Thursday, August 25, 2005

Look Ma! Hot Glass!




The glass in the furnace finally got hot enough. However, there were very small micro-bubbles in the glass. Brent @ Blue Sage Studios said that comes from some of the fine grains of sand holding on to a tiny bubble. He said that's normal, just turn the furnace down about 200 - 300 degrees for about 12 hours and it would squeeze the bubbles out. I did, it did. The glass is awesome. Andy, Angela, Brent, and Drew from Blue Sage Studio are going to come out on Saturday after Micah's first college football game (N.E.O. @ U.C.O. in Edmond), and program my annealer and blow the first glass @ Bella Forte. That means next week I should be blowing consistently and get my touch back. I have really only blown once (I think) since last Christmas. My how time flies! Today's the 25th, it's only 4 months until Christmas. WOW!

Following are pictures of the furnace and glory hole set-up showing the rolling heat shield I made and also the propane hand torch cart I made. I have a picture of the pipe hanger also, but it's so thin that it's hard to see really good with everything else in the back ground. More pictures inside the studio coming later.

Also. . . Special thanks to Dr. Siler, Michelle, Kelley and Tammy for all your kindness today.