Micah Says, People want pictures of Glass!

Yeah I know. That's what I go for too. Here's what happens. I blow the stuff, usually I am pretty excited about the things I have blown (at least some of them). I check the annealer @ about 14 hours. Still too hot to open, 15 hours, still too hot to open, 16 hours... 225 degrees - Okay, I take a quick peak - open and shut the door real fast. Wait a minute, Wow the temp is about 200 degrees, but it's climbing back up. Open again real quick, everything made it. back down to 200 degrees. Climbing back up . . . Okay, I'll crack the doors now and let it cool down. Leave the shop. Walk in the house. Get a drink. Walk back out to the shop. Get to thinking "Man it would be stupid to pull out a piece premature and have it crack. Go back in the house. Use the bathroom come back out 3 hours later... (just a joke - the 3 hour part) come back out a few minutes later. Open the doors to the annealer wider. Reach in and touch to glass to take it out - even though the annealler says its 147 degrees, the glass is still probably over 200. Bad idea. Get frustrated at my impatience, go back in the house for 30 - 45 minutes, come back out and every piece is cracked! (Another joke - every piece cracked part) Anyway, come back out, can't wait to touch them and pull them out and look at them. Still pretty warm, get excited, wrap them in blankets, put them in a box, take them to Italian Jim's Pizzeria(our pizza restaurant) and put them in the display case, still warm from the annealler. Spend time getting everything placed just right. Switch other stuff out. Move and rearrange. Satisfaction! Looks like something on a Chihuly website. (Not really - but looks pretty good for what I'm used to) Then, I think, "You know, it's going to be a whole lot of hassle taking everything out, hauling it back home where I have all my picture taking stuff at. I'll take the pictures someday......" Pictures never get taken. Have moved on to making the next new hot thing that I can't wait to see and get to the display cases at the pizza shop. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat!

Now you know what I have to deal with when I have to deal with ME! What a pain.

Okay, this time I really will, Get the glass, Take it out of the display cases at the pizza shop, Take a chance on the right person coming in looking at the empty spaces, seeing the old stuff I blew (which of course is not nearly as good as what I just put in the display case), them thinking, "There's no new stuff here!" and leaving.

But I really will get the glass and take the pictures and post them. I really will. I really will. I really will. With God's help I really will. If I repeat it enough, it will happen. I really will. . . .

Note to Gnat and MiniMolli:
Those plastic jars I use to put the frit in: I used to use glass bottles because glass is just really cool. Dropping and breaking a full really cool glass jar of frit is not, so I opted for really cool plastic jars with big mouth openings. (A lot better than the smaller mouth opening that I had). The bigger mouth makes it a whole lot easier to dump frit back in the jars at cleanup time.
I ordered one each of the 16 oz, 24 oz, 32 oz, 48 oz, & 64 oz plastic jars to see which size suited me best. I chose the 32 oz because it would hold over a kilo of frit and then some. I bought them from US Plastics.

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=usplastic&category%5Fname=3&product%5Fid=165

Stock number 66269
Pet® Clear Jars For Packing
Virtually unbreakable jars are ideal for packing industrial products and foods. Made of the same material that soft drink bottles are made and meets FDA standards. Caps are included. Dimensions are listed diameter x height.

Pictues will be coming. We have done some pretty neat stuff. Also will post picture of my new grinder. It is a fine piece of equipment! I have been grinding my bud vases that I blew for the restaurant and the bottoms of platters etc. A great touch to finish off a piece! How did I ever do without it?

Still working on getting those knobs like I think couple of folks (you know who you are) want them.

Quick Post

Hello, sorry I haven't posted any pictures. I took some pictures but I took them in a place that wasn't the best for taking pictures and they came out too dark. Don't like dark pictures!

Anyway, we have been blowing some basic stuff, just trying to get back up to speed after 3 months off. Most have gone decent - a few went south - a few were awesome.

