The staff here at Belle Mead Hot Glass was on a hunt for a mold. Specifically, a mold for a dreidel. We use these molds to blow some of the classic ornament figures like the snowmen…

Unfortunately, the only one we’d been able to find was an antique German one from the 1800’s.  It was very expensive, very old and in Germany.  Luckily for us, Bob not only likes to build things, but he shows us how to build things too.  Casting in bronze is not only pretty amazing to work on, but also amazing to see, so we took some pictures to show you how its done…

The first part of the process was shaping a model dreidel.  We did this with a block of plaster of paris.  It was just the same size and shape as the glass ones we make now.  I didn’t take a picture of this because I didn’t know how destroyed it would get in the process…

 The plaster mold was split into two pieces from top to bottom and then cast in resin.  The resin is very sturdy and will stand up to the abuse we’ll put it through during the casting process. And now we have a very sturdy reverse of the glass shape we want to end up with.

We use two-part molds for this type of process.  They’re hinged and can swing shut.  As the gaffer hangs a bubble off the end of the pipe, another person traps the bubble in the mold.  The gaffer blows the bubble up to fill the void and take on the shape of the mold.

We cast the bronze in sand that is packed into a wooden box.  The box and sand with the shape inside is called a “casting flask” The sand we use is mixed with a few other ingredients and is known as “green clay” or “Delft clay”.  The added ingredients make the clay stick together well so that it will hold the shape of the reverse of the mold.

Bob carefully packed the sand around the resin dreidel shapes. The sand is packed very hard – it is packed incredibly tightly, as in – it took specially modified power tools and a whole lot of time to get it ready. Then he very carefully lifted the resin pieces out.  Now the casting flask is ready for the bronze.

In this picture you can see the Sprue, where the bronze will be poured into the mold and the runners that the molten metal will travel down as it fills the hollow.  The risers are the holes in the drag that will allow any steam or overflow to escape safely.

This is a little crucible with a few chunks of scrap bronze in it.  normally this would be heated inside of a casting furnace.  We don’t have one, but we do have a giant re-heat oven.  So, for this project we used that instead.

Making this mold was definitely a learning experience.  One of the things we learned was that Bob needs a furnace for more casting.

And so…

I did say that I would have the pictures from the Acuity Insurance installation posted right away… I am almost caught up with photo edits… Promise!!!

But! for right now… Take a peek at the gallery and see what we’ve set up for our local shoppers for this Fall…

We always do a glass pumpkin patch.  Glass pumpkins make a great centerpiece.  They’ll never get squishy on the bottom and leave a ring on your mantlepiece!

Gourds are fun for us to make each year… Trying to form glass in the wild and wacky shapes of our favourite gourds is a fun challenge the staff in the hotshop looks forward to every year.

Acorns and Grape clusters are also in season and make wonderful gifts if you are visiting your friends for some holiday dinners…

Pumpkin wine bottle stoppers dress up a bottle of wine…

                                                                               And Ghosties!

                                                                          Come and pick out one of our little friendly ghosts for yourself!

Soon we’ll be switching over to icicles and candy canes and Christmas balls and I really will post all of the pictures from the Acuity Insurance installation…Pinky Swear!

With all of the chandeliers we’ve hung over the years we field a fair amount of enquiries about how to keep them clean.

Recently we have gotten quite a few questions about the various chandelier cleaning sprays on the market.  If you haven’t seen them, these spays are a solution meant to be sprayed onto a chandlier while it is still hanging in place.  The piece doesn’t have to be disassembled and taken down but you do need to make sure that the power to the light is off.

Recently we decided to give one of the sprays a try and see if it would work well for us here at the shop.  There is a whole lot of glass hanging here and keeping it clean takes quite a bit of time.  Especially in environments like the shop, or kitchens, or outdoors, dirt can build up quickly.

For our trial run with these sprays we chose Brillianté brand spray based on the simple fact that we were able to buy it a gallon at a time.  The 20 ounce squirt bottle looked awfully small with the hot shop full of glass as a backdrop…

After flipping the breaker for this chandelier we set up this little pump sprayer, put down a drop cloth and set up two ladders.  We used two ladders because, as it notes on the back of the Brillianté packaging, you should avoid twisting a chandelier.  The electrical wires do not like the twisting!

