Sunday, May 17, 2009

PUBLIC GLASS EVENT

Last night I wrote a little about the Public Glass event. The piece that Randy and crew made was wonderful. There is no finished product picture. After it comes off the pipe, the sculpture is placed in an annealing oven for a controlled cool down process. It the cool down isn't controlled, the piece will crack and or shatter.




Marty in black, Luka in green, Randy in red, and Guido by the glory hole. This one piece took at times six men doing different jobs. Six men working an hour and a half to produce one sculpture.





Marty is torching the leaf to keep it one temperature as Randy works with it.



Randy is shaping the leaf by hand, (yes those are special gloves he is wearing). The piece is around 2000 degrees. Marty is torching to keep the heat constant and Luka is holding the pipe with the piece. Notice that Luka is standing on a table. The piece is almost 5 feet long and the pipe is 4 feet long, so the worker must be elevated.





Guido is turning the pipe as Randy tells him to. Randy is shaping and twisting the leaf by hand. As he twisted it another piece was wrapped in the twist. Again, 2000 degrees of hot glass.




Marty is torching a piece that will be the base of the glass sculpture.




The glass sculpture on the end of the marver (table) is a miniature of what they are making. It is only about a foot and a half tall, and no ball in the twist. Marty is jacking the piece. That makes the break off point smaller.


If you notice Randy's alter ego showed up. He wore a Groucho nose/glasses and a Happy New Year hat part of the evening.


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