Professional glassblower? Not quite...

Our first outing was to a local place called Blenko, you may have heard of it, located in Milton, WV.  This was the first experience we had with the art of glass blowing. 

*** I want to clarify that I, by no means, took the lead in creating any of the items that were produced.  Later in this blog you will witness my attempt on our summer trip, in making a Christmas ornament.  Glass blowing is a very under appreciated trade that takes much skill and a lot of practice.***

We made a candy dish and two water bottles.  The candy dish process was free handed, while the water bottles were made using a mold we blew the glass into.

CANDY DISH





Frit

This is the Frit I chose to use for my candy dish. Frit is what gives the glass color, simply its granular colored glass. This is used to add multiple colors to glass.  The clear molten glass is rolled in this Frit and then brought to the fire again to make it uniform in temperature. 



White and Multi-colored Frit for my candy dish

Next we brought the molten glass over to the blower, who blew into the glass to create the hollow part of the bowl.  And then it was fanned out and allowed to rest on a steel star like contraption to create the wavy edge.

Shaping the candy dish hollow bowl, also illustratingthe temperature of the molten glass, Blenko from Rebekka Atkins on Vimeo.





WATER BOTTLE
The water bottle had less room for error, because we were using a mold for the shape.  No frit was involved in this process the glass was colored in large batches because they were making many of these.  Therefore we only had select colors to choose from.

They brought the molten glass over to the station and we used a wooden tool to shape the glass into a uniform ball. The ball was placed into a wooden mold and I blew making the glass take the shape of the mold and creating the hollow vessel.   The last step was taking a steel Dow rod type tool to make the two spouts on the neck of the bottle.




INSERT PICTURE OF COMPLETED PIECES HERE



 

Looking for Shells and Shark teeth becoming lame?

Try combing the surf for Sea Glass, read this article Trash to Treasure: The Story of Sea Glass to find out what to look for and how it came to be.

Sea Glass Jewelry

sea glass

Now that you have read about Sea glass and are chomping at the bit to search for a piece on your next beach vacation, visit this blog post that clears up a misconception that Hollywood has created about Sea Glass.

Actually, Fulgurites are formed from the process showed in the clip from Sweet Home Alabama. They aren't as pretty as the sculpture shown in the movie.



Fulgurites in Sweet Home Alabama









Real Fulgurite

Assignment:

Using the 3.8 format summarize what you have learned about Sea Glass and Fulgurites. The information from the links in this blog post will help develop your paragraph.


If you think you may have found a new hobby here are the Top 10 Beaches to find Sea Glass, unfortunately they are west coast beaches.

Glassblowing, Magic or just common Science?

While visiting the Pittsburgh Art Glass Studio this summer we were able to witness and glassblowing Demonstration and then attempt to recreate what we had just learned and make our own Christmas Ornament.

One of the benefits with glassblowing that would can not attain with pressed glass is blowing of air inside molten glass. Which really makes each piece of hand blown glass more impressive because of the many chances to encounter error.  Watch below as I attempt to make a Christmas ornament. HA HA. Notice here it takes two armatures to complete a task that one glassblowing artisan could successfully complete.
              

trying my best at making a glass ornament from Rebekka Atkins on Vimeo.

In the video below, she is adding a glass hook to my ornament, look at how quickly the molten glass cools and hardens to a solid.

WAITING UNTIL NEXT WEEK I UPLOADED MY QUOTA FOR THE WEEK PER VIMEO


Watch the video below of a part of the demonstration Pay careful attention to the part where she talks about blowing air into the glass.


Pittsburgh Glass Studio--Trapping air in the glass from Rebekka Atkins on Vimeo.

Using the relationship between, molecular motion, kinetic energy and temperature, and the knowledge that glass at 2100 degrees behaves in a taffy like consistency.  Write a Journal Entry explaining the science behind the so called "magic" going on.

Trip-Day 5- Pittsburgh Glass Art Studio

This was by far my favorite visit of our trip.  The whole setup of this studio, I felt was rich in city life, and culture. A tthis studio they have glassowing glasses and demonstrations, art shows and intense workshops bringing in artists and experts from around the world. There were 4 rooms in which you worked with glas in different ways.

The Flame room which was geared specifically towards smaller items such as beads. It housed about 9 or so stations with the same set up as the picture below.

Then there was the Hot room, where larger items that required the glass to blown were created. Which had the farmilar furnace, bench, jack and rods to blow the glass. 

