June 6th Blenko Glass Visit

 On June 6, 2013 we went to Blenko Glass. We learned a lot about glass and were able to make a couple of water bottles ( these have been made continuously since 1938) and a candy dish with some help fom the glass workers. I took pictures and video of making the water bottle that I am making a movie with. In this blog I want to talk about things I learned. Blenko uses white silica sand not the sand from beaches. It is mined in Ohio or Michigan. They have not had much success finding the right sand in West Virginia. Glass that comes from this sand is not clear but

more like the shade of coke bottles. A powder
blue oxide is added to make it clear. In fact all

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the colors are made with metal oxides except one. Topaz or amber is made using sugar and sulfur to give it that yellow color. Red glass is a hard to make a good color.  Glass like seen in the pictures is recycled and reused. The sand is heated for 20-40 hours to melt sand.  Glass's melting point is 2300 degrees.  It kind of looks like taffy and when on walls looks like ice or stalagmites.
       They used two different type molds. Metal molds that do not shine as much. The other mold is made out of wild cherry wood that creates a shine
 in the glass it makes. The wood molds are kept in water to make them last longer. The vats that hold them smell horrible, but the molds make pretty glass. Wood tools are also made out of the wild cherry wood.
       Blenko works in teams of 16. It is faster
 than each person doing all the steps. It takes
 7-10 years to become a glass blower and finisher. The system works well and they produce beautiful glass.