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In celebration of Utah Valley University’s 75^th anniversary in November of 2016, they presented a public art project done in stained glass called Roots of Knowledge. It is a very large permanent display. Ten feet high and 200 feet in length. The mural starts with the dawn of humanity and goes to the present time. It includes ore than 60,000 pieces of glass and made up of 80 panels. More than 40 professional artists, 26 UVU scholars and hundreds of UVU students work on the project under the guidance of Utah artist Tom Holdman and Utah Valley University President Matthew Holland. The lead artist was Cameron Oskcarson. Tom Holdman, a master stained glass artist was the brains behind the project. Want to see more? https://www.uvu.edu/rootsofknowledge/

Corella Classic is made by Wissmach Glass. Wissmach glass is the second oldest glass manufacturer that is still in operation. Corella Classic is one of their many lines of cathedral glass. As always, glass is not the easiest to photograph so these don’t particularly show the special characteristics of Corella Classic. Wissmach’s description is “In contrast to the more traditional and defined patterns, with Corella Classic the color flows across the non-directional pattern for that special illumination—A shimmering reflection of light from watery surface of glass. On our website, Corella Classic is mixed in with the other cathedrals of Wissmach. http://www.stainedglassexpress.com/Stained-Art-Glass/Wissmach-Glass-Art-Glass/Wissmach-Glass-Cathedral In the store they are in their own section of the stock glass.

TIFFANY LAMP 1901. Wisteria

This incredible lamp is on display at the Morse Museum in Winter Park, Florida. This is one of the lamps designed by Clara Driscoll. This lamp was exhibited at the 1902 decorative arts exposition in Turin, Italy. Both this lamp and the Pond Lily lamp won a grand prize for transforming previously utilitarian devices into electrified sculptures from nature. Most of Tiffany designs were oil lamps that required the base to serve as the oil source. Electricity gave more opportunity for design. Clara Driscoll led the Women’s Glass Cutting Department that was established in 1892. It was very progressive for an establishment to employ women. This book, which has become a national bestseller, is a delightful story about the women workers at the Tiffany studio. It is well worth the read.

Every now and then a piece of art work just brings your eye back. I recently was going through some Glass Art Magazines and this edition was showing the 2016 juried art competition winners. How special is this piece? I just love the way the fame did not constrain her. It makes you feel like the spring fairy could just give her toe a little push on the frame and give those beautiful wings a little flutter and she would be off. From the flower petal seat to her flowing skirt to her beautiful hair and sheer lacy wings, this piece is just perfect. Mary Harris you are an inspiration!

1840s—window glass took a step forward from the cylinder method to experiment with cast and rolled glass. This allowed larger sheets. 1800-1900s—John LaFarge and Louis C. Tiffany and glass chemist, Arthur Nash, were having success with color in glass. 1880s-1900—The Opalescent Age of Tiffany and LaFarge saw companies come and go. Kokomo Opalescent Glass Company founded in 1888 and The Paul Wissmach Glass Company Inc. founded in 1904 were the only two that survived and are still in operation today. Looking to repair an old piece of glass and need a match. These two companies are where to start for your glass matching. 1920s saw the Great Depression come to be and the Opalescent Age begin to die. This time also saw more of a need for better window glass and saw the development of the “continuous ribbon” production. Continuous ribbon takes four separate processes and makes them a continuous flow.

1. Mixing the raw materials.
2. Melting
3. Sheet forming
4. Annealing

This creates increased production and more uniformity. The continuous ribbon allowed for “float glass”. The float method replaced the plate method and is the process used to crate the clear class you see in window glass today. It is also the process that Spectrum Glass used. 1950s. The Studio Art movement was gaining. The legendary Harvey K. Littleton Studio of Toledo had students like Dale Chihuly, Marvin Lipofsky, Fritz Dreisbach, Boyce Lundstrum, Dan Schwoerer, and more. These artist did so much to share the American studio glass movement.

