Potato in Glass
Dipping a potato in a hot glass furnace may seem like an odd thing to do. This is actually an old glass factory trick. This little known trick helps with melting clean, bubble-free glass… And there is some actual science to back this up. Melting a pot of glass We fill the glass furnace with the raw materials for glass, known as ‘Batch’. Here is a link for more information and a video about what is in our glass. The cycle for melting glass is known as charging… And putting batch into the furnace is known as – “throwing in a charge”. It...
Read MoreMaking Glass Wall Sculpture Installation
The making of this contemporary art glass wall sculpture installation was a 4 month process. There were many steps involved from start to finish. A time lapse video at the bottom of this page shows some of the 4 month process. The Beginning We were contacted by Kate Sweeney, Founder of Perspective, an art advisory firm based in London, UK. The project was for the newly constructed building headquarters for the Endo Corporation located in Malvern, Pa. Kate felt we would be a good fit for this part of the project. Kate and the architects provided some initial ideas for a glass wall sculpture...
Read MoreShipping Art Glass Sculpture
Packaging and shipping hand blown art glass sculpture may seem like an afterthought to some. However, making sure your art work has arrived unbroken does take some special care. We are often asked by customers about how we will ship their newly acquired glass sculpture. They may express concern about possible damage during shipping… After all it is glass and glass can be fragile. Each piece we make has unique qualities in size and shape. This can make properly packing our work for shipping a challenge. Because we have years of experience in shipping hand blown art glass all over the...
Read MoreGlass Blowing – blocking and papering hot glass
A short video clip of Bernard Katz with his glass blowing team blocking and papering a hot gather of glass. This is the final gather of glass for a custom glass sculpture. The video clip was taken during one very hot humid day in August. When glass blowing wet wooden blocks and wet folded newspaper is used to shape hot gathers of glass. The hot glass is actually riding on a thin layer of steam between either the wet wooden block or wet newspaper. The blow pipe has to be constantly turning when riding on this layer of steam. If the blow pipe stops turning while in contact with the wooden...
Read MoreGlass Blowing – marving hot glass sculpture
A short video clip of Bernard Katz glass blowing shaping a hot glass sculpture on a marver table. This video clip shows Bernard Katz marving hot glass on the marver table to chill and shape areas of the glass piece in progress. The thick steel table is called a “marver”. A marver table is an essential piece of equipment in any glass studio. The cold steel table pulls heat from the hot glass. This allows the glass blower to chill certain areas of a glass piece while shaping the form. You can see Bernard’ s finger tips rolling the blow pipe to shape the glass form. This...
Read MoreGlass Blowing – necking glass with jacks
A short video clip of Bernard Katz and his glass blowing team working on a custom glass sculpture. This video clip shows the glass blowing team necking glass during the blowing process. Using a glass blowing tool called “jacks”, Bernard is creating a “neck line” in the glass sculpture. This is important because when the piece is eventually transferred to the punti from the blow pipe, this creates a break point in the glass piece. If this were a traditional vase, the break point would become the top of the vase or opening. In the video you can hear a little...
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