The other two room wher the Warm room where cooled glass pieces were placed into or with other materials like metal or cement, to create items such as suncathers and stepping stones.  The last room was the Cold room where the glass was etched, filed down for create a flat surface or cut.

Science is a beautiful Art

It just so happened that while we were visiting the Pittsburgh Glass Art studio, the show that was displayed in their show room were glass pieces inspired by Science.  The spark of inspiration for this particular show was the creation of models used to teach from sketches because in early science microscopes and images were not as tangible or easily accessed as they are today. Look at the pieces below it is very easy to conclude the inspiration behind each.

 

Life cycle of a species of crab.

Assignment:

Look over the Learning Targets for this year ( should be glued in the front cover of you Science notebook).

You will create a model, piece of art, that would be helpful when studying a particular Learning Target of your choice.  This model will be displayed in our class art show at the end of the 9 weeks.

This Friday's class will serve as a clarification Q and A session. By Friday look over the Learning Targets and have an example that could be used to share with the class.  You will not have to use this example.

This assignment, as with all of the assignments from this Blog, will be completed outside of the classroom. Due dates and checkpoints will be discussed Friday.

Trip-Day 4- Carnegie Museum of natural history and Philips conservatory

We started started our day at the Carnegie museum of Natural History those of you who know me, can imagine how I enjoyed the dinosaur exhibit. 

This is a Diplodocus, notice its head. Because its so small in comparison to its body scientists did not believe the skull belonged to this particular Dino.

 

My favorite! Juvinelle T-Rexes

As you walked into the museum there was a small glass exhibit

Same vase different angles.

We then headed to the Phipps conservatory where Dale chihuly art glass among other glass artists were on display among the plants.

Assignment:

Watch the video below and answer the following questions about Dale Chilhuly.

Trip-Day 4- Mosser Glass Cambridge, OH

We packed up and left OgleBay Resort this morning and headed to Mosser Glass a family owned pressed glass company, located in Cambridge, OH. The colors of the glass here were the most unique in my opinion.

The process is simple but still has a need for an artists touch. 

First the Gatherer uses a rod to obtain molten glass from the furnace to place into the press.

 Next, the Presser pulls down on the arm of the mold to press the glass into its shape, each piece has its own mold, this particular piece is a pitcher.

Once the molten glass sets in the pressed mold for a couple minutes to cool and form to the shape of the mold it is placed back into the fire in order to heat up again to become pliable to form thetop and   spout of the pitcher by hand.

Here is where an artistic hand is still needed, the spout is still created by hand and must be uniform on all pieces.

Next to set the piece and make the glass shiny it is placed into a small high heat blow torch type flame, this is called glazing.

The last manual step is the inspector, he glazes the bottom with a blowtorch and ensures the quality and consistency of each piece.

Then the piece is placed in a cooling oven on a conveyor belt that moves very very slowly, to allow the glass to harden by cooling down.

After about 3 hours out the other end of the cooling oven, the finish product is ready o be packed

On this particular day they were producing two pieces the Pickett shown here and headlight lenses.  Although Mosser glass is located in Ohio, all of their molds are made in West Virginia.

Discussion question

1. Create a Venn Diagram on the similarities and differences of hand blown vs pressed glass. Think about the process, the products, and the value of each type.  Refer back to the blog post Trip Day One to review information about hand blown glass.

Trip- Day 3- Homer Laughlin China Company

Today we toured the Homer Laughlin China Company Factory.  They produced dinnerware from many restaurants such as Applebees, PF Chang's, Margaritaville, Steak and Shake, and finer china pieces for resorts such as The Greenbrier and The Biltmore.  They also have contracts with the Air force, Navy and Marines.  Special orders can be requested at a nice price and have been created for people such as Lou Holtz, Micheal Jordan, and the former First Lady of West Virginia, Gayle Manchin, even designed 4 sets for the Governor's mansion  and they are still used today.


Gayle Manchin's designs, a place setting for each season, Fall, Spring, Winter and Summer

But Perhaps they are most famously known for their Fiesta Dinnerware.  Sold in many local department stores.  Very recognizable by their bold colors and durable design.

 



 

Discussion Question:

 

1. To this point we have discussed the glass industry as a dying trade.  To our surprise Homer Laughlin says they are experiencing the most profitable years of the last few decades.  Make a T-chart listing the uses of Glass Vs Ceramics.  Bring to class ready to add to discussion.

