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potters rule number 1/glass

updated wed 27 oct 04

 

mel jacobson on thu 21 oct 04


don't ever spend time around glass blowers.
glass makers.
never.
stay away.
or:
next you will be building a glass furnace, get the pipes.
all those wooden forming tools. makes a potters mouth
water. you get that funny feeling in your naughty bits.
glass.
nice, just like liquid glaze.
hmmm, i wonder?

stay away.
40,000 bucks later, you decide.
i think i will go back to pots.
mel
From:
Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
web site: my.pclink.com/~melpots
or try: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
new/ http://www.rid-a-tick.com

terry sullivan on fri 22 oct 04


Well Mel San, we find the same here at Nottingham. Hot Glass, very
exciting.
Can't keep the clay folks away from the hot glass shop. It is to
enticing. Hot glass is to much like raku and glaze firing.

Terr,
Nottingham Arts

Louis Katz on fri 22 oct 04


Played with hot glass one year, CAn't even touch the stuff. Clary
Illian says throwing with a sponge is like kissing with a hanky.
Working glass is like kissing through safety glass. STay out of prison
vote clay?
Huh?
Louis
KE5CVK

On Oct 21, 2004, at 7:41 PM, mel jacobson wrote:

> don't ever spend time around glass blowers.
> glass makers.
> never.
> stay away.
> or:
> next you will be building a glass furnace, get the pipes.
> all those wooden forming tools. makes a potters mouth
> water. you get that funny feeling in your naughty bits.
> glass.
> nice, just like liquid glaze.
> hmmm, i wonder?
>
> stay away.
> 40,000 bucks later, you decide.
> i think i will go back to pots.
> mel
> From:
> Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
> web site: my.pclink.com/~melpots
> or try: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
> new/ http://www.rid-a-tick.com
>
> _______________________________________________________________________
> _______
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
> melpots@pclink.com.
>
>
Louis Katz
Flamin Pipe Organ (needs Quicktime and high speed acess):
http://www.tamucc.edu/~lkatz/cs/

Ivor and Olive Lewis on fri 22 oct 04


Strange you should say this.
Asked Travelling library for some technical books on glass. Got two
last week. One, a review of 5000 years of glass. They were better with
glass 2000 years BCE than we are today with clay. Amazing stuff. Sheer
majyk.
Good advice Mel
Best regards,
Ivor

Richard Aerni on fri 22 oct 04


On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 00:23:54 -0500, Louis Katz
wrote:

>Played with hot glass one year, CAn't even touch the stuff. Clary
>Illian says throwing with a sponge is like kissing with a hanky.
>Working glass is like kissing through safety glass. STay out of prison
>vote clay?

Working late one evening earlier this week, I caught my right index
fingertip between two bats (one falling...ouch!) and ended up with a big
fat blood blister right on the tip. For the next couple of days, I could
hardly throw. There was no feeling in the end of that finger (my primary
tool, it turns out, in the way I throw), and I couldn't gauge wall
thickness, appropriate pressure to raise, etc. It was kind of
interesting...

I've a good friend who is a glass blower of some renown, and we have been
setting up side by side at the Ann Arbor fair for over a dozen years now.
During slow times we talk about this and that, and I often question him
about techniques and vice versa (his father and uncle were both potters,
his brother a metal worker, and his sister a furniture maker...he knows
techniques!). What I know is that we come from two different places.
Potters think of construction and formation techniques in one way (and mine
are kind of complicated and weird, for a potter) in a whole different way
than glass blowers do. I feel like my mind is being turned inside out when
I talk with him. What with all of the casing, embedding, pulling, and
switching pieces from one piece of equipment to another, you pretty much
have to do a flow chart in your head that's way more complicated than the
one I have to develop to make my pieces. Of course, we have the whole
glazing thing that happens afterward that they don't have to deal with...

richard aerni
rochester, ny

Kathy Forer on fri 22 oct 04


On Oct 22, 2004, at 8:24 AM, Richard Aerni wrote:

> What with all of the casing, embedding, pulling, and
> switching pieces from one piece of equipment to another, you pretty
> much
> have to do a flow chart in your head that's way more complicated than
> the
> one I have to develop to make my pieces.