This type of work demanded more glass of consistent quality. 1851

Glass Pioneer, Dale Chihuly

Fritz Dreisbach, goblet

MICA ILLUSION TRANSFERS

Illusions transfers are 3x3 transfers than come in Silver, Champagne and Gold. They are new to the market and we will be introducing them at Stained Glass Express in April. (2018) Will work on any coe. Not for food bearing surfaces. The white parts of the stencils is where your glass will show. The color part is actual mica backed with enamel, so it adheres to the glass. Fires at lowest possible. If you fire too high the mica will adhere too much to the glass in the negative areas because the glass is softening. You don’t have to use dichroic glass for these because the mica is so awesome. You could do it on anything. Clear, dichroic or anything! Experiment. These samples are on black glass. They are hi fire decals. 1250F to 1300F. Glass MUST BE pre fused. Then add the mica transfer. Remove the wax carrier Soak the transfer in distilled water take off the backing and apply to your fired cabochon. Smooth out air bubbles with paper towel. Let dry. 3 hours might be enough, but you probably should do over night

DICHROIC GLASS

MOST INFO FROM HOWARD SANDBERG OF COATINGS BY SANDBERG

Dichroic glass is one of the most beautiful things SGE carries and it has been one of the most challenging. It was kind of nice to see on CBS page “the history of dichroic glass” that Howard says, “When you look at the history of an artist using Dichroic coated glass, it appears that the artist has been under the major handicap of not having any information on what he or she was working with. These artists were exposed to a piece of glass that had interesting color effects but came from a very complex and scientific industry not easily understood. These ‘high-tech’ coatings were capable of reflecting a narrow band of light (or one color) and at the same time, transmitting the remaining part of light.” So at least it was not just us facing challenges. I could go on about how the development of this metal film was done by our military and aerospace industries. The text would make your head hurt! It was 30 years (mid 70s) ago when CBS started production for art applications. When SGE first brought in some dichroic glass it was a big deal. We made a special display rack for it. We were displaying 1 piece that was about 2x4 inches of each one. We outgrew that fast! Then we would get questions about what it was going to do. We had some idea but not much. To complicate things, we didn’t even always know what we were getting. A customer would buy a piece that was rainbow or mixed and one part of the glass would behave one way and another part another way. Then our suppliers started to drill down and offer a standard stock and good descriptions. We changed our sku system and our descriptions to help our customers know what they were buying and to help us have them organized in a way that the customer could find what they wanted, and we would have a way to see gaps in our inventory and keep our stock consistent. About five years into stocking this glass we bought a shrink wrap machine. We bring in the glass, cut it, shrink wrap it and label it. No more ruined pieces from scratches and no more fighting to get the glue from the label off the glass. We stock CBS (Coatings by Sandberg), Profusion, and Austin Thin Films. We stock both 90 and 96. Just recently we have started to look into stocking some 104 and 33 coe for out bead workers and glass blowers.

A THOUSAND CRANES

Info from Glass Art Magazine and Wikipedia

Japanese legend is that if you fold 1000 cranes you will be granted a wish by the gods. The crane is a symbol of happiness and eternal youth so some believe that the 1000 origami paper cranes will bring you long life or recovery from illness or injury. In Japan the cranes which are strung together are very popular as wedding themes.

GERM’S 1000 CRANES PROJECT

Jeremy Grant-Levine (aka Germ) in 2018 is glass blowing 1000 cranes. Jeremy is being back by $92,000 Kickstarter campaign. This project will take 250 pounds of glass and approximately two miles of wire, totaling $20,000 in materials. When complete the work will on display at the Arch Enemy Arts gallery in Philadelphia. Jeremy is based in Philadelphia and has been flameworking glass pipes for over 13 years. He has exhibited at galleries in Philadelphia, Seattle, New York, Miami and Tel Aviv.

BUYING A KILN It is a big decision. It is a lot of money. It is a big piece of equipment that will take up space. There really is a lot to consider.

• How much space do you have
• Do you want to go to the expense of 220 line or get by with what you already have?
• Size of the kiln
• Programming

We sell Olympic Kilns at Stained Glass Express. www.greatkilns.com. We love their support and we love the kilns. Basically, you have a box made of firebrick that is attached to a controller. So the support piece is BIG. For your workspace you should be prepared to make it a fire proof space. Easily done. Flame resistant sheetrock or metal set away from the wall. Put it on something that won’t burn. Common sense kind of stuff. Don’t burn your house down. The big difference between having a 110 line and a 220 is the depth of the kiln. When there are two elements in the kiln you can run it on a 110 line. You just have to change the outlet to accommodate the commercial plug. Consider what you want to make. Jewelry and little dishes. You are good with a little kiln. If you think BIG, you will need a bigger kiln. Maybe one with a clamshell feature so that it opens from the top and the bottom. You can get one that bottom slides out. Features to consider when thinking about putting things in the kiln and getting them back out. If you want to do tall things like a drape lamp shade or vase you should consider bringing in that 220 line. The 220 allows the kiln to have three elements and therefore it can be deeper. Everyone I know, recommends upgrading to a digital controller. One where you can save multiple programs. We sell the RTC-1000 with great results. We can store 6 programs which pretty much covers everything. What you definitely do not want is one that you have to babysit and make sure it gets turned off. You run around with a timer around your neck (seriously) and I have heard terrible results of kilns burning through when someone went to bed and forgot. One more thing to put into your brain. If you think you ever might get into glass blowing or bead making you might consider a kiln with a punty door that you can use to anneal your beads. To see what Stained Glass Express offers https://www.stainedglassexpress.com/fusing_supplies/kilns-and-accessories/

PANEL C 1908 For those of you who read this blog consistently, you know I am a fan of the Morse Museum. The Morse is in the college town of Winter Park, Fl. They have an extensive collection of Tiffany art work. This is part of the collection that was feature in this month’s newsletter. The panel was originally the center piece of a 10-panel window designed for the landing of a massive marble staircase in the Pittsburg home Of Richard B. Mellon. The panel was divided up when the 60-room house was demolished in 1940. The piece is done totally in opalescent glass. It must have been a remarkable sight at the top of the equally remarkable marble staircase.

Application 1. Clean glass is a must! Use ammonia or alcohol if needed. Avoid touching glass surface with your hands. 2. Remove the wax paper barrier before soaking. 3. With a good pair of small scissors trim about 1/16 inch away from the decal card 4. Curved-tip tweezers are very handy. 5. Wet the surface of the glass when applying the decal, it allows the decal to easily move into position. 6. To apply the decal, slide it slightly off of the paper and hold the paper edge with the tweezers. Position decal and hold exposed edge with finger, or a second pair of tweezers, on the glass while pulling paper from underneath. When the decal is in place hold with finder and blot excess water. Continue to gently blot, using an inside out rolling motion, until all the water and bubbles are out from underneath the decal, a small squeegee (credit card) is useful. Continue until the entire decal, including the edges, are firmly affixed to the clean glass surface. 7. Allow to dry completely before firing. The smallest amount of moisture can stream aprt the decal from the glass. Firing Conditions 1. Over-firing is disappointment. Decal are temperature sensitive, some colors more than others. The best results are achieved with the lower temperatures and slightly longer soak times. 2. Good ventilation in the kiln during the burn off phase, (500-900f), is important for all decals and critical for hi-ire and low-fire ) accents) metallic decals. Leave the lid vented till the kiln reaches 1100f. Info from Profusion Studio.

Though not really new, because it has been around since the 19th century, bead making is gaining momentum very quickly. One method is to buy an inexpensive hot head torch like you see being used in the pictures above. This is easily something you can do at home. Hot Head is sku 15613. Or our newest addition is a Bench Burner. Sku 16035. You are able to do more with this one, but it is more expensive and you need an oxygen generator to go with it.