Day 1

Our day started at Gabbert Cullet.Gabbert Cullet takes glass and recycles it. They divide the glass by color by hand and by size by a shaker machine and sell it to art glass makers. Ruby and orange are the most expensive. Glass blowers like clear gas also.  The mixed pile goes to make marbles for paint cans.  Unfortunately glassmaking is moving overseas to places like China.  China makes cheap glass that is acceptable to most but not the same quality.







Making a paper weight
1. First you put on safety clothes
2. Put a hollow rod into the clear molten glass it is hard to see the glasss you look for when you see the reflection and then spin the rod. It pulls the glass onto the rod like taffy.
3. Pull out of oven continuing to spin. then flatten glass in first colored glass. Turn ove and flatten other side in second color. romove spin
4. Put the glass in oven to melt color glass into the clear glass. Continue to spin
take to bench let glass sag then turn over. When glass falls to even grab withwet  tweezers to press middle together. Flip and do again on same mark.
5 Reheat then grab end with tweezers. roll rod to twist the glass. roll and let cool till tweezers can be removed
6. Put into clear glass furnce and add clear glad to outside quit rotating
7. Roll in block. Blocks look squarish with cut out opening is rounded. Kind of like a weird spoon made of cherry wood.  The wood is dipped in water and the glass rolled in it to round glass into sphere shape
8. Heat up ball of glass. Take jacks( large tweezer looking things) and crease by squeezing glass at rod. Cool a little..
9.Get knife and saw the creaseto score glass
10. Take rod and glass glass at bottom to jar with pad on top. hold an inch above. bang rod glass will fall off onto pad.
11. Heat top with blow torch. Press glass down with wood paddle to flatten side for base.
12. Look it over.  Put in kiln that starts at 900 degrees and overnight will slowly lose heat. in morning you have a paperweight.
Glass Day1 from David Williams on Vimeo.