The packaging said to let the chandelier drip dry for 30-60 minutes and then absorb excess moisture with a chamois.  In the heat of the shop, especially near the ceiling the chandelier wouldn’t stay wet for more than 10 minutes.  The first time we let it dry quickly, but we realized it didn’t have enough time wet for the solution to work. So, we tried a second time spraying it every 10 minutes for 30 minutes so it had plenty of time for the Brillianté to saturate.  Then we dabbed the drips off the tips of the pieces and let it finish drying.

We left the piece turned off over the whole weekend and then gave it a look on Monday.  It definitely looks better.  Much of the surface dust had run off exactly as the spray had promised. But the chandelier was definitely not clean.

The environment of the shop creates a constant draft and air from the fields around the shop is sucked in through large doors constantly.  Also, the temperature changes as we turn furnaces off and on daily can vary by 100, this leads to really thick layers of condensation which kind of glues the dust down to things. This is pretty similar the situation of many of the chandeliers we’ve hung in restaurants.  For these chandeliers the only way to really restore their look will be a quick take down and re-hang.  That said the amount of dust the spray removed was astounding and it gave the surfaces it could clean (mostly those areas that were easily reached by our dusters on a regular basis) a very brilliant shine.

For home use and as regular maintenance this spray would be perfect.  For glass hung in more extreme environments there just isn’t a substitute for a gentle little scrub.  But, in those cases the re-hang does give us an opportunity to do things like check over wiring that may have been exposed to rain and snow, or fish out leaves or the occasional paper airplane.  We also tend to use these servicings as a time to look at the chandelier again and see if it needs a little refresh.  We often end up taking out a color and bringing in a new one or adding a new shape. Recently we have been transitioning many older chandeliers to LED lighting and we’ve begun to see some requests for color changing LED.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be showing doing just this type of service on a few unlit garden sculptures and we’ll have pictures of the whole process for you.  And, we’ll be assembling a chandelier made especially to feature color changing effects and showcasing a few that we’ve done this way in the past.

This week has been the warmest so far this summer here at the shop.  We’re not really sure how warm because the thermometer stops at a certain point…

The heat is often part of what draws people in to glass blowing…

It seems scary, and somewhat dangerous, but it sets this work apart.  Glassblowers reading this post may roll their eyes at this.  It’s considered uncool to complain about the heat in the glass blowing world. After all, it’s this warm everyday in some places…

That said we do pay close attention to hydration.  We use lots of fans and cooling stations where we can take a moment to cool down.  After all, we’re not crazy!

This last week has been a flurry of activity .  With alterations to be made to an existing installation in California and a new set of installations in Florida upcoming over the next two weeks we are working double-time to keep pace with our scheduled project in Wisconsin…

Blowing up Balloons…

Over the years I’ve made a few different sizes of Balloons in glass and a few different styles…

But, despite the complexity of the Dean Koons style animal sculptures, or the functionality of the hummingbird feeders I am constantly called back to the most traditional of forms.  There is something about the juxtaposition of the expectation of a balloon with the startling reality of the balloon in glass that delights people.

*********************************************************************************************************

When I began to make them they felt so laborious.  Each balloon was a struggle and I worked for a long time to improve the essential “Ballooness” of the pieces.  I made many balloons learning to handle the glass in such a way that the shape really looked like rubber filling with gas, so that the knot seemed like a real knot and so that the top of the balloon had just the contour and feel that I was looking for. Over time the process has become very natural. As I work I lwatch each one take shape in a way that will be familiar to anyone who has blown up a balloon part way and then stopped and held it away from themselves to see their progress…

I think most of the balloons I’ve made over the years are hung inside.  I know that they are often found in nurseries, in care spaces for children and frequently given at weddings.  I wonder if anyone out there has pictures of balloons I’ve made hanging somewhere in their life?

My favorite placement of the balloons that hang here at the shop is those that hang outside the shop.  They are survivors, these balloons, and we can see them silhouetted against the sky at any time of day or any time of year looking as if they are just about to break free and sail off on a grand adventure…