There's a very nifty interactive flash animation of the hot glass
process at .
Click on the "School By Fire" link and then, when it loads, the "Hot
Shop" link in the top orange bar. It's a lot of fun!

Kathy

Vince Pitelka on fri 22 oct 04


> don't ever spend time around glass blowers.
> glass makers.
> next you will be building a glass furnace, get the pipes.
> all those wooden forming tools. makes a potters mouth
> water. you get that funny feeling in your naughty bits.
> glass.

Here at the Craft Center, we call it "being seduced by the transparent
medium." Yeah, yeah, I love art glass when it is at its best, but all the
hype and dazzle surrounding the art glass world makes me want to throw up.
Dale Chihuly epitomizes what is wrong with the art glass world. Sure he
makes some great work, but his glass work is his second area of genius by a
LONG SHOT! His greatest area of genius is SELF PROMOTION, and that is true
throughout so much of the art glass world. It has to do with flashy
choreography on the hotshop floor, flashy effects in the finished product,
and flashy persona in the glass artist. Hey, I mean, what is that all
about?
Okay, done with rant -
- Vince

Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft, Tennessee Technological University
Smithville TN 37166, 615/597-6801 x111
vpitelka@dtccom.net, wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka/
http://www.tntech.edu/craftcenter/

ASHPOTS@AOL.COM on sat 23 oct 04


Whoa down Vince,, he is educating the public , and i do like his stuff, ive
seen two shows,, one in Orlando Fla and one in Atlanta at the Botanical Garden,,

He is opening up peoples eyes and brains to something that most people would
not have ever thought about.. Its good for ALL OF US... clay and glass....

I wish i was able to educate the public about ashglazes as well as what DC
does about glass
Also i sure hope you got to see his Blanket show that was in Chattanooga.. DC
also has been collecting Indain Trade Blankets since his college days,, There
where some glass pieces in the Blanket show that reflect the blankets , so
totally different then the glitz

Please have a nice day

Mark

Bonnie Staffel on sat 23 oct 04


I am with you, Louis. I took a glass blowing class at the Toledo Museum of
Art where the studio glass movement started in the 60's by Dominick Labino
and Harvey Littleton. Fritz Dreisbach was the instructor at that time. I
thought that glass blowing would be a nice addition to my studio in
Charlevoix. Well, nothing like doing it to find out what it is all about.
First, I couldn't touch the glass. Second, had to roll the rod horizontally
to maintain an even ball of glass. Third, the heat was just too much. It
is in your face constantly. The other thing that cinched my decision, is
that learning about glass and practicing how to make a good glass form would
take time from my clay that I didn't want to waste. Then to keep a furnace
going until all the glass was used up, just too much expense at a time when
we were just getting our clay business geared up.

I never regretted that year of experience. Our first glass melt was made up
of the marble cullet used by the fiberglass company to make that material.
Then I had the opportunity to blow glass at Dominick's studio. What a
difference. His was all freshly made from the basic ingredients. He was a
stickler for not allowing any tiny bubbles in the glass. However, I
treasure the couple of pieces I made to remind me of this experience.

Dominick was the inventor of the machinery that made the glass marbles to
use for fiberglass, for making the glass beads that are used in the
reflective paint used on road edges and stop signs. His studio was a marvel
to see, and he was such an unpretentious man. He also used the lampworking
process with efforts to discover how the ancient Egyptians created the small
flasks of glass. He finally found the answer. The Toledo artists' lives
of that era were intertwined with each other through the activities at the
Museum. The entrance to the Glass Gallery at the Museum was adorned by wall
made up of huge glass decorative flat forms made by Dominick.

