Mike Firth Glass and Related Projects

FUSED & BLOWN - These four pieces hang from a board in the window over the kitchen sink, visible the length of the house. Two of the pieces are blown ornaments, not the best I did, since those went to friends and relatives, although the left one is kept as an interesting event since it has a partition across the middle. The one on the right is just a curved fused piece done on a curved clay mold. The green piece is an example when I was cutting apart Coke bottles, rearranging the pieces and fusing them into clay molds, this one done into clay molded on a petite cookie sheet. I sold the ones that had words from the Coke labels. To avoid putting a lot of holes in the window frame, I put just two hooks there and then hung a board flat from them, installing small link chain across the board so I could hang many pieces in various places. All of these were made fairly early, 1991-92 etc.

VASES & PAPERWEIGHT - The mantle of the false fireplace in my living room has a bunch of glass, some of it Steuben Crystal from the 50's, some of it gifts (the blue in the center of the picture is the base of one) and some of it my own. A timer turns on a small halogen flood light each night and morning to make it more enjoyable. The piece in the center front represents what I like in glass I make: good clear glass with a decoration that is both visual and tactile. The piece behind the red one is the first good piece I made casually - I call it a Shmoo vase after the Al Capp characters and it has three nice little feet, is fairly thin, and declares "I was hot." The two pieces to the right are "weights" made from OPC (Other People's Color) where I take fragments of broken pieces and work the color. The piece to the right is very upright and looks mostly like frozen melted glass. The red piece was "air marvered" (dipped in glass and maneuvered without touching it) and glows with astonishing brightness. The piece to the left has flat bubbles worked into the skin. All the glass shown was worked from Spruce Pine Batch. (Made in 1990-91, except for the weight, about 96)

Whirly Jig information now has its own page

This is a much better (and bigger, click for larger) shot of the paperweight in the mantle image above. It even captures some of the bright light quality of the piece. Some of my favorite weights have been made this way - air marvered - that is, not touched by paper or block after the last gather, but turned on the punty as they cool to give an undulating surface that plays a lot with light. Some end up as mushroom shapes. This one has irregular air bubbles and red and black color twists. All were created by picking up some broken color scraps, adding some clear batch and inserting tweezers to twist the color and make spaces for the bubbles.

Below is a clear item, roughly made.

This is the first great piece I have planned and made in my backyard setup. I really like it as a starting point for future work. As a gauge of the size, the wire is 3/16" inch and the height of the piece is 8.5" (21.6 cm), so it is a very hefty goblet - it holds about 20 oz up to the base of the flare of the lip. For me, it also is a triumph because, as planned, it was worked at the glory hole after blowing. To do this, I made a special punty, shown below. Although it isn't talked up a lot, exploring pictures of old glass workers shows that many special punties were made - I have seen padded cones that fit inside vases for working the foot, pronged units for holding the foot on small goblets and a padded tube for holding bottles for neck work.

Wire plate for twisting smaller wire into rope.

Third blown wire goblet, attempted with smaller wire and not bending foot out to final form, not a good idea, wobbled too much, needed smaller center hole and spread of feet. As with wire rope, braised with brass to hold twist together.

This punty is fitted to the end of 1/4" standard pipe size (just over 1/2" true outside diameter) already threaded from the store. A connector, threaded all the way through, leads to an all thread nipple used in lamp making (the standard, more common, stuff is 1/8" IPS, about 3/8" OD.) The jam nuts also come from lamp supplies. The plate at the end is a plumbing floor flange, in this case not a common cast unit, which should work, but a stamped metal disk, punched through the center and tapped through inside, which allows turning it down the all thread if I wish. Having used it once, it needs another set of jam nuts, these work loose.

Not shown is a hole drilled at an angle toward the end, so a wire can be looped over the leg of a goblet base and run down the length of the pipe for a quick release or connection to a threaded rod to pull it tight. As it happens, for the piece above, I just twisted a short length of wire through the hole and around one leg, cutting it free with diagonal cutters before annealing.
Also not shown is the outer end which has been braised in and drilled to only 3/16" (4.76 mm) to center the wire.

These are dribbled molding wax, put over shapes for the purpose of making cast brass goblet stems (to be added before brass casting) into which glass shall be blown. 2002-02

And here is the first result

Top

I made made a bunch of ornaments last year. This year I made a couple and for those I gave them to, I bent up wire stands to hold the ornament. 2002-02

In the glassblowing session of 2002-01-30, did a fast evening session, starting to blow the glass as soon as it was workable without waiting for full heat or making any attempt to get bubbles out. This is the first piece made, showing the color of the scrap contributed to the pot.

Donated to the Empty Bowls project.

These bowls were blown over several sessions.