I resurrected the "Artifacts Series". I blew probably the best of that series that I have ever blown. They were a little bit bigger - they are the biggest to date. The color combination is . . . well it's. . . . . STUNNING! I used "Florence" which is basicly a creamy white with just a faint whisper hint of pink - and then. . . . Gold Ruby extra. WOW! I then blew a 2 piece Sea Form type set to match and then placed the 3 piece "Artifact" set and the 2 piece Sea Form type set together. 5 pieces that are . . . . . . well I just like to stand there and look at the beautful color combinations. I 'll have to get some picts of that and post it.

Also, I have been supposed to make some curtain hold back knobs and have experiemented but not happy with what I have done yet. Still working on that.

Just finished a couple of pieces tonight - now I have to go work out. I have lost about 19 pounds in the last 3 or so weeks. I want to be in shape when I go to Pittsburgh so I can perform at my optimum there learning from Dante. In a perfect world, I need to lose about 40 more pounds - Sounds mind boggling sometimes. Anyway will take more pictures and hopefully post soon.
Thanks
CM

Back in the saddle again

Well, we blew again for the first time in about 3 months! We made 2 platters - one with a body wrap and lip wrap and 4 bud vases. I think everything is going to make it. Not one piece was lost! Micah understands why Dale Chihuly quit blowing glass with just one eye. Until he gets his lense replaced it was hard for him judge depth and deal with spacial awareness. In spite of all that he did good.

I may post some pictures of what we did.

The new burner head works great - my furnace seems to be burning much more effiecient. I also tweaked the burner on my glory hole and packed some refractory insulation around the burner head. Mr. Guiberson said the burner head will do better and last longer if the top part of it stays as cool as possible. I could even touch it for a little bit! I hope to blow some tomorrow.

Bye for now.

CM

Started the Furnace Again

We started the furnace today!

As most of you know we shut down the furnace about the middle of January due to Micah's injury (again, not glass related). I wasn't in the glass blowing mood and with no helper I just shut it down for a short time.

We were going to start it last week but as we were checking it out and tweaking a few things, I saw that the burner head was trashed. I ordered a new Giberson Burner Head from Mr. Giberson @ Joppa Glass. It came in Friday. Also, I had ordered a new Flat Lap Grinder with an assortment of different diamond discs from Holly @ Denver Glass. It also came in on Friday. It is really sharp! It will make grinding a whole lot better. We can grind our paper weights and vases flat and optically clear. We really needed one.

Micah is doing better. For the first couple of days, it looked like he might lose his eye, but he is not going to lose it. The doctor is going to fit him with a new lense later this month. We are confident he will be able to see then. I want to thank everyone who has written, called, or conveyed their concern for him. It meant alot to us!

We are exicited to get back to blowing glass and creating some great art!

I expect it to take 4 - 6 days to slowly bring the furnace up to temp. It was almost full when I shut it down. From what I have been told, it needs to go back up slowly. We have been so busy at the restaurant, we haven't had much time to do a whole lot on the studio. Out of the last 12 months we have set a new all-time record in sales for 8 of those 12 months and are on pace to break our last record which was set again last month, by a significant amount. Good problem to have! Anyway we are going to do our best to finish tweaking the studio during the start-up time.

We will be posting when we start blowing.
Bye for now.
CM

Pics of glass color (Rods & Frit) New Optic Mold

I recounted and I have 105+ jars of frit with a number of extra frit for refill and about 80 something colors of rod.
Here's that new Jim Moore Tools Detachable Fin Mold - It's really cool!
CM

Glass Blowing Weather

Just found a photo of something we blew in December of 06 that I had meant to post but didn't. I really like the pink and black color combination. (We've sold 2 of the "Sea LIfe" sets in that color scheme.) It has the fishnet pattern on it. We were pleased with how it turned out.

