Greetings all, My nephew's daughter (my grandniece) is interested in doing glass artwork. She has a book that has many such projects in it but they call for soda glass tubing. We have been unable to find a source around here in northern Indiana. I'm hoping that some of you on this fine group know were we can get tubing. Thanks in advance. DaveB
contact a neon shop from your yellow pages.
Hi Dave,
If she wants to hot work glass she may want to consider working with Pyrex (borosilicate glass) rather than a soft glass. (Pyrex is Cornings brand name of boro.) Soft glass is pretty temperamental. It can crack real easy. You will need a kiln ready. Pyrex is much more forgiving and resistant to thermal shocks.
Neon shops will only stock tubing in diameters that they use. 10mm to 15 mm, maybe up to 25 mm. They will probably not have much in solid rods or colors. (Most of the colors in Neon tubing come from powder coatings in the tube.) Boro is readily available in rod and tubing. There are a lot of colors available in rod form as well.
One of my best friends is the glass blower at Purdue Univ. We used to work together 25 years ago and have been good friends since. Give him a call or email, I'm sure he will be glad to give you some more insight and leads. Tell him Randy wants to know how that bald spot is coming along.
John Parole Glassblower (765) 494-5304 snipped-for-privacy@purdue.edu
Good luck,
Randy Hansen SC Glass Tech. San Diego, CA
i was wondering what 'book' she was getting her projects from? Perhaps then we could better address a particular project? pipe making or lampworking or..... m
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