Glassmaking Primer or Tutorial Wanted

I was just interested in glassmaking and wondered if there was a good site out there on it. The only glass making I have seen is for beads (on websites, not personally). I am not interested in the history sites I have found. I am wanted sites about the here and now and glassmaking as a hobby. Thank you for any information.

Reply to
jm
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JM,

If Googling on simple, general key words and phrases such as "Glassblowing", "Glass Making" and "Glass Industry" do not yield the desire of your heart, maybe you need books. Kindly allow YT to provide a wee bit or three of data from the GGGlass Research Library?

The very best "getya started" lamp-working volume I know is _Creative Glassblowing_ by Hammesfahr and Stong. Although it is geared toward the equipment needed to work with soda-lime glass (and dates from back when Asbestos was still "Good For You"), the "moves" resulting in recognizeable and saleable product are clearly illustrated, step by hand-sketched (VERY clear!) step. This is the book that enabled YT to save my own life and likewise conferred a lifelong career to a very badly dis'd kid 'Way Back When. (Them what done the dissin' is still shovellin' cow poo and likely now be a-quakin' over BSE, last time I Googled 'em outta the woodwork.)

On the "Pot Furnace and Glory Hole" side of things, try to find two books: One is _Glassblowing: a Search for Form" by Harvey Littleton. The other is "The Glass Makers: an Odyssey of the Jews_ by Kurinsky. In these works you will find an abundance of vital illustration and clueful exposition with respect to larger operations. Among many other wonders, Kurinsky in particular explores the means by which the 9-ton slab of glass which to this day protects the grave of the beloved Master of the Holy Community of Beth Shearim (a long-lived community of ancient world-class industrial-scale glass-makers, likely selling their ingots to Egyptian remelters downriver as I remember) from marauding archaeologists was produced.)

In any case, if not immediately able to purchase thru AmazonDotCom or some other retail bookseller, ask your local librarian for an "Interlibrary Loan" on these priceless (to us glass folk; the tourists simply wanna be "wow'd") works. You might get looked at funny ("How'dya know about THAT?") but you will have your book(s). Photocopy what you need to keep in this case.

Granted, this "Ancient Glassmaker" stuff is "history", and maybe therefore "BO-RING! in a sophisticatedly modernized, media-driven "gettitNOW!" world. If somehow (WHY?) averse to concepts related to the Judaic work-ethic and the ancient industrial roots which likely co-birthed it _don't_ seek out Kurinsky, even tho' he was a contemporary colleague of and valued correspondent with Corning's Dr. Harvey Brill at the time. But to actually make real glass from nothing but the simple (sic) materials readily found on the surface of this planet on which we Spiritual Beings Each Having a Unique Human Experience (and not the other way 'round) still (maybe not for much longer, tho' I for one really do hope otherwise) camp? Frankly, I am headed that-a-way myself.

Send off for the catalog from the Glass-Craft Company of Golden, Colorado. Lots of specialty instruction videos and the best prices on boro lampworking stock I have found yet. (It's apparently now another Beth Shearim situation, the company's founder having passed on and the able crew keeping the operation going post-mortem for the apparent sake of the honor, the Law, and the Profits accruing thereunto.) Good people too, of a sort that is not always easy to find these days.

Google every day. (It's the Law, and Vermin Supreme woulda knownit.) ;-)

Best of success! Carry on.

Cordially,

Charlene Mann, Proprietor The Green Goblin GlassWorks FBG Seasonal Ornaments and Year-'Round Instruction A Dynamic and Growing "Zero Dollah Option" Company

Reply to
Charlene Mann

I'm not sure what you mean by glass _making_.

There's a FAQ for this group that explains different kinds of hot and warm glass (and stained glass as well).

If you're interested in furnace work (aka glass blowing, aka offhand glass blowing-- this is what you've seen in all those Dale Chiuhuly videos), Ed Schmid's Beginning Glassblowing and Advanced Glassblowing Techniques (both available direct from the author at

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are great resources. But it's not the kind of thing that you can get started in from books.

-BrooklynBabe

Reply to
BrooklynBabe

Hello John There are many books and websites that can help you get started in working with glass. Can you tell us which aspect of 'making' glass interests you so we can direct you? Do you want to work with stained glass to make lampshades and other

3-D items? Do you want to make leaded windows and door panels using traditional lead cames? Do you want to melt glass pieces together? Do you want to bend and shape glass? Many of us do some or all of the above so someone here should be able to point you in the right direction if you can give some more info.
Reply to
Elizabeth in UK

Well, I repied off line and this guy's e-mail is junk, so Well, being self serving, go to my page on What Can I Do with Glass?

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On that page are links to books information and you can wander through mysite which has stuff on furnace working, some kiln work and no beads ortorch work but has links to sites that do.

Reply to
Mike Firth

Mike, I couldn't get to your site.

John has been hanging out on R.C.B. a lot lately, asking many questions about making a necklace. Wanted to know if my beads were plastic, and got a little more info about them, then showed up here... maybe genuinely curious about glasswork (I like to give people the benefit of the doubt) but deeply clueless, or..?

Reply to
Kalera Stratton

The email is not junk, it is just hit with the swen virus so much that you are lucky if you can ever get an email in, but thanks for the link. However, it comes up page not found. - "this guy"

Reply to
jm

I am deeply clueless. I just thought the whole glassworking thing was very interesting and thought I'd find a good overview and maybe examples of stuff "regular" people can do.

And you have all been very helpful and I am thankful for that. Thank you all.

Reply to
jm

Sorry, I thought I fixed this before sending

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Reply to
Mike Firth

I'm glad some of the info tossed out there has been helpful; I hope you have fun with it! Please feel free to ask any questions you have if you wish to further dispell your cluelessness. :)

Reply to
Kalera Stratton

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