Well, Micah and I started tweaking the studio on Wednesday. What that means is thowing a bunch of junk away and trying to declutter the studio. I had ordered a new optic mold and got it in. It is the Jim Moore stainless steel and aluminum mold that has interchangeable ribs or fins. ( http://www.toolsforglass.com/store/other_stuff.html ) (scroll down until you see the 5th picture. It is the "Detachable Fin Mold") I eagerly look forword to using it. I recently ordered hundreds of dollars of color from Olympic Color Rods and it came in last week. I believe I now have about 80 different colors of rods and about 96 different jars of frit. I have been getting all the new stuff labeled and organized and also updating my frit jar system the last week or two. I was using glass milk bottles and glass "fuse" drink bottles. Glass bottles are really cool to put my frit in, but the bottles weren't really big enough and the mouths of the bottles weren't really big enough to make pouring the frit back into the bottle easy when I was cleaning up. Also, a huge reason to make the switch to large mouth plastic jars was I could only imagine what I would feel like if they dopped to the concrete floor. So, cool or not, plastic it is. Now I can sleep at night.

Question to glassblowers: What size/s frit do you like to use the most and why?

The weather was perfect today for blowing glass. Did we blow glass? No, my furnace is off. I certainly have the glass blowing itch. I will prob. turn on the furnace in about 3 or 4 weeks. Micah is healing up nicely. Thanks again to all who have called, written, and come by to express your concern. It means alot.

I may have to take some photos of all the color that I have and post them. I just like going out to the studio and looking at all the jars full (some 1/2 full or so) of color. It brings inspiration.

We are going to try to do some welding and other little projects while the furnace is off. It feels kind of good knowing a steady stream of $10 bills are not flying out the window 24 hours a day while the furnace if off. I can actually go do something and sort of relax when the furnace if shut down. Having said that I really miss blowing glass and can't wait to start again.

Did I mention that in December of 2006 that I was the first one to sign up for a 3 day workshop given by Dante Marioni ( http://www.dantemarioni.com/ ) and Janusz Pozniak ( http://www.jpozniak.com/ ) at a pre Glass Art Society Conference in June of 07 in Pittsburgh? Man, am I excited about that! I'm even a little intimidated about that. I am told there will only be 10 or 12 in the workshop. Class will be from 9 in the morning untill 10 at night with an hour break at 5 - 6. I am really looking forward to learning alot! I hope Dante and Janusz are patient, kind, persons with the ability to bring the best out of people! I intend on my best coming out.

Linda and I went to Chicago about 1 1/2 months ago and went to the Marx-Saunders Gallery (Mr. Saunders was a really nice guy) and saw some of Dante's work in person for the first time. Amazing!
Warning!! Novice's opinion, WARNING!!
As beautiful as Chihuly's work is... and I DO think it is beautiful, I believe that not everyone that could do Chihuly type of work could do what Dante does. Anybody that could do what Dante does could easily do what Chihuly does. The technical precision is extraordinary!
(Novice's opinion about famous glass is over)
We saw Lino Tagliapietra's work also for the first time. ( http://www.linotagliapietra.com/ ) Magnificient!! I think the least expensive piece of Dante's was about $17,000.00 and the least expensive piece of Lino's was about $33,000.00 up to $50,000.00. FOR 1 (COUNT IT) ONE PIECE OF GLASS!!! We also saw some pretty neat stuff from Stephen Powell. ( http://www.stephenrolfepowell.com/index.html ) I can't wait to go again and take Micah with me and show him. Chicago is a pretty cool place to visit.

Whats Been Up

As some of you know, Micah got a severe injury about 4 weeks ago. (Not glass related) I haven't blown since then and finally shut off the furnace about 2 weeks ago until he can get healed up and I get my head back on straight. Micah had another doctor's appt. today and got a good report. About another month or so he should be able to help and I will turn the furnace back on. We are continuing to sell glass at our retail outlet @ Italian Jim's Pizzeria. We have sold a couple of nice sets in the last week. The newspaper is wanting to do a story on us. We are looking forward to getting going again.
CM

Speaking of a "fully involved pizza". . .

