Micah Says, People want pictures of Glass!

Yeah I know. That's what I go for too. Here's what happens. I blow the stuff, usually I am pretty excited about the things I have blown (at least some of them). I check the annealer @ about 14 hours. Still too hot to open, 15 hours, still too hot to open, 16 hours... 225 degrees - Okay, I take a quick peak - open and shut the door real fast. Wait a minute, Wow the temp is about 200 degrees, but it's climbing back up. Open again real quick, everything made it. back down to 200 degrees. Climbing back up . . . Okay, I'll crack the doors now and let it cool down. Leave the shop. Walk in the house. Get a drink. Walk back out to the shop. Get to thinking "Man it would be stupid to pull out a piece premature and have it crack. Go back in the house. Use the bathroom come back out 3 hours later... (just a joke - the 3 hour part) come back out a few minutes later. Open the doors to the annealer wider. Reach in and touch to glass to take it out - even though the annealler says its 147 degrees, the glass is still probably over 200. Bad idea. Get frustrated at my impatience, go back in the house for 30 - 45 minutes, come back out and every piece is cracked! (Another joke - every piece cracked part) Anyway, come back out, can't wait to touch them and pull them out and look at them. Still pretty warm, get excited, wrap them in blankets, put them in a box, take them to Italian Jim's Pizzeria(our pizza restaurant) and put them in the display case, still warm from the annealler. Spend time getting everything placed just right. Switch other stuff out. Move and rearrange. Satisfaction! Looks like something on a Chihuly website. (Not really - but looks pretty good for what I'm used to) Then, I think, "You know, it's going to be a whole lot of hassle taking everything out, hauling it back home where I have all my picture taking stuff at. I'll take the pictures someday......" Pictures never get taken. Have moved on to making the next new hot thing that I can't wait to see and get to the display cases at the pizza shop. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat!

Now you know what I have to deal with when I have to deal with ME! What a pain.

Okay, this time I really will, Get the glass, Take it out of the display cases at the pizza shop, Take a chance on the right person coming in looking at the empty spaces, seeing the old stuff I blew (which of course is not nearly as good as what I just put in the display case), them thinking, "There's no new stuff here!" and leaving.

But I really will get the glass and take the pictures and post them. I really will. I really will. I really will. With God's help I really will. If I repeat it enough, it will happen. I really will. . . .

Note to Gnat and MiniMolli:
Those plastic jars I use to put the frit in: I used to use glass bottles because glass is just really cool. Dropping and breaking a full really cool glass jar of frit is not, so I opted for really cool plastic jars with big mouth openings. (A lot better than the smaller mouth opening that I had). The bigger mouth makes it a whole lot easier to dump frit back in the jars at cleanup time.
I ordered one each of the 16 oz, 24 oz, 32 oz, 48 oz, & 64 oz plastic jars to see which size suited me best. I chose the 32 oz because it would hold over a kilo of frit and then some. I bought them from US Plastics.

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=usplastic&category%5Fname=3&product%5Fid=165

Stock number 66269
Pet® Clear Jars For Packing
Virtually unbreakable jars are ideal for packing industrial products and foods. Made of the same material that soft drink bottles are made and meets FDA standards. Caps are included. Dimensions are listed diameter x height.

Pictues will be coming. We have done some pretty neat stuff. Also will post picture of my new grinder. It is a fine piece of equipment! I have been grinding my bud vases that I blew for the restaurant and the bottoms of platters etc. A great touch to finish off a piece! How did I ever do without it?

Still working on getting those knobs like I think couple of folks (you know who you are) want them.

Quick Post

Hello, sorry I haven't posted any pictures. I took some pictures but I took them in a place that wasn't the best for taking pictures and they came out too dark. Don't like dark pictures!

Anyway, we have been blowing some basic stuff, just trying to get back up to speed after 3 months off. Most have gone decent - a few went south - a few were awesome.

I resurrected the "Artifacts Series". I blew probably the best of that series that I have ever blown. They were a little bit bigger - they are the biggest to date. The color combination is . . . well it's. . . . . STUNNING! I used "Florence" which is basicly a creamy white with just a faint whisper hint of pink - and then. . . . Gold Ruby extra. WOW! I then blew a 2 piece Sea Form type set to match and then placed the 3 piece "Artifact" set and the 2 piece Sea Form type set together. 5 pieces that are . . . . . . well I just like to stand there and look at the beautful color combinations. I 'll have to get some picts of that and post it.

Also, I have been supposed to make some curtain hold back knobs and have experiemented but not happy with what I have done yet. Still working on that.

Just finished a couple of pieces tonight - now I have to go work out. I have lost about 19 pounds in the last 3 or so weeks. I want to be in shape when I go to Pittsburgh so I can perform at my optimum there learning from Dante. In a perfect world, I need to lose about 40 more pounds - Sounds mind boggling sometimes. Anyway will take more pictures and hopefully post soon.
Thanks
CM

Back in the saddle again

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Started the Furnace Again

We started the furnace today!

As most of you know we shut down the furnace about the middle of January due to Micah's injury (again, not glass related). I wasn't in the glass blowing mood and with no helper I just shut it down for a short time.

We were going to start it last week but as we were checking it out and tweaking a few things, I saw that the burner head was trashed. I ordered a new Giberson Burner Head from Mr. Giberson @ Joppa Glass. It came in Friday. Also, I had ordered a new Flat Lap Grinder with an assortment of different diamond discs from Holly @ Denver Glass. It also came in on Friday. It is really sharp! It will make grinding a whole lot better. We can grind our paper weights and vases flat and optically clear. We really needed one.

