This Sunday we filled the annealer with used bottles, beer, wine and the like. The theory is , if you heat some bottles up to 950 degrees or so and pick them up on the end of a blow pipe or punty rod you can alter it's shape to create a decorative or functional "new" piece of blown glass. Voila-recycling!
Ken Perrin pushing/ pulling the limitsWell as usual with theory and practice it is much harder than it seems. Harder being the operative word. See the bottle glass is formulated so it sets up instantly when blown (by a machine) into a metal mold. therefore the properties of the bottle glass are that it heats up quickly to a liquid state, and then hardens immediately when touched by the tools.
Alex Carpenter 2010 artist in residence.
Hmmmm who doesn't like a challenge?
Linda Grecco 2010 Intern from College of The Atlantic
I think this has been great fun but I don't think it will go into heavy production any time soon. Rest assured you may see a smattering off these pieces inthe gallery from time to time and we will ytry to have these for the commmon ground fair at harvest season, but--The glass we usually use is a lovely crystal, formulated to be soft and pliable to the hand work of a skilled artisan. When heated and brought to the glassblowers bench it can be worked with the tools for a lot longer than these brown bottles. SO although this has been fun, whats more, it has increased the appreciation for what we normally use every delicious molten day! Clear art glass crystal! mmmmm can't wait to get back to it...
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Linda Perrin
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