 

Science Notebook assignment:

 

We will go over a hand out given in class on how to read HLC backstamps to identify where and when ceramic plates were made. You will need to read the backstamps of 10 ceramic pieces in the next two weeks. Paste the handout into your Science Notebook on he left hand side and on the right hand side create a data table to include where you obtained the information from (restaurant, grandmas house), the date you recorded the information, and information to identify the company, place and date manufactured. I will have several pieces in class we will practice with to ensure you will be successful on this assignment.





Trip- Day 2-Paul Wissmach Plate Glass and Marble King

Paul Wissmach

Our first stop today was to Paul Wissmach glass factory which was our first experience witnessing plate glass production. Plate glass is used for windows, stained glass windows.  Below is a video below of the very efficient and fast (1 min 26 secs to make one sheet) process of laying out the plate glass.


Plate glass assembly line at Paul Wissmach Part 1 from Rebekka Atkins on Vimeo.



There are different textures of glass used in stained glass windows to achieve this they use different rollers, when the molten glass is sent through the machine.

 

After the above video the glass is slid onto a conveyor belt which takes it through a cooling process, after all it takes awhile for the molten glass to cool from 2300 degrees F, harden and be touched to cut.  Once through the oven it is cut into regular square pieces of various sizes.


Paul Wissmach Assemebly line Part 2 after the cooling conveyor from Rebekka Atkins on Vimeo.


After the glass is packaged in wooden crates, packed with poplar shavings they are stamped with the various places from which the order was placed....It was nice to see goods made in West Virginia going Germany, Saudi Arabia, Australia as well as various places with in the US.

                           
Another great quality about glass is, its ability to be recycled and lose the quality of its properties.  Wissmach recycles in house whenever possible or sends cullet they can use to Marble King just down the road, where it is turned into what else but marbles!

 Marble King

The second stop for the day was Marble King which solely makes marbles which are World renowned, exporting to 17 countries.  Consumers buy from all over the world stating that Marble King is the standard game marbles.  The marbles they make are also used in spray paint cans, as lenses over LED lights in appliances, to roll caskets into Moslem's and in power company cooling towers to break up and trap particulate allowing only steam to be released from the stacks. Unfortunately due to equipment shorting out from a power outage we were not able to see the Marbles made.



                                                                   



marbles used for landscaping



Discussion Question

 

1. On our trip we had to request special permission to be able to take pictures and video at Paul Wissmach. Why do you think it would be such a big deal?  Read this article and use it to make a connection and for support in your thinking.

 

                                 

  

 



Trip-Day 1 - Gabbert Cullet, Fenton Glass and Oglebay Glass Museum

 Gabbert Cullet            

 Our first stop was Gabbert Cullet in Williamson, WV. Here the hand sort Cullet, sent to them from local glass companies, by color. Once it is sorted by color the cullet is then sold by the pound for various uses such as landscaping, fire pit glass, marble manufacturers and to other glass blowing artists.  About 50 years ago they dealt with as many as 28 glass factories from which they received cullet from now they are down to about two or so, because China is taking over the glass industry.

From this the cullet is sorted by hand by like color and then can be sorted using the shaker method for similar sizing.



Fenton Glass

Our next visit was just around the corner at Fenton glass.  Fenton is a very popular name in glass production that I would group with Blenko as far as common names for collectible and decorative glass made in West Virginia.  Fenton has halted production since July 2011, and today are currently only making glass beads and exclusively is the only to hand paint their beads.

hand painting glass beads

Showing the ions added to create some colors of the glass

Oglebay Glass Museum     

Our last stop for the day was Oglebay Glass Museum which was the most insightful I thought of the day.  We browsed the gift shop which displayed glass made in the USA, Canada and other parts of the world.  Here is where I really noticed the different styles indigenous to areas of the world.  For example glass made at Blenko and Fenton are sturdy, durable and bold in color where as glass made in Egypt is dainty, and faint in color.  All of which were stunning. It was interesting to price the pieces as well, Blenko and Fenton were more on the expensive side, while Glass made outside of the US were half the price. Some pieces were hand painted in the US but the glass was made in China which then reflected a price between the high domestic pieces and less expensive imports.

Egyptian glass

Blenko Glass made in WV

AMIA hand painted in Denver, glass made in China

Kira's made in Canada

We then were able to watch a glass blowing demonstration, and tour the Glass Museum but I am going to have to leave you hanging because its been a whirlwind of a 16 hour day and my eyes are crossing at the computer screen.