Glad to see Scott come up for air! Hey, the bottom photo shows a pic of our Super Pepperoni pizza I told you that I would put up sometime. Yes, this is a normal 20" "Big Jim" Super Pepperoni and yes, that is layers upon layers of pepperoni! We even have a bigger one. It's called the "Humongous Jim" and it's 24". How's that for "fully involved"!

The photo at the top show some more of our pizzas. They are larges (14"). I took the photo right before we put them in the oven and cooked them. The pizza with stripes is a Meat Combo, the "Work of Art Looking Pizza" is a "Garden Veggie", a couple of "Super Pepperonis" and a couple of "Chicken Fajita" pizzas. When they're cooked, they look a little better, but we had to get them to where they need to go ASAP and didn't have time to photograph afterward.

Thanks!

Just wanted to take a few minutes and say "Thanks!" to all who checked out our website and a "Big Thanks!" to all who came into our retail outlet at Italian JIm's Pizzeria @ 342 S. Mustang Rd. in Yukon and bought glass this last year. We sold quite a bit here at Christmas and I want to thank all who chose to give the beautiful, lasting, tasteful, gift of hand blown glass from Bella Forte Glass Studio. So far the feedback that I have gotten says people like to receive the distintive gift of custom blown glass.

As I have said, gifts are important. Proverbs 18:16 (Amplified Bible) A man's gift makes room for him and brings him before great men. Gifts speak to people. . .
What does a Gift say?

A gift says something about you, the giver.
It also says something about the recipient to whom the gift is given.
Distinctive glass, given as a gift, says alot!

We hope you had a Merry Christmas and may you have a prosperous New Year!

Going to town on new "Sea Life' series

Here are 3 more sets of our "Sea Life" series that we blew recently. The first picture is pink with black accents. The second picture is Cerulean blue with cinnamon accents, and the third picture shows in a little more detail what we call the "exploded body wrap" underneath the main platter of the set we blew last night. It is opal sky blue(I think - not for sure) with crown yellow accents.

BLUE SAGE STUDIOS HOME SHOW!!!
THIS WEEKEND FRI-SAT- SUNDAY
In addition to our retail outlet @ Italian Jim's Pizzeria @ 342 S. Mustang Rd in the Yukon-Mustang Rd-Reno area, we are planning on having some things out at Andy Boatman's Blue Sage Studios in the Lake Arcadia Area.

From Edmond Rd @ 1-35 (Where that big white cross is) go about 4 miles east to Post road and then about 1.7 miles south to Andy's place. Blue Sage Studios is behind (west) of the old rock house. Micah and I will probably take some turns doing demos on Friday, Sat. and Sunday

CM

New Photos!

Here's the new set Micah and I did! What do you think? All the colors are the same, but we did each of the accent colors with a different technique. We used crown yellow and lapis blue.

Another new technique!

We spent about 2 1/2 - 3 hours tonight blowing glass. We tried a new technique that we are kind've excited about. Nothing big, just new to us. Can't wait until 2 pm tomorrow until it comes out of the annealer.

If it turns out cool, I will take some photos and post. Sometimes you're really excited when you finish a piece; then all the waiting and it comes out, and it really wasn't that cool. Hope that's not the case this time.

We also blew another set of our "Artifacts" Series.

See ya.
CM

New technique done pretty well!

It was great to hear from our good friends, Randy and Anna, in Colorado. We miss you as well and look forward to you coming back around the Thanksgiving & Christmas season! May I suggest you start up your own blog and post a photo or 2 of yourselves in the be - u - tiful Colorado scenery. Seriously, you ought to do a blog if you want to. I suspect you will find a Bacon Cheeseburger pizza with your name on it when you come back.

Krista, here's some of those new photos and you need to come in and see the new red and cream one with the new technique we did. It looks pretty good.

Hello Andy! Hello Gnat!

Hello everybody else! I would not have guessed it would have been a month and 2 days since my last post. Time flies.

