GLASS DEMO

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

THERE'S HOT AND THEN THERE IS HOT

Marty and Randy Strong making a glass sculptured flame. Randy is torching it while Marty helps turn it. The flame is equivalent to 60 or 70 pounds. It is like carrying a bowling ball on the end of a 6 foot pipe.




Below Randy is using cork blocks to shape the flame. Marty turns the glass as it is shaped.








The Bay Area has had a little heat wave, and there was humidity. We don't do heat and humidity on the west side of the tunnel. And when it happens we all think we are dying.
It has been in the upper 90's on our side and few have AC. We do and we used it. But there are times you can't have AC. As at a glass studio.

Thursday Marty assisted Randy for a tour group. I worked the gallery. This was an afternoon tour and we were getting late sun right into the studio. And there was very little breeze. Two furnaces running at 2100 degrees, annealing oven going, torches going, it was hot. The makeup just slid right off my face, and my lovely hair wasn't.








Huge crowd pleaser: flames and smoke as the cork blocks touch the 2100 degree glass.




Thanks to Susan, Randy's wife for the pictures.

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.

2000 DEGREES AND SWEATING

Today the San Francisco Bay Area is having a heat wave. Not record breaking but really hot. Oakland was 90, San Francisco was 90, and out on the inland side of the tunnel it was triple digits. HOT, HOT, HOT.

So what did we do tonight? We went to Public Glass for a fund raiser/demo of glass blowing/sculpturing. The glory hole is 2000 degrees, the pot furnace is 2000 degrees, it was hot. Lots of people, lots of furnaces on, and it was hot outside. I was wringing wet and I wasn't making glass. I was only taking pictures of the demos. Which I hope to post tomorrow.

Marty was the torch man, Randy Strong was the artist. At least 4 other glass workers took part in the demo. Randy made an incredible piece. He made a "leaf" that was stripped with another color. The leaf was stretched out to at least four feet. Randy hand sculptured the leaf and then by hand twisted it. Another glass artist formed a ball that was inserted into the twisted leaf. A base was then attached to it. No one in the crowd had seen anyone do this type of work done. That is because no one has ever done that.

After the demo was over, I told Randy I needed a lot of hours to work. I wanted that piece. I know what I want for my next salary.

I GOT PAID

Randy Strong, me, and my salary.

The salary.

I work part time in a hot glass studio. My husband assists Randy Strong and I sell in the glass gallery. I don't work for money. I get paid in glass. And it is way better than money. Last night Randy brought an incredible piece to me. I am one lucky happy lady.