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The powdered glass is melted in a giant furnace which holds 400 lbs of glass. |
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The furnace is kept at 2150 degrees all the time. |
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The blow pipe has to be heated so that the molten glass will
adhere to it. Gathering glass on the pipe from the furnace |
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Before the color is added you have to gather about three times. |
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After a few gathers it's time to add color. Glass colors come in a powdered form, small chunks or glass bars depending on the project. The color is very expensive. The color is poured onto a steel table. Each artist has his own way of choosing and manipulating the color. The hot glass on the end of the blow pipe is rolled onto the colored powder which adheres to the piece immediately. Another very important part is to constantly turn the pipe which holds the glass. The molten glass will fall to the ground without this, so the artist has to be constantly aware of what he is doing. |
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After the color is rolled onto the hot glass it has to be heated in the glory hole ( a hot fiery oven which the artist uses continuously throughout the process to keep the piece at a fairly constant temperature of 1900-2200 degrees. If the glass cools too much it will break so this is very important. |
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Another very important part is to constantly turn the pipe which holds the glass. The molten glass will fall to the ground without this, so the artist has to be constantly aware of what he is doing. |
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The hot glass with the color is then pushed into an aluminum mold to add texture to the piece. This will add to the beauty of the piece by creating optics ( angles and curves) to capture light. |
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The artist then blows into the pipe to start the process of creating the shape of his piece. A little air goes down through the pipe and as it reaches the glass it expands and forces the molten glass to open into a shape. |
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The glass is pulled from the heat and the artist uses a wooden paddle to start to shape the foot. The paddle flattens the end some. Then the artist uses special glass pliers and tools to pull and twist the end of the piece out in a long point. |
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He then reheats the glass to keep it at that constant working temperature, brings it back out and blows again to enlarge the vessel. |
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He reheats the piece and pulls it out. He uses a giant pair of tongs to pull in the top of the piece and start to score it and shape it for later when he will break it off this pipe. |
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By using another tool and a lot of strength he grabs the end of the point of glass and rolls it up to the body of the piece forming the bottom of the trademark "Rich Fizer" shell shape. |
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The piece is reheated and then he blows again to enlarge the body of the shell form. |
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the artist then hangs the piece on a rack while he uses another pipe (which he has already heated) to gather glass to make the foot that he will attach to his vessel. |
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He pulls the molten glass out of the furnace and holds the pipe straight up and lets gravity make the glass drip down onto the steel table. He then uses a special pair of glass cutting scissors to "cut" the glass off the pipe. |
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Then he attaches the foot to the piece by pressing the hot glass vessel into the molten glass on the steel table. |
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Then he reheats the piece in the glory hole so that he can continue to manipulate the foot. |
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He uses the wooden paddle to make the base flat and then uses the pliers to grab pieces of glass to bring it up and attach it to the vessel to create the trademark "Rich Fizer Wave" base. |
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The piece is then heated again to keep it at that constant temperature while Rich gets another pipe and gathers glass for the punty. |
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The punty is a small glob of glass that is attached to the underside of the foot on the piece so that the original blow pipe can be removed and the piece can be finished. |
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The piece is laid on the rollers of the glass table and Rich brings the other pipe with the punty over and attaches it