Here's some new stuff. We have started making an Indian Basket Series. I love combining bold and constrasting colors and this series gives me a format to do just that. They seem to be well recieved. I am in the process of getting more of a "retail" "yes-I-want-to-sell-that-glass" look in the restaurant. I bought some point of purchase (POP) stuff on Friday and hopefully next week I will get it put up.

I've got 2 basket series together on the same shelf. One is basicly orange and black and the other is crimson and cream. I call them the "Bedlam Baskets". If you are from Oklahoma or even know a little bit about Oklahoma football you know why I call it the "Bedlam Baskets".

Micah and I are really excited about our new technique of optic molding the piece, threading a body wrap around it and "exploding" the wrap and then blowing out the piece. It turned out so good! We were really pumped about it. Can't wait to try some light fixtures and different colors and shapes with the same technique.

Here they are. ( I didn't take the time to put the pieces in my little photo booth thing. Some of the pictures were even taken behind glass.) Here they are.

Some New Stuff!

Here's a new shape we started doing.

The pieces are about 7 inches high and 9 to 10 inches across.

The First one is blown out of a rod of of Reddish Opal Orange. The second one is blown out of a rod of Cerulean Blue with a Light Blue body and lip wrap. The third one is a combination of Opal Nile Green - F-3, Curry F-3, and a lip wrap of Diablo Red. While we know there is plenty of room to improve, we are pleased.

Some more pictures of the Italian Jim's Expansion - A New Technique

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Some Pictures of Italian Jim's Pizzeria's new space!

Well, here's some pictures of the new space. I have some more to take of another area. To be candid, we out-did ourselves. My son Micah and I did most of the main construction. Shane Mutz(one of Micah's friends, stained the Harlequin pattern on the floor. He did a great job. People just love the floor! Super duper first class!

INTERRUPTION!
(Okay - I just posted this and looked better at the photo and realized I didn't get the floor in the photo. I'll get it later and post it. The floor is extraordinary! )

A friend of ours for 15 or so years, Mike, "helped" me a little bit on the trim work and cabinets. He is such a good helper. Jeff did the electrical work and did a great job. My mom sowed the fabric for the canopies. Micah and I built the walls, did some sheetrock work, taped, bedded, textured, painted, (My daughter Krista helped paint.) My wife and I picked out the paintings. My wife picked out the colors scheme. My wife told me to get it done. My wife told. . . you get the picture. Kim, my oldest daughter, kept the staff lined out and cleaned up a number of time after the messy Marvins (Me & Micah) Micah and I designed and built the glass ceiling ( the part that I don't have pictures of yet). My son and I also blew all the glass fixtures and fiore on the wall and ceiling. I have never seen a pizza place as nice or beautiful. It is gorgeous! It has exceeded my expectations. The pictures do not do it justice!

"THE BEST OF OKLAHOMA"
"The Best of Oklahoma" is coming out this Friday, Aug. 4th and shooting a small series of shots on Italian Jim's Pizzeria being the "Best in Oklahoma". We are excited! If you can come out and be there when they film you can be on TV at the best pizza place in Oklahoma! Shooting is supposed to be between 7 and 8 pm Friday night.

The first picture is before much work was done. The space was formerly a dance studio. Notice the corner on the right side of the picture.


Here is the same space with the photograph taken from approx. the same position. Notice how we added an angle wall to put the "Glass Fiore Wall" - "Fiore" is Italian for Flower. We still have to blow about 5 or 6 more platters to finish it out on the bottom. We have the "white" area behind the platters illuminated brightly so that they "glow" from behind and also have some bright track lighting shining on them from the front.

"CLICK" on the picture and enlarge it and look at it. It's still better in person!

New Work - Congrats to Courtney (Winner Pharm. Rep)

Micah and I have started another series. We are planning on doing them in sets of 3-5 each different set being a different set of colors.

Here they are - what do you think?

Congratulations to Drug Rep, Courtney. She claimed the body wrapped bud vase. She chose pink with a light brown body and lip wrap. Sorry, no photo. Forgot to take photo before I gave it to her.