The clay classes at the Museum had some fine instructors, Harvey Littleton,
Jack Earl, Norman Schulman (?) among other fine potters and sculptors who
came after them. Then Glass took the forefront with the building of a very
beautiful and up to the minute glass studio. A far cry from the first
classes held in a garage on the Museum grounds. It was a memorable time for
me and the other pioneers of that time.

Warm regards,

Bonnie Staffel
http://webpages.charter.net/bstaffel
http://www.vasefinder.com/
Potters Council member

Ivor and Olive Lewis on sat 23 oct 04


The strange thing is that if we were to remove vacancies, inclusions
and
grain boundaries from our product it could be transparent as water.
Best regards,Ivor Lewis.
Redhill,
S. Australia.

Janet Kaiser on mon 25 oct 04


Funny you should say/mention that, Richard. I always equate glass
artists to pastry cooks, which is a slight misnomer in itself,
because they actually make anything sweet from petit fours to
Christmas pudding, not just sweet or savoury pies and pastries.
They have a wide and diverse repertoire beyond what one
associates with them, and in luxury hotels, restaurants and other
establishments are second only to the head chef. The thing is,
the reputation of the establishment depends on their virtuosity,
because their work is what the public tends to remember most.
After all, it appears at the end of a meal or function and has to
be outstanding to tickle the most jaded or satisfied appetites.

Glass is in a similar position. Once all the necessary functional
daily items such as drinking glasses and pitchers have been
acquired (now mostly manufactured and not the work of a
craftsman), the Glass Artist has to tickle the fancy of the
already satisfied customer by some other means.

In addition to this, the methods which s/he uses to produce many
effects are actually very similar to those of the pastry chef!
Pulling and shaping molten materials (toffee), moulding forms
(jellies, cakes) and all the various techniques have a direct
equivalent with glass a little above and beyond those which one
is accustomed to using as a studio or workshop potter.

I think this is a fascinating thought and I mention it now, not
least because you happen to be a trained chef and have brought it
up in conversation!!

Sincerely

Janet Kaiser -- Coincidentally nursing a badly burned index
finger where an enormous blister has settled down a little since
Friday p.m. but still makes manipulation difficult... One of
those silly ass accidents you can have when dead dog tired and/or
not concentrating. I displaced the burner taking a large pot off
the gas in a very cack-handed manner and then immediately got
hold of the hottest part to put it back in place!?! Strangely
neither the middle finger nor the thumb burned although they
sizzled loudly as well! Maybe having a bowl full of leeks in cold
water helped more than I realised at the time. At least I could
plunge my poor digits into that immediately...

*** IN REPLY TO THE FOLLOWING MAIL:
>What I know is that we come from two different places.
>Potters think of construction and formation techniques in one
way (and mine
>are kind of complicated and weird, for a potter) in a whole
different way
>than glass blowers do. I feel like my mind is being turned
inside out when
>I talk with him. What with all of the casing, embedding,
pulling, and
>switching pieces from one piece of equipment to another, you
pretty much
>have to do a flow chart in your head that's way more complicated
than the
>one I have to develop to make my pieces. Of course, we have the
whole
>glazing thing that happens afterward that they don't have to
deal with...
*** THE MAIL FROM Richard Aerni ENDS HERE ***
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The Chapel of Art : Capel Celfyddyd
8 Marine Crescent : Criccieth : Wales : UK
Home of The International Potters' Path
Tel: ++44 (01766) 523570 http://www.the-coa.org.uk

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Arnold Howard on tue 26 oct 04


From: "Ivor and Olive Lewis"
> Asked Travelling library for some technical books on glass. Got two
> last week. One, a review of 5000 years of glass. They were better with
> glass 2000 years BCE than we are today with clay. Amazing stuff. Sheer
> majyk.

The Corning Glass Museum in New York owns ancient Roman and Egyptian glass
pieces. The detail in the glass is stunning. One fused glass piece is not
much larger than a postage stamp. It is of a bearded face, complete with
eyes and eyebrows.

Sincerely,

Arnold Howard
Paragon Industries, L.P., Mesquite, Texas USA
arnoldhoward@att.net / www.paragonweb.com