Glass Studio Update

The garage is slowly getting transformed to make room for the lampworking studio.  We spent quite a bit of time this weekend clearing out junk, enough to fill the back of the truck for a trip to Goodwill. 

Another trip to Urban Ore, this time with the garage entry door dimensions in hand, yielded a nice, full glass door to replace the existing solid entry door to the garage from the yard. 

The idea is to let more natural light into the garage as there are no windows except the small ones in the roll up door.  I will probably open the roll up door when the weather is nice, but when it's rainy or windy that won't be an option.
Our contractor friend was able to come over and put in a gate to access the sideyard next to the garage so we can store the garden care stuff out there. We also got this little Suncast storage shed to protect the lawnmower, etc from the weather.

This is what we hope it will look like after we struggle through the 12 page assembly manual.

In addition to setting up the work area, I have also started getting tools and supplies for the actual glassworking.  I got a good deal on a slightly used kiln on eBay.  There are slight scorch marks on the outside, but the ceramic brick inside is still pristine white. 

This kiln, a Paragon SC-2,  is perfect for the beginner, it has a small door for putting beads inside and also a large door for putting in sculptural pieces.  Best of all it has a programmable controller that allows the user to program up to 4 recipes for annealing (heating up, holding and cooling down gradually for set rates and times).  The different recipes will be good to set up for small, large and colored pieces (some "striking" glass  actually turns different colors or shades depending on how hot it stays and for how long).

Arrow Springs is an excellent lampworking supply company up in Shingle Springs.  I took a class there last weekend and met the owners, Craig and Donna, who are good people.  Craig spent a long time with me discussing the pros and cons of various brands of torches and how well they work with oxygen concentrators.  Based partly his advice and the other reviews I have read, I bit the bullet and placed an order for a GTT Lynx torch and 15 SLPM Oxygen concentrator.

The class last weekend was taught by an incredibly talented, smart and funny artist from Germany, Anastasia. The class was targeted to people who already had some experience with lampworking, so I was totally out of my depth, but everyone was really nice and no-one gave me any grief for being such a newbie beginner.  Anastasia showed us how to make nature scenes, trees and such using hair thin stringers of black glass to "draw" on the surface of the bead and how to use enamel powder to add subtle colors.  The beads below are my inexpert and somewhat rushed attempts to keep up with the instructions.

drawing lines over 2 colors

more practice drawing lines

 bush with leaves and berries

another bush with leaves and blue flowers

bush with enamel colors

multi-color stringers for branches, colored with enamel

getting "handy" with heat control

a little bit of coral

fishy, fishy

I learned a tremendous amount and cannot wait to try some of these techniques again when I can really focus and take my time.

Laboring through the weekend

We were mildly busy beavers this Labor Day weekend.  We are slowly clearing out a corner of the garage so I can set up a lampworking bench.  We relocated the treadmill back to the house, mostly to get it out of my way in the garage, but I also still harbor fantasies of using it while watching TV.

I scored a super deal on a very sturdy kitchen counter, it's in great shape with a tile countertop, which is great  as it will be impervious to bits of hot glass, and it was FREE!  Gotta love Freecycle. 

Since I want to use this as a standing or sitting workbench, I had to do a little customization AKA "pimping the counter".  Ok, so my "pimping" skills are pretty slim, but I do so love using my trusty Ryobi cordless tools, perfect for a delicate flower, lightweight, a lovely lime color AND with matching lime accent gloves.

After some discussion with Craig we decided the tiled, concrete counter top was strong enough even if I removed the center front section, so I cut this sucker up!

The middle shelf is a solid piece that extends the whole length, I considered just making straight cuts to the back to open the whole middle, but then had a much better idea of cutting out a nice curve.

to create a cutting line, I put a nail in the center of the shelf, tied a Sharpie marker to it at the desired radius, then drew a perfect half circle.  Unfortunately, I couldn't actually cut it along the lines as neither the reciprocating saw or the jigsaw could quite get as close to the edge of the support as I wanted.  So, the actual cut is now an"imperfectly perfect" semi-circle.

The remaining area in the middle will make a very nice footrest when sitting on a bench stool.

The next, and most important, part of the workbench area is ventilation.  Melting glass, especially colored glass, releases potentially toxic fumes. My good friend Mary has some leftover 8" duct left over from her recent home renovation, which she has graciously offered.  I ordered a Fantech FG8XL Inline Centrifugal Fan and controller so now I only need the actual hood part that hangs over the bench.

I searched all over Vacaville for a reasonably priced hood, but all the cheap ones were too small.  I thought I found a good deal on a nice, but gutted (no internal fan or lights) floor model at Home Depot.  Unfortunately, the people actually working on the floor are apparently not empowered to cut a deal on the unmarked merchandise and the manager wouldn't come out to look at it and give a reasonable price, so there I was all ready to give my hard earned dollars to buy something at a place whose sole existence is for the purpose of selling stuff, but no one would actually enable me to purchase the item.  Go figure.  So, I went home empty handed after fruitlessly searching literally 4 different stores.

When I got home the proverbial light bulb went off over my head and I remembered this great construction salvage place in Berkeley, Urban Ore.  They were open on Monday, so we took a little field trip.  This place is huge and stuffed to the rafters with used doors, windows, appliances, fixtures, cabinets, etc as far as the eye can see.

  As soon as we hit the stove section I saw just what I had been looking for, a 42" stainless steel range hood with the fan already removed (secret bonus since I would have removed the hood's puny fan anyway in favor of the more powerful fan I already ordered).

For a mere $35, a little industrial degreaser, a lot of my own elbow grease and bam, it's going to be just perfect.