Long Time . . . - "Gnat" welcome

"It's been such a long time. . ." Sounds like a song from "Boston" doesn't it? But what I mean is that it's been a long time since I've had time to post. We've been really busy getting the new space @ Italian Jim's Pizzeria open. We opened this last Sunday. It is SHARPPPPPP! REALLY SHARP! We still have about 75 to 100 pieces to blow to be complete, but it looks absolutely, double, triple unique and gorgeous!

I will be taking and posting some pictures in the near future. I've got some commission pieces to catch up on and a little bit of rest to take.

We have been blowing glass in this heat trying to get everything done for the restaurant. The other day it was 117 inside the studio while we were blowing - that temp was not in front of the furnace or glory hole - it was hotter there.

Well, I need to go and was just wanting to let everybody know that I was still alive and going.

Gnat, would love for you to come over this way. We will feed you some great pizza and make you feel welcome.

See ya,
CM

(New Drug Rep offer at bottom of page) - The Making of a Body Wraped Platter

Here are some pictures that my wife Linda took while Micah and I made a body wrapped platter with a lip wrap. Some of the pictures were only so-so because it was at night and the lighting was bad and the camera didn't want to focus because there wasn't enough light. In spite of that Linda did a great job and some of the pictures were really good anyway.

The first photo is the finished product.


I tried to upload some pictures of the most fantastic pizzas in the world for Gnat but for some reason they wouldn't upload. I think they might be too big. I will try to get some sometime for you or maybe I might email you some.


Gather number 1.

I just blew the starter bubble and am letting it cool a little bit after I blocked it.



























Gather number 2.

Blocking the glass to a good shape after gather #2.



Gather number 3.



Micah has just picked up a color bit out of the annealer and is preparing to heat and marver it to the size and shape we need for the "body wrap".

You can see I have the blowpipe with the piece on the "threader wheel" and Micah eases the bit up to and touches the piece. He then expertly pulls back until the thread is the proper thickness and I start turning the piece. The thread of glass then encircles the piece round and round and round… all the way to the end.







We finish the threading process and cut off the thread. Micah will take what's left of the thread on the punty and reheat and reshape and keep in the warmer for another piece while I stay busy doing what comes next.

I am now getting a really good heat in the piece so I can get a really deep optic mold imprint.





Into the optic mold and blow!






Reheat! You can see the deep optic molded ridges in the piece!

I am marving the piece and getting ready to cut the jack line in the piece with the jacks.

As you can tell I have blown out the piece some and getting ready to "drop a foot". (I don't have a picture of us dong the foot.)

We have just attached the punty to foot on the piece and are starting the transfer process.

I am now "chilling" the "jack line" with a few drops of water from the file and geting ready to break the glass at the jack line and complete the transfer from the blowpipe to the punty.

I'm keeping the piece hot while Micah is heating up the chunk of color (the bit) that we are going to apply for the lip wrap.

I'm trimming the lip of the piece, getting it nice and smooth and even for the lip wrap.

Micah has heated up the "bit" of color and has presented it to me with the correct shape and heat for me to apply as the "lip wrap" which I am doing now.

I am using the "puffer" to round out the mouth end of the piece before I open it up all the way. Here I am using the parchoffi sticks to open the mouth.

I now have the mouth opened up as far as I want to before I spin it out and this is the final reheat before I spin out the platter

Here I am "spinning out" the platter and then on the "knock-off" table and getting ready to put in the annealler.

Thirty-six minutes from start to finish. Bam!

It took me longer to upload the pictures and write out the steps than it did to make the piece. I'm tired now.

It was good to talk to Andy today in Columbus Ohio. Wish you and Brent the best while you guys are there! Look forward to buying you lunch or dinner when you get back.

Are any pharmaceutical reps reading this? If so, the first one to call me on my cell and mention this, I will blow you a bud vase. Hurry, offer applies to the first one only! tick, tick, tick, tick, tick…