This is a 5 lobe piece made in the rod optic, top view shown in the inset. The piece was trimmed before working the lip. It was blown later in the same session as the cloudy piece above. 2002-01-30

Two fused bowls made from roughly cut scalloped edge blank. The bowls were made for the Empty Bowls project as back up for blown work and as part of ongoing work to make glass for whirly jigs. 2002-02-07

Attempt at glass tumbler from mixed cullet, early in run. Not square enough bottom and not thin or tall enough, but a good clean punty, usable out of the annealer. Photographed under fluorescent light at work.

This my first attempt at making a traditional glass fish - traditional in the sense that is what modern glassblowers make when they want to make a fish. Usually the fins are different colors as are the eyes and a wrap is applied to the mouth to disguise the sharp edge, but what the heck, it's my first one. I do like the little squiggle on the top fin.

Second Fish - Eyes a bit more awkward, but no sharp points, tail curved nicely. Back fin made in loops, so different and Ok only

2003-04-17  These are some results of a good session on Sunday, 4/13.  The piece on the left is the first good one out of the second version of the home cast optic, after carbon coating it with acetylene flame. 

I also did a three lobe mini-vase with an edge pulled at each of the lobes, but I gave it as a gift to the guy who cut my pipe ends at work.

The glass below is from one session and shows the use of a home made optic (left), a rod optic (lower right), and shaping the piece on the marver to three sides.

A while back I forged (pounded) a steel plate to hook over my right shoulder and fit across my chest to my left hip, and welded short pieces of rebar to it so it looks like a long piece goes through my body. [A & C below]  I wear this on Halloween at the store and while giving out candy at home. I have for some years wanted to replace the rebar with a sword handle and tip, but I always delay making the parts. This year, I decided to get it done and to make a glass sword handle and tip with a steel version for practice and size.

The sketches at the right (very small in the original), are notes about size.  I made a fist on a ruler like I was holding a sword and measured the 5".  I took a piece of scrap paper and arched it over the fist to estimate the length (8-9") and sketched an outline.  Having messed up a wing in the past, I sketched how I would build the shield with a notch around the glass handle and sketched how the glass might fit in a side view.

Reproducing the 2nd sketch larger on a piece of paper, I cut it out and found it too small.  So I drew a larger version, cut that out, found it seemed to fit and slotted it to fit on a yard stick.  When this worked, I took it home and cut the same shape out of thin flashing aluminum [B] to avoid the problems of oil and hot glass on the paper.

I first forged a sword blade blank and a hand shield using the glory hole as a heat source (A&C).  This would serve as a backup and dummy for the glass one. 
  To make the glass handle, I first modified the 1/4" NPT pipe punty with a nipple with a set screw in the side to secure a piece of 5/16" OD stainless steel tubing.  The tubing projected about 3" and bent under the weight and heat.
  In making the sword handle, I used the garage for the first time.  I gathered glass on the tubing and squared and extended to shape and length and then garaged it. It seems to hold about 1050 all by itself, without a controller.
  The first time I made the hand guard, I gathered glass and began thinning it down and spreading it.  That was a bad move as it left it very thick near the punty, the coldest area, and hard to work with the floppy thin further out.  For various reasons, including over chilling while necking, it ended up a floor model.
  The second one was kept thin from the start and built up with gradual thin gathers on the outer edge.  Working alone and fitting the cut notch around the handle was a juggling act, but the thin tip snapped off nicely and I think it came out rather nice for a beginning try.  As I learned from watching Fritz Dreisbach and Karen Willenbrink, besides making the project, getting back in shape as it sags with heat is a continuing aspect of the work.  I pulled the sword tip [E] separately.  2003-10-26

  I have been thinking of swords and knives and handles (and blades?) made by laying down layers of thin color (laminating) for more texture.   I wonder if I could turn the sword/knife shape into door handle shapes? 2003-11-11

  An ongoing project is to blow glass into a tube using the tube as the waist of a  goblet.  This copper shape started a piece of copper water pipe, 1.5".  The first requirement was heating to soften the copper, as it was too hard to hammer into shape as manufactured and sold.   Once softened the metal was worked on the point of my anvil, flaring out and working.  The piece had to be reheated to anneal it for further working.  Later I may do other shapes and piercing.
  In order to blow into it and give me the glass shape I want the glass has to bulge out the bottom, so the copper has to be propped up off a marver surface.  If I were making a lot of the same shape I could make a more complicated holder, but for this work, a stiff steel wire holder that can be unwound during further working is enough.
   I need a long thin shape with enough glass at the bottom and top necked for release.  Having gotten the shape, I insert the glass and blow it out against the marver and above the top.  A quick reheat keeps the chilled bottom from cracking while a punty is prepared.
  The real hassle in learning is when things go wrong: the bottom too thin, etc.  Then I have to get the glass out of the tube.  But copper shrinks faster than the glass does and even when I have plunged the piped piece into cold water, shattering all the glass, the portion inside the tube is gripped tenaciously.  I then get to take a awl and chip a path through the glass until the ring is broken and the glass can fall inward. 2005-02-23