Beg. Bead. 2004-11-07
2005 GAS Conference will be held in Adelaide, Australia, May 7 - 9, 2005: Matters of Substance http://www.glassart.org/conferences/australia/