Firing Up the Hot Shop For the First Few Times
From Furnace to Flame: A Journey In Glass
For the 1st firing, I cranked up the furnace loaded up with a pile of cullet and started the melt. I definitely struggled with balancing the gas air mix so we ended up just working out of the furnace. We only made clear rods this first day. We spent most of the time keeping the furnace from going out. The intake on both had a tendency to suck up leaves. At the end of it all, the crucible broke.
I had built a set of ladders out of scrap for the cane pulls, but I probably need to put the rungs closer together. After this first day, I did get some rods that I could use to make some beads. I put screens over the intakes and, fortunately, had a spare crucible so we were not completely dead in the water.
Run Number 2- For the second day, I introduced a marver to the set up. I am using a stainless steel table. I also used color bars from Kugler to color the glass.
The biggest issue that came up on day two, was the working level of the the glory hole. We pre-heated the color bars in the kiln and were able to make clear, white, red, and blue glass rods from which I was able to make some Ribe bead reproductions. I was very happy with the colors, however, the blue had marbling that is not present in most extent finds I have seen.
Below is a selection of the Kugler color bars with the cane and beads produced from them.
Kugler Frit Test- I made a test run of blue and yellow with some Kugler 96 frit. I wanted to see if the frit would produce a more uniform blue. I also felt that the frit would be easier to work. I assembled a small gather on the torch and pulled a limited supply of cane. Then, I made some simple wasp beads to test the color. I love the blue. The yellow needed to be richer and less opaque. Below are the bags of Kugler frit with the beads made from them.
3rd Run- Prior to the 3rd run, we raised the glory holes working height. For this run, we used color frit to make the canes. We pulled blue, red, yellow, clear and white cane. We also pulled Mexico strip robin and blue and white reticulated cane.
I have made a few items with the beads from my furnace work, among them is this bracelet. I have continued to find things that are needed to improve our capabilities. The short list includes a frit tray, stone marver, portable blow torch for keeping glass warm out of the kiln, optic mold, and a wooden paddle.
