Oglebay Glass Museum from Wendy Chapman on Vimeo.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Oglebay Glass Museum
Monday, July 15, 2013
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
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
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:
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.
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
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