Las Vegas Baby!

Just thought I would tell folks whats been happening.

I temporarily shut down my furnace on Saturday March 29th. The last time I did that the Oklahoma Natural Gas came and said my meter had quit working properly. I bet they come out again and check it out. You would think as much gas as I buy they would give me a Christmas and birthday present! Nope! All they want is my money. I look forward (I think) to one day getting an electric furnace.

I took my three top managers to the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. We left Monday, March 31st and returned Friday, April 4th. It was the first time any of us had been to Vegas. What an extraordinary place! I, of course, made sure that we all went and saw the Fiori Di Como at the Bellagio. Tremendous! Went by the Chihuly Store in the Bellagio. Really cool. The lady that worked there was really nice to us. Had a great time at the International Pizza Expo. Looking for ways to take our business to the next level or 2.

Since we were going to be gone and my furnace was ready to charge again, I decided to take that opportunity to shut it down, save some greenbacks, and do a little maintaining on the furnace. The furnace door had gradually gotten chunks knocked off and was not maintaining a good seal at all. I could see the $5 bills just floating out into the sunset. It was already that way when I bought it and of course it has gotten worse with use. So I chiseled out the old refractory cement and reformed the door and poured new refractory in it's place. Many heap big thanks to Andy Boatman at Blue Sage Studios for telling me what kind of stuff to buy and where to buy it. Andy always knows what I need to know. Always ready and willing to help. A true gentleman!

We are kind've tweaking the studio a little bit. Got some folks coming out to take a few photos for a magazine article. I was putting the furnace back together today and was going to light it, but accidently broke my Giberson Burner Head! Getting it overnighted from Joppa Glass works. Yeee Hah!

Hopefully I will get it lit tomorrow afternoon late. We have a decent amount of caterings tomorrow plus I am speaking at the State Capital to about 50 folks for about 30 minutes or so. Then going to get some photos taken, then back to work on the studio.

Thats's whats been happening here.

I'll report when we get everything up and running. We are starting to make some different kind of stuff. Been really inspired by some of the Venetians on Chihuly's website. His website is totally first class! Very inspirational to me. Some of the Venetians with coils and leaves are really appealing. We did 2 right before we shut down the furnace and did decent for our first 2 attempts. We are really excited about continuing and getting better at that kind of stuff. We also have been pulling cane and working with that a little..

Lapis Blue Cane Platter

Micah and I pulled some lapis blue cane and picked it up and blew it into a nice platter. I don't have pictures of the platter yet but here's a few picts of the piece in progress. The last photo is is transparent ruby red platter in process with a lapis blue body wrap lip wrap.

Update

It's been awhile. For the benefit of those of you who don't blow glass.... a brief explanation. The glory hole (the round drum-looking thing that you reheat the piece you are working on) normally runs at about 2300 to 2500 degrees. When you get ready to blow glass you light it and turn it on. I goes from ambient temperature (whatever temperature it is outside) to the operating temperature. You blow glass for however long. (2 - 5 hours) You shut it down. It returns to ambient temperature. Those kinds of extreme fluctuations cause expansion and contraction. Over time, (in my case, about 2 years) the insulating material in the glory hole cracks and falls apart. That's what happened to me. I ordered another "liner" from Denver glass. Micah and I installed it. It was easier than I thought. After doing this, we were feeling so good about ourselves, we did something that was long over due. We got rid of a bunch of clutter and reorganized the glass studio. We outdid ourselves. It's still not perfect, but it's pretty good. I had a bunch of color that hadn't been organized and bottled and labeled. We did that. We installed shelving (that I had bought at an auction about 9 months ago and wondered if I would ever use it.) to hold all the glass color, in frit and rod form. I had more color than I thought I did. Here is a picture. Click on it to get the full import. We may start blowing tomorrow. Maybe not. We have been finishing creating Italian Jim's Website also. Next we are going to have a official website for Bella Forte Glass studio. Going to try to promote sales of lighting and art from there. I don't know exactly. Maybe not. We are going to try to showcase the different things we do.
Catch you later.

New lamps, blue set, yellow platter

Christmas Stuff

More Photos of the New Glass

Some new things

I want to thank everyone who has come and bought glass! We have sold more this Christmas than ever before! Heap big thanks!

Here's some stuff we have blown recently. Some were custom orders, some were pieces we just wanted to blow.