Micah is doing better. For the first couple of days, it looked like he might lose his eye, but he is not going to lose it. The doctor is going to fit him with a new lense later this month. We are confident he will be able to see then. I want to thank everyone who has written, called, or conveyed their concern for him. It meant alot to us!

We are exicited to get back to blowing glass and creating some great art!

I expect it to take 4 - 6 days to slowly bring the furnace up to temp. It was almost full when I shut it down. From what I have been told, it needs to go back up slowly. We have been so busy at the restaurant, we haven't had much time to do a whole lot on the studio. Out of the last 12 months we have set a new all-time record in sales for 8 of those 12 months and are on pace to break our last record which was set again last month, by a significant amount. Good problem to have! Anyway we are going to do our best to finish tweaking the studio during the start-up time.

We will be posting when we start blowing.
Bye for now.
CM

Pics of glass color (Rods & Frit) New Optic Mold

I recounted and I have 105+ jars of frit with a number of extra frit for refill and about 80 something colors of rod.
Here's that new Jim Moore Tools Detachable Fin Mold - It's really cool!
CM

Glass Blowing Weather

Just found a photo of something we blew in December of 06 that I had meant to post but didn't. I really like the pink and black color combination. (We've sold 2 of the "Sea LIfe" sets in that color scheme.) It has the fishnet pattern on it. We were pleased with how it turned out.

Well, Micah and I started tweaking the studio on Wednesday. What that means is thowing a bunch of junk away and trying to declutter the studio. I had ordered a new optic mold and got it in. It is the Jim Moore stainless steel and aluminum mold that has interchangeable ribs or fins. ( http://www.toolsforglass.com/store/other_stuff.html ) (scroll down until you see the 5th picture. It is the "Detachable Fin Mold") I eagerly look forword to using it. I recently ordered hundreds of dollars of color from Olympic Color Rods and it came in last week. I believe I now have about 80 different colors of rods and about 96 different jars of frit. I have been getting all the new stuff labeled and organized and also updating my frit jar system the last week or two. I was using glass milk bottles and glass "fuse" drink bottles. Glass bottles are really cool to put my frit in, but the bottles weren't really big enough and the mouths of the bottles weren't really big enough to make pouring the frit back into the bottle easy when I was cleaning up. Also, a huge reason to make the switch to large mouth plastic jars was I could only imagine what I would feel like if they dopped to the concrete floor. So, cool or not, plastic it is. Now I can sleep at night.

Question to glassblowers: What size/s frit do you like to use the most and why?

The weather was perfect today for blowing glass. Did we blow glass? No, my furnace is off. I certainly have the glass blowing itch. I will prob. turn on the furnace in about 3 or 4 weeks. Micah is healing up nicely. Thanks again to all who have called, written, and come by to express your concern. It means alot.

I may have to take some photos of all the color that I have and post them. I just like going out to the studio and looking at all the jars full (some 1/2 full or so) of color. It brings inspiration.

We are going to try to do some welding and other little projects while the furnace is off. It feels kind of good knowing a steady stream of $10 bills are not flying out the window 24 hours a day while the furnace if off. I can actually go do something and sort of relax when the furnace if shut down. Having said that I really miss blowing glass and can't wait to start again.

Did I mention that in December of 2006 that I was the first one to sign up for a 3 day workshop given by Dante Marioni ( http://www.dantemarioni.com/ ) and Janusz Pozniak ( http://www.jpozniak.com/ ) at a pre Glass Art Society Conference in June of 07 in Pittsburgh? Man, am I excited about that! I'm even a little intimidated about that. I am told there will only be 10 or 12 in the workshop. Class will be from 9 in the morning untill 10 at night with an hour break at 5 - 6. I am really looking forward to learning alot! I hope Dante and Janusz are patient, kind, persons with the ability to bring the best out of people! I intend on my best coming out.

Linda and I went to Chicago about 1 1/2 months ago and went to the Marx-Saunders Gallery (Mr. Saunders was a really nice guy) and saw some of Dante's work in person for the first time. Amazing!
Warning!! Novice's opinion, WARNING!!
As beautiful as Chihuly's work is... and I DO think it is beautiful, I believe that not everyone that could do Chihuly type of work could do what Dante does. Anybody that could do what Dante does could easily do what Chihuly does. The technical precision is extraordinary!
(Novice's opinion about famous glass is over)
We saw Lino Tagliapietra's work also for the first time. ( http://www.linotagliapietra.com/ ) Magnificient!! I think the least expensive piece of Dante's was about $17,000.00 and the least expensive piece of Lino's was about $33,000.00 up to $50,000.00. FOR 1 (COUNT IT) ONE PIECE OF GLASS!!! We also saw some pretty neat stuff from Stephen Powell. ( http://www.stephenrolfepowell.com/index.html ) I can't wait to go again and take Micah with me and show him. Chicago is a pretty cool place to visit.

Whats Been Up

As some of you know, Micah got a severe injury about 4 weeks ago. (Not glass related) I haven't blown since then and finally shut off the furnace about 2 weeks ago until he can get healed up and I get my head back on straight. Micah had another doctor's appt. today and got a good report. About another month or so he should be able to help and I will turn the furnace back on. We are continuing to sell glass at our retail outlet @ Italian Jim's Pizzeria. We have sold a couple of nice sets in the last week. The newspaper is wanting to do a story on us. We are looking forward to getting going again.
CM