resources and links

This page provides links to fellow glass schools, suppliers, and other items we have found of interest. Note that inclusion on this page isn't necessarily an endorsement - just a pointer.

Please send suggestions of new things to include here to .

 

Glass suppliers

Glass manufacturers

  • Gaffer glass USA - New Zealand color manufacturer (rod in whole kilograms only)
  • Kugler - German glass manufacturer (color chart)
  • Reichenbach (aka Q-color) - German glass manufacturer (color chart)
  • Reusche - enamels for glass painting.
    From David Ensign: "Here's the catalog. I ordered from the list of Hot Glass Colors at the bottom of page 7, my teacher (John DeWit) recommended them for anything you want to gather over. I also got the sample kit #3000, but it was a only a tiny bit of each color. I'm using the 1903 paining medium, but there is also a water medium. You can silkscreen this stuff. The COE is unknown, but it seems to work."
  • Spruce Pine Batch Co. (also have color charts for Kugler, Reichenbach)

Tool suppliers

Glass schools

A longer list can be found at WorldArtGlass.com. and another one (slightly out of date), at Steiner Industries.

Local glass organizations

Other glass events and links

Glass museums

Books

Glassblowing:

  • Ed Schmidt, Beginning glassblowing,
    Glass Mountain Press, January 2005, ISBN 0963872826
    (Abe's books, Olympic color, Whitehouse books, Amazon.com)
  • Ed Schmidt, Advanced glassworking techniques,
    Glass Mountain Press, December 1997, ISBN 0963872818
    (Olympic color, Amazon.com)
  • Ed Burke, Glass Blowing: A Technical Manual,
    Crowood Press, November 2005, ISBN 1861265212 (Amazon.com)
  • Lucartha Kohler, Glass: An Artist's Medium,
    Krause Publications, March 1999, ISBN 087341604X (Amazon.com)

Glass art:

  • 500 Glass Objects: A Celebration of Functional & Sculptural Glass,
    Lark Books, May 2006, ISBN 1579906931 (Amazon.com)
  • William Warmus, Fire and Form: The Art of Contemporary Glass,
    Norton Museum of Art, June 2003, ISBN 0943411394 (Amazon.com)

Studio construction:

  • Henry Halem, Glass Notes, a reference for the glass artist,
    Franklin Mills Press, November 2006, ISBN 1885663064 (Amazon.com)

Eye protection

There are several threats in the studio that require eye protection:

  1. Physical - penetration by glass fragments, of which there are many sources. The most likely is fast-moving fragments emitted by breaking cold glass that is being worked or hasn't been properly annealed (e.g., on the end of a cold pipe or punty, or in the trash bucket). The fix is simple: wear a pair of safety glasses; preferably ones with side shields.
  2. Optical - there are two main dangers: high levels of infrared radiation (IR) from the furnaces and glory hole; and excess brightness. (A few sources claim that ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a hazard, too.) If your eyes feel like sandpaper after a blowing session, you this is the most likely cause. The best fix is to wear glasses or clip-on lenses that absorb infrared and some fraction of visible light. Several people find that green welder's glasses (shade #2 or #3) do this well. Philips safety offers several variants, including plastic clip-opns (these will fade and need replacing every year or two); they are available on Amazon.com.

Richard S. Lehman, Practical eye protection for glassworkers, 1998.

Glass blowing eyewear, an email thread that includes the following advice from Brad Shute:

  • For furnace work you want a gas welding type lens in shade 2.5 or 3. Lower (lighter) shades than this will not absorb enough IR to help much and anything higher than a shade 3 is going to be pretty dark.
  • What you definitely DON'T want to wear are sunglasses or standard didymium glasses, neither of which absorb the infrared radiation encountered in a hotshop that can harm your eyes. Most sunglasses will actually do more harm than a clear lens by causing your pupil to open up because they are optically dark but then letting in all of the IR anyway. So this way your eye gets even more IR exposure than you would with a plain. clear lens. In a hotshop, it's the IR that will mess up your eyes.
  • Personally I use a shade 2.5 Aura AUR-99 lens in the hotshop, or sometimes standard 3.0 welding glasses. The 3.0's can be a little dark if the shop isn't well lit, but with good lighting, they provide a little bit more protection than the shade 2.5's. Overall, the Aura's are more comfortable and way better looking and they come with a lifetime warranty against defects and breakage, as long as not abused. They are what I wear 99% of the time, and if I ever need another pair they are what I will order.
  • Final recommendation: If you are looking for dirt cheap and have very good lighting in your studio, go with a standard gas welding glasses with a 3.0 lens. If you want something better quality (and better looking) and not much more expensive, go with a pair of Aura's with the AUR-99 lens in shade 2.5.

Protective eyeware sources:

 

Marketing and selling

Marty Kremer, How to sell your stuff, July 2009. (Posted with permission of copyright holder.)

Videos

There are many good glass-related videos to be found on sites like YouTube. This link highlights just a small part of that selection.

Jim Wiltschko

Jim is amassing an set of links to 'interesting' places: