Glass Quiz

Use the images below to answer the questions

Image A



1. What is the substance shown in Image A  known as, and how is it useful in the glass making process?

 



Mossier Glass from Wendy Chapman on Vimeo.



2. In the video above is the glass making process shown classified as blown glass, pressed glass, or sheet glass?





Image B

            

 



3. In image B we see a man working with glass on a small scale making glass beads using a blow torch.  What is this

type of glass making called?




Image C





 

 4. What is the substance shown in Image C know as and how is it applied in the glass making process?








Image D

5. In Image D what is the name give to the type of worker being shown?

This worker will obtain the molten glass from the what piece of equipment that is shown in this image?

 

 



Comparing Glass Making in America and England

The following material is taken from an informational packet published by a glassmaking factory in England.  Read through the material below,  look at pictures of the equipment used  here, and compare it to the process in America that you may have observed or heard about via videos, written descriptions, blog notes, or class discussion of glass making in our local factories. 

The main raw materials for glass making are Silica, Sand, Soda, Limestone and Potash. Arsenic used to be added to this mixture however it is no longer used.   As the largest component is sand it is vital that the very best is used. The sand is dried, sieved and weighed and the other chemicals are then added to make-up what is known as the ‘BATCH’.

Up to five percent crushed glass called ‘Cullet’ can be added to the batch to prevent what is known as ‘Cording’ this is the name given to the striation or rope like imperfection in the finished product, this can also be caused if the temperature in the furnace fluctuates and is not regulated properly. The batch today unlike years ago is mixed by machines and not by hand, is then sent to us as in 25kg bags The batch is placed and melted at a temperature of 1300 degrees. This process is normally done during the night. When melting is completed the temperature is reduced in the day to that of 1100 degrees. The furnace is known as a pot furnace, which is heated by natural gas, inside is a stone crucible which holds approximately 150 kg of molten glass. The crucible in the furnace has a life expectancy of approximately 1 year. Lets take a moment to talk about glass blowing and ornament making. An iron is dipped into the molten glass and a quantity is gathered at the end of the pipe by rotating it just like gathering treacle onto a spoon. This piece of collected glass is known as the gather. The tools that are used in the glass making process are, blowing irons, which are hollow stainless tubs, gathering irons, shears, Secateurs, wooden block, tongs and Wet newspaper these tools have remained unchanged for several hundred years. Then the glass is allowed to cool to about 1000 degrees and is rolled onto an iron slab, this process is known as marvering. This forms a parison, which can then be blown or manipulated into animals, glasses, paperweights and many more objects. Colour used in glass making when used chipped gives a translucent colour and powdered gives a solid dense colour. There are many colours available, and chemicals are used to make up these colours, such as Cerium for Yellow, Selenium for Red, Copper Oxide for Green and Potassium Pemanganate for Purple. These colours can be added at many stages during the process, however, great care must be taken not to contaminate the batch when going back for more gathers and this is why cool air is blown onto the glass. The Glory hole is heated by natural gas at a temperature of 1150 degrees, this can be used once or several times during the production process to soften the glass and remove shear marks created on the object, if this process is used for to long it could also loose the form of the object. You will see the glassmaker rotating the gather constantly this is keep the shape of the object from distorting. When the object is complete it then needs to be annealed this is the process of controlled cooling, the item is placed into a kiln by knocking it from the iron onto a tray containing sand. The temperature of the kiln is 500 degrees and this allows the glass to cool at a slower rate, which reduces stress, brittleness and prevents cracking in the finished object. Once the kiln is switched off and the items are allowed to cool overnight the objects are then removed and sent on to the finishing process this tends to be the first job of the morning. The finishing process is made up of three stages. Firstly milling the bottom on a flat bed revolving steel wheel. Smoothing on a linished belt (linisher). Polished on a cork wheel, using pumice. This process is done entirely by hand. We commonly get asked about our glass processing and the environment, glass is an ideal material for recycling and is good news for the environment however we do not reuse the small amount of waste from our process these cutoffs could contaminate the whole batch. Answer the following questions. 1. Compare and contrast the the two processes in the different counties? 2. What are the ingredients of glass? 3. What is the furnace heated by in the article above? 4. How much molten glass does the furnace hold? 5. What is the temperature of the furnace during the day? How does this compare to numbers you have seen before? Explain. 6. Can you name three different tools used in glass making? 7. Where is the item put to soften the glass and reshape? 8. Where is the item put for annealing, the process to avoid cracking? 9. Explain what gather is. 10. Describe how color is put into the glass.

Christmas in July!!!!

Christmas came early for a tired bunch of Cabell County teachers today as they made one last attempt to find out as much as they could about the manufacturing of glass and bring it back to their classrooms. The teachers visited the Pittsburgh Glass Center and made blown glass Christmas ornaments. 

Christmas Ornaments from Wendy Chapman on Vimeo.

The Pittsburgh Glass Center was unlike many of the glass making facilities that we have visited in that it was in a busy section of town in a two story building.  The glass center was composed of 4 separate glass working studios.  The "hot shop" where glass is blown was located on the second floor of the building.  The "flame studio" where torches are used to create smaller glass pieces like beads and marbles is used by those interested in being "lamp workers".  The "warm shop" involved the making of stained glass objects while the "cold shop" was where glass engraving and/or the finishing of a piece by grinding and polishing was done.  Classes were offered in all of the studios at many different levels of difficulty.

The Glass Center was like the other facilities that we visited in that it was filled with talented artisans who were passionate about their craft and eager to share their creations, their skills, and their joy in doing their work.

The Pittsburgh Glass Center has been open for 13 years and has managed to turn tradition on its ear and not rely on glass production for its business profit but on creating opportunities for others to learn how to work glass.  This unique approach seems to be very successful for the company. 

One of the tools that the company is using to promote itself to the masses is t-shirts.  I bought one myself when I was there and absolutely love the design which shows sketches of glass tools and describes their uses in the glass making process.  Your assignment is to come up with a t-shirt design that would promote Blenko Glass. Some things to consider may be
1. Who will buy the shirt? How can you appeal to the most people?
2. How will it portray Blenko?
3. How will color play a role in your shirt design?
4. What have we learned in class that can be conveyed in the shirt?
You will be asked to present your t-shirt idea to the class. 

Glass in the Garden

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, a great steel and glass Victorian greenhouse, has been inviting visitors to explore the beauty and mysteries of plants since 1893. Set amidst one of Pittsburgh's largest greenspaces, Schenley Park, Phipps Conservatory stands as a cultural and architectural centerpiece of the city of Pittsburgh.

In recent decades, Phipps has evolved into one of the region's most vibrant, thriving cultural attractions, bringing fresh perspectives and artists into our historic glasshouse environment. Phipps has also become a strong advocate for advanced green-building practices, sustainable gardening and a new environmental awareness.

During a recent visit to the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, the Glass and Ceramics class of Cabell County, WV were able to explore the works of several glass artists including Dale Chihuly in this setting of fantastic flora.  Watch the video below to see some of the images that stood out to one of the visiting teachers and answer the questions that follow.

Phipps Conservatory from Wendy Chapman on Vimeo.


1. Would the glass pieces be more pleasing to the eye in a traditional museum setting or do you feel that the combination of the glass and the plants worked well?  Why or why not?

2. Were you able to pick out all of the glass works easily?

3.  Do you have any sense of what inspired the glass artists to create the pieces shown?

4. Watching the video do you have any favorites or standouts amongst the pieces shown?

Proceed to a website of  possible Chihuly art projects.  Which of the projects looks the most interesting to you?  What materials would be needed for this project?  Have you seen any of Chihuly's work that may have inspired these crafts?

The Glass Menagerie

Over the period of a week, I have seen the glass making process of some of  the remaining glass factories in WV  and Ohio.  I have filmed segments of these processes at the glass blowing factory of  Blenko Glass in Milton, WV,  at the sheet glass factory Paul Wissbach in Paden City, WV, and at the pressed glass factory of Mosser Glass in Cambridge, Ohio.  The segments that I am showing you in the videos below would have been repeated multiples times through out the work day and show processes that were designed to produce the same product every time .  As you watch the videos, compare the processes of each factory and answer these questions.

1. How are these processes from the three different companies alike? How are they different?

2. Why do you think this process has developed in this manner over the many years that each company has been creating glass in their three unique ways.

3.  Do you think this process could be used or is used in the formation of any other products with which you may be familiar?  Explain your answer.

4. Who was Henry Ford and how might he be related to this line of questioning?



Blown Away By Blenko from Wendy Chapman on Vimeo.


Paul Wissbach Glass from Wendy Chapman on Vimeo.


Mossier Glass from Wendy Chapman on Vimeo.

After we discuss your answers the the questions above we will do an activity that will help us to better appreciate the processes that we are observing in the glass manufacturing videos. Please read over the instructions to familiarize yourself with the tasks you may be asked to perform.

Lesson Plan: Students will be split into 4 equally sized groups.  Two groups will be assembly lines, two groups will be individual workers. 

 

Each assembly line will do the following:

1.  Assign a specific task to each worker in each assembly line so that the final product can be made.  A suggestion of how the tasks can be broken down for an assembly line of 8 people is as follows: First two people count out 5 sheets of paper each (one counts out colored paper and the other counts out plain paper), the third arranges the stack of papers to be alternating in color (plain, colored, plain, colored… etc.), the fourth lines up papers into a nice stack, fifth measures out 1 meter long ribbon, sixth ties ribbon around stack of paper with knot, seventh ties nice bow using the extra ribbon, eighth person takes stack and arranges it on table and keeps count of how many stacks have been made.

2.   The tasks can be distributed among more or fewer individuals depending on how many people are in each assembly line.

3.   Each assembly line will line up with the proper materials at the correct positions on the assembly line.

4.   When the individual workers are ready also, the teacher will tell everyone to begin.

The Dish on Homer Laughlin's Fiesta

The Glass and Ceramics class was privileged to explore the Homer Laughlin China Company today and witnessed some of the practices that has made this WV company a household name.  Watch the video below and note the formidable history that allowed the formation of a product that captured the attention and devotion of generations of people as they set their tables with this famous dinnerware.

The foresight of its leaders have allowed this company to continue to grow as they expanded their china production into the commercial restaurant arena.  Many restaurants that we all frequent such as Steak and Shake, Applebees, PF Changs, and many others use Homer Laughlin dinnerware.  So when life is good and people are eating out chances are that they are eating off of plates made here in WV. However when the economy dictates that people can't afford to eat out as often and they must entertain themselves and others at home, then people look to home improvement to make their home time a more pleasurable experience.  Not able to afford a costly kitchen remodel some folks would opt to replace their dinnerware to create a new atmosphere.  Its a win-win for Homer Laughlin.

Your first assignment is to survey 20 people with the following questions? We will discuss results in class.
1. Have you ever heard of Homer Laughlin?
2. Have you ever heard of Fiesta dinnerware?
3. Do you own any Fiesta dinnerware?
4. Have you ever known anyone who owns or has owned any Fiesta dinnerware?
5. Where could you buy Fiesta dinnerware locally?

Your second assignment is long term. The next time that you are eating out with your family; check the bottom of your plate to see if the name Homer Laughlin is there indicating that you are eating off of WV made china. A chart will be posted and we will add restaurants as they are discovered.

Recycling Glass

Gabbert Industries is a factory that collects cullet which is scrap glass that will later be used in the manufacturing of new glass.  Below you see several pictures of the piles of cullet that accumulate at the factory.  The glass must be picked up and sorted based on size and or color and then it is resold to glass manufacturers to be used to make more glass. 

Gabbert Cullet

Gabbert Cullet

 

Gabbert collects cullet from many of the local manufacturers of glass including Fenton and Blenko glass.  In turn other companies like Marble King may buy the cullet from Gabbert for use in their own glass products. 

Blenko Cullet

 

Marble King Cullet

Marble King Marbles

This continuous recycling of glass is very important to the environment for a variety of reasons.  Please go the following website to watch two videos that will help develop your understanding of how recycling of glass is very important to our environment.

http://www.captaincullet.com/recycling_animations.html

After watching the animations design a poster on a clean sheet of white copy paper incorporating Captain Cullet and/or Little Gob that could be used to persuade the general public that recycling glass is an important consideration in our effort to protect the earth.  Your poster should clearly support some of the reasons that Captain Cullet and Little Gob present in the videos.

Oglebay Glass Museum

In Wheeling, WV there is a great resort area known as Oglebay Park.  Within this resort they have managed to collect a history of glass that reflects the growth and changes in this industry through out the years.  The video below shows a  small selection of the artifacts that they have accumulated.  The other image is a scavenger hunt that would normally take place as you move through the museum examining the glass collection.  Use the Scavenger Hunt Guide as you view the video and try to match the images with the descriptions.  All of the images can be seen in the glass museum but not all of the images are contained within the scavenger hunt. Good Luck!!

Oglebay Glass Museum from Wendy Chapman on Vimeo.

Analyzing Glass Color

The following image is part of a presentation at the Fenton Glass Factory in Ohio.  The image describes the basic ingredients of fabricated glass and lists the chemicals that are needed to produce specific glass colors.  Using this image and the lists of batch chemicals listed below, choose a piece of glass to bring to class and try and determine the chemical makeup of the batch recipe from which your glass may have been derived.  Be prepared to share with the class.

Colors                                                                     Chemicals
Willow Green (Light Green)                                  Copper + Potassium Bichromate
Blue Topaz      (Light Blue)                                    Copper + Powder Blue (Pigment)
Rose Milk        ( Light Pink)                                   Selenium + Erbium Oxide + Neodymium Oxide
Black                                                                       Potassium Bichromate + Cobalt Oxide
Violet               (Light Purple)                                Manganese + Powder Blue (Pigment)
Ruby                 (Red)                                             Cadmium Oxide + Selenium
Sunset              ( Light Orange)                              Selenium
Burmese           (Cream and Brownish)                  Depleted Uranium
Milk                  (White)                                          Fluor


Suppose you have a piece of glass that does not clearly contain one of the major colorants listed.  Using the chart above hypothesize what you believe will be the chemicals contained in the glass.
Be prepared to share with the class.

Natural verses Fabricated Natural Glass

Read through the following experiments in preparation to execute in class.  Answer the following  questions.

1. There are four types of natural glass described below.  What do the four types have in common with regards to their formation?

2. Why is quartz not considered a type of natural glass?

3. What are the independent and dependent variables for each Experiments A, B, and C?

4. What are some of the controls that had to be maintained in each of the Experiments A, B, and C?



 Natural verses Fabricated Glass

Types of Natural Glass
Fulgurite – Glass resulting from a strike in a mass of sand that has the right combination of minerals. This forms brittle, glassy tubes that preserve the shape of the lightening as it travels through sand.

Quartz – This glass-like rock crystal has the transparency of glass, but its crystalline structure prevents it from fully fitting the definition of glass.

1 A simplified definition of glass describes it as a material that solidifies from a molten state without forming crystals.


Obsidian – Glass formed due to the intense heat of a volcano.


Tektite – Glass that forms as molten blobs of earth are tossed into the air when a meteorite hits the earth.


Euplectella – A glass sponge found in the western Pacific Ocean near the Phillipines with a hollow-cylindrical skeleton made from silica.



Glass occurs in nature when sand or stone endures extreme heat and then cools rapidly. Man used natural glass to create tools and jewelry, but was not able to fully take advantage of the beneficial properties of glass till he could make it himself. After witnessing how glass formed in nature, man began to modify glass recipes that create the many glass objects we depend on everyday.

Fabricating Glass
The glass that surrounds us in our every day lives, from bottles to windows, is commonly made from silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2), also known as sand. When silica is cooled from a molten state it begins to behave like a solid, though it technically retains its status as a liquid. The structure of the molecules of glass does not change as it goes from a hot liquid state to a cold rigid one. The temperature at which silica begins to act like a solid, known as the transition temperature, is relatively high. Pure silica creates a very strong glass with great chemical durability, but the cost of manufacturing a glass that requires such a high melting temperature prevents its commercial use. The solution for this problem can be found in the addition of modifiers known as flux. Fluxing agents, such as alkali or alkaline earth oxides, lower the temperature at which the pure silica melts by disrupting the network connectivity. As modifiers lower the transition temperature, they also decrease the chemical durability and make the formation of glass more difficult. This requires a glass engineer to balance cost and quality when creating a recipe that best fits the needs of the glass manufacturer.
Understanding Fabrication through Candy Making
The methods used for making candy demonstrate many of the same principles as in the formation of glass. Sugar replaces silica as the glass former and the use of water mimics alkali as a modifier. Sugar (sucrose) has a melting temperature of 186 ºC while water has a melting temperature of 0ºC. Comparably, silicon dioxide has a melting temperature of 1723ºC while alkali has a melting temperature of 1275ºC. The experiments below use a) sugar alone, b) sugar and water, c) sugar, corn syrup and water.

Vocabulary
Transition temperature
Flux
Fiber draw
Viscosity

Objective
After this experiment, the student should be able to understand these basic principles of glass science and technology:
1. If a pure melt is cooled slowly enough, it forms a single crystal, while cooling quickly produces a polycrystalline solid. Crystal formation can be completely suppressed if the cooling rate is sufficiently increased, thus creating glass.
2. Impurities, mechanical agitation, bubbles and other factors can create crystals. The addition of a modifier decreases the ability of the melt to form glass.
3. The number of ingredients may improve the ability of a melt to form glass.
4. Modifiers overall weaken the glass.
5. The viscosity of a melt can be controlled by varying the temperature, which makes it possible to control the drawing of glass fibers.

Materials
Hotplate or electric stovetop
1 one-quart stainless steel pan
12 metal tablespoons
1 laboratory balance
1 metal tray to hold hot candies (up to ~ 175ºC/350ºF)
1 laboratory of good quality thermometer that reads up to ~ 205ºC or 400ºF
5 pounds of granulated cane sugar
16 oz. bottle of corn syrup
Drinking water
20 molds for casting. (The metal containers from Tea Light candles work well or small cookie cutters)
4 eight oz. glasses
Crystal candy, available in clumps of large, colorless crystals

Experiment A- Pure sugar.
1. Place molds on metal tray.
2. Put 410 g sugar in the pan and gradually heat on hotplate or electric stovetop at low-medium temperature. Insert thermometer and monitor the temperature of sugar.
Stir sugar with spoon in order to maintain uniform temperature throughout. Note: keep thermometer bulb in the middle of sugar, but away from the bottom of the pan.
3. Continue to stir at a rate that best mixes solid and molten parts. Continue heating and stirring until all the sugar has melted. The stirring speed should be such that solid and molten parts mix together. Record the temperature at which the sugar melts.
4. At this point, stop stirring and prevent the temperature from increasing. Temperature increase would cause excessive browning and the formation of bubbles, symptoms of the decomposition of sugar.
5. Put one tablespoon of molten sugar in mold (sample #A1) and three tablespoons in a different mold (sample #A2). Note: molds can be easily marked and kept track of with permanent marker.
6. Record the physical appearance of the samples as they cool to room temperature. Make observations regarding transparency, presence of small white crystals and/or bubbles, and solid or liquid state.
7. A fiber draw can be created by slowly pull a spoon out of the melted sugar. Record a prediction for which temperature the fiber draw will be at the height of its ability.
8. Turn the hotplate off. Make several fiber draws, all the while noting the temperature. Continue this process, as the temperature decreases and the sugar becomes more solid, until a fiber draw is no longer possible. Note the temperature at which the fiber draw reached its maximum ability.
9. Compare the appearance of samples #A1 and #A2 with that of crystal candy that is also made of pure sugar.

Experiment B- Sugar and water modifier.
1. Put 410 g sugar and 100 g water in the pan and begin heating while stirring the melt. Monitor increasing temperature as sugar dissolves. Record the temperature at which all the sugar dissolves.
2. Continue to heat and stir. Record the temperature at which the syrup begins to boil.
3. Cast candy from the syrup (sample #B1). Record the physical appearance of the samples as they cool to room temperature. Make observations regarding transparency, presence of small white crystals and/or bubbles, solid or liquid state. If the sample remains fluid once it has reached room temperature, note its relative viscosity.
4. Continue to stir and boil the remaining syrup until the temperature increases by 5. °C (or 10 °F) If solid sugar deposits on sides, scrape and stir it into the liquid. Cast candy from this more concentrated syrup (sample #B2). Make a note of the physical appearance as in step three of experiment B.
5. Repeat step 4, casting a new candy for each 5 °C (or 10 °F) increment in temperature (sample #B3, #B4, … etc.). Continue until the temperature reaches 170 °C (338 °F).
Be sure to use a clean spoon to cast each new sample.

Experiment B(a)- Sugar and water; without stirring.
1. Repeat all the steps of Experiment B, except this time do not stir the solution after the sugar has settled at the bottom of the pan (at 200 F). Try to cast the samples (#B1(a), #B2(a), #B3(a),… etc.) when the melt is at the same temperature as in Experiment B.
2. Record the changes in samples as they cool to room temperature, making special note of any differences compared to the corresponding B samples.

Experiment C- Sugar, corn syrup and water.
1. Repeat Experiment B(a) using 240 g corn syrup, 410 g sugar and 100 g water in a clean pan.
Testing: Effect of processing conditions on the properties of candies.
Hardness or Chewy character. The samples should have a wide range of hardness from brittle solid to a watery liquid. To make a comparison of this property, use a paper clip. Open up a paper clip to have one sharp end and keep the rest bent. For the solid samples, insert the sharp end with consistent force into each sample and compare the size of the dents created. For liquid samples, use the bent end of the paper clip. Dip it into the liquid and take it out, noting the relative force needed.
Durability in water. For one temperature, select a sample from each of the A, B, B(a) and C experiments (i.e. the cast from the melt at 150 °C or 302 °F). Weigh (still in mold) on laboratory balance and place them in separate 8-oz. glasses with 200 g tap water. (Note: all the water should be at the same temperature). Drain the water out after 1 hour. During this time, avoid disturbing the sample and water. Take the samples out, dry and weigh them again. Calculate the respective weight loss due to the water dissolving the sample. Each sample has equal surface area exposure to the water, thus making the weight loss inversely proportional to the durability; the greater the weight loss, the lower the sample’s durability.

Hint for recording information onto a table: When possible, assign relative grades of 1 through 5 to non-quantative information. For example, in a column for transparency, write 1 for an opaque and 5 for a completely transparent sample.

MAKING MARBLES

1. What are two ways that marbles can be made?

2. What causes the different colored ribbons seen in some marbles?

3. How is recycling important in making marbles?

4. How are less than perfect marbles separated from the more acceptable marbles?

Science and Art and Social Studies OH MY!!!

This website  http://www.childrensmuseum.org/themuseum/fireworks_ofglass/uos/fireworks_of_glass_uos_lesson1.pdf has a series of lessons based on the works of  Dale Chihuly. The lessons are designed for grades 3-5 but could be adaptable for middle school students as well.  If you are working in the team setting as in our middle schools, these lessons are an excellent way to collaborate with your art teacher as well as your social studies teacher. 

Blenko Glass- World Renowned

Stained glass among best of Blenko creations

Howie McCormick/The Herald-Dispatch

Brent Aikman, director of sales and marketing in Blenko Glass' Architectural and Antique Glass Division, shows one of the company's popular styles of sheet glass, often used in windows.

Purchase this photo

• 
• 

Related:

• Video: Blenko Glass

March 22, 2008 @ 10:45 PM

DAVE LAVENDER

The Herald-Dispatch

MILTON -- The quiet strength, beauty and transparency of hand-blown sheet glass has been used for hundreds of years in stained glass windows to tell the Easter story and to visually breathe life into the gospels.
These days, more likely than not, those beautiful, serene scenes are made of glass gathered from the fiery gas furnaces, hand-blown into cylinders and then flattened at Blenko Glass.
Quietly, tucked away on the backside of the Blenko Glass Company is the Architectural/Antique Glass Division that is as vibrant as the company's nearly endless palette of colors.
Although it often has been in the shadow of Blenko's modern-day legacy of artist-designed, colorful and sleek tableware, antique sheet glass was around at the very beginning of Blenko.
In fact, when William J. Blenko first came to the United States in 1893, he had a dream to make the finest hand-blown antique glass in America.
Blenko, who successfully fired up the family's antique glass business in Milton in 1921, becoming the first of its kind in America, would be proud of what is happening today.
In spite of the turbulence of today's market, Blenko Glass remains true to its original purpose.
It is the only company in the United States that produces mouth-blown sheet glass in a production house.
It is also one of only two companies in the United States that makes the one-inch-thick Dalle de Verre glass used in cathedrals and famous buildings around the world.
Over the years, Blenko has produced nearly 1,000 colors of hand-blown sheet glass and has its stained glass in installations at The Harkness Library at Yale, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, the Mormon Temple in Washington, D.C., the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center, and in buildings in Saudi Arabia, Japan, British Columbia and Australia.
Run by Don Lemley, who has been at Blenko for more than 20 years, the Architectural/Antique Division is cranking up the publicity and its stock reminding people of the many facets of Blenko Glass.
Fourth-generation president Richard Blenko has been touring the country gaining nationwide exposure on PBS stations running the latest Blenko documentary, "Blenko: The Spirit of American Stained Glass," while at the factory, the Antique Glass Division added Charleston native Brent Aikman a year ago as full-time director of sales and marketing to get Blenko's antique glass out further and stronger.
Aikman, who worked in marketing and electronics in Phoenix for nine years, said with few competitors, Blenko's Antique Division has seen a leap in orders and has upped its current inventory of Blenko Antique sheet glass, its hand-spun rondels (round glass) and its Dalle de Verre to more than half a million dollars worth of glass inventory they are pushing to sell worldwide.
"This company has a balance between its divisions so when tableware is going well, this side tends to take a little backseat and when tableware sales slack off this side really steps up and it balances out the business," Aikman said. "This company was founded on architectural glass so we are going back to the roots of what the Blenkos came here to do."
In really revving up this side of the operation, Blenko has found a lot of other uses for its architectural glass, so much so, that they have added Architectural Glass into the Antiques Division title.
With active recipes for more than 700 colors of architectural glass, Blenko is finding a niche in providing architectural glass such as blocks, bricks, custom pavers and glass that is melted down and re-cast by studio artists around the world.
Last year, Blenko produced 10,000 amber-colored bricks for the Thomas Jefferson Hall Library at The Military Academy at West Point in New York.
Even though some other glass companies such as Corning do make architectural bricks and blocks, Blenko feels it has a place in the market, Aikman said.
"That project made us think there is a real market out there," Aikman said. "We don't want to compete with Corning, they have their own methodology in production and their style of blocks. What we do is produce a block that we can offer in color variances. We have recipes for probably 700-plus colors, and there are probably a lot more than that if you go back and look at all the recipe cards."
Already working with the three main stained glass studios in America (all based in Statesville, N.C.), and many of the top studio glass artists that re-cast its glass, Blenko has now put out its first Architectural/Antique Catalog to studio glass artists and architectural firms throughout the world.
The 2008 catalog went out to 1,000 customers hoping to spread the word of Blenko's unique offerings whether it's the custom circle glass pavers that have been used in sidewalk restorations in Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., or the textured cast panels and cast tiles that have been used in restaurants such as The Mowbray Kitchen in Duxbury, Mass.
Marshall fans might want to stop reading now, but Blenko's largest stained glass project of late is working with Law's Stained Glass Studio, out of Statesville, N.C., where artists are making six-foot-diameter stained glass windows of the flying WV logo for the bell tower windows at the new WVU Alumni Center in Morgantown.
The Alumni Center, set to be dedicated this spring, will be adjacent to WVU's football stadium.
"It is going to be lit from the inside so it is going to be the shot at every night football game," Aikman said. "Every camera at every WVU night game will be trained on it."
Making a wide range of contacts, Aikman said the idea is to get exposure to architectural firms so that they can spec Blenko Glass into a job whether it is in Morgantown or in the Middle East.
Aikman said Blenko is also talking to distributors who would take Blenko Glass to various parts of the world. In fact, they just shipped 35 cases of Dalle de Verre for a show in the Middle East.
"We just started working with a gentleman who does a lot of business in Saudi Arabia and Dubai," Aikman said. "We just shipped him 35 cases that he is taking over there for a show. The impetus is that the sheiks want something different that nobody else has and glass is becoming a big thing over there. That gives us leverage to get glass into markets that we can't necessarily access from the Mountain State."
Unlike the highly competitive tableware side of the business, for stained glass, Blenko only has a handful of competitors.
For sheet glass, competition is a German-based company called Lambert's, and in Dalle de Verre, it is Kokomo Glass in Kokomo, Ind.
Aikman said the companies continue to dwindle.
Blenko has just started getting orders from Europe after a French company making Dalle de Verre went out of business.
Posting its best February in antique glass in about 10 years, Blenko looks to be turning a new corner with its age-old antique glass now being used in so many different ways.
"We will always make glass the same way," said Aikman, of such products as the hand-spun rondels whose process dates back to Medieval Europe. "But we have kind of opened the doors and we've changed the way we do business. It still is going to take a lot of hard work but if we can get into the design studios and the architectural firms and become a known player, we will be well on the way."

Read the article above.  The author notes that Blenko glass can be found in many well known structure around the world.  Using the list started by the author and any other resource available, locate and post two examples of Blenko design found throughout the world.  Be sure to record your resource along with your picture post.

Glass Use

Use the comparison below to compare how glass use in houses changed from 1920 to 1945.  Generate your own list of uses of glass in a home today.  How would you come up with a proposed price for the list that you generate? Do you think the price will have increased or decreased? Explain your reasoning.
Great videos for use with students when discussing uses of glass at this website
http://www.corning.com/news_center/features/A_Day_Made_of_Glass.aspx
 

 

SCHOOL OF FIRE

Visit the following School of Fire website and experience how important thermodynamics is to the process of glass blowing. 

The following documents are published by the Museum of Glass located in Tacoma, Washington and may be used to reinforce the working vocabulary used while students are discussing working with glass. http://museumofglass.org/document.doc?id=10  These documents cover the teamwork aspect of glass blowing that was very evident in the Blenko Trip as well as naming the different members of the teams and describing their individual responsibilities in the glass making process.  The documents also cover the dangers that are found in the Hot Shop as well as ways to avoid the dangers.  The documents could be printed out and used in a jigsaw learning activity for the students.  A second set of documents will help enhance  glass blowing vocabulary http://museumofglass.org/document.doc?id=11.

BLENKO TRIP
On June 6, 2013 the participants in the Glass and Ceramics class took a field trip (yeah!!!) to the Blenko Glass factory here in Milton.  The video accompanying this blog entry records the experience of one of the participants.  Please watch the video carefully and then go to the  "HOT SPOT" website originally posted on Danielle Vance's blog and compare the video to the "HOT SPOT" game.  We will discuss the video in class and you should be able to apply some of the knowledge about tools and names of different workers you learn in the game to what is happening in the video.  Hint: You may need to take notes as well as watch the video and game more than once.

How'd They Do That?

Glass Video from Wendy Chapman on Vimeo.

Blenko Glass from Dave Briddle on Vimeo.

listen to ‘Blenko Marks’ on Audioboo

Websites for Blenko "Scavenger Hunt"

http://www.ehow.com/how_6040038_identify-blenko-glass.html


http://blenkocollectors.com/blenkocollmarks.htm

GLASS TOWN PRESENTATION

Almost my entire life (except for 5yrs in Huntington) I have lived within a 3 mile radius of  Blenko Glass.  My dad worked their for 3 years when I was small but other family members worked and retired from the factory.  I have been inside the visitors center twice in my life, but spent many a happy evening as a child outside the center feeding the ducks that inhabit the adjacent pond.  I own only a couple of pieces of Blenko given to me as wedding gifts and they are tucked away somewhere in the house so they won't be broken.  When I have on occasion traveled out of state and met others who weren't completely oblivious to the existence of  West Virginia, I have used Blenko Glass as a familiar point of reference and have come to appreciate its world renowned reputation. 

MILTON, WV
Located between Huntington and Charleston Exit 28 of Interstate 64

Glass Companies in Milton
Eureka Art Glass Company 1921-1930; colored flat glass
Blenko Glass Company 1931- still in operation; blown novelties,flat glass, art glass
Gibson Glass 1976-1977 and 1983-2006; paperweights, novelties
Osbourne Glass circa 2007-2011; giftware, novelties

Blenko Websites

http://www.blenkoproject.org/

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wvcccfhr/history/blenko.htm

http://www.blenko.com/history.html




Gibson Glass Websites

http://opensalts.net/Gibson.pdf

http://mm.bglances.com/1-01-13-00%20Glass%20Artist%20-%20Charles%20Gibson.htm

Osbourne Glass Websites
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Osburn-Modern-Glass/109391635761460#!/pages/Osburn-Modern-Glass/109391635761460?id=109391635761460&sk=photos_stream

April 4, 2013

Our class will be starting a new unit that will allow us to explore the making of glass in West Virginia. The resources that West Virginia was able to offer those that wanted to develop this industry in our state were plentiful and/or cost effective. As we begin our exploration of the history and the science behind glass making, let us first look around us and see if we can find some examples of West Virginia glass in our homes. Below you will find several pictures of glassware that my family have obtained over the years. The pieces that I am showing you all come from Blenko glass company located here in our town of Milton.




What are some things that you notice about the pieces?

Do the pieces have anything in common?

What do you think the pieces were used for?

Describe some tests that you might perform on the pieces in order to collect as many observations as possible. (Your tests should not damage the samples in any way)




Develop three questions that you would like to ask about the sample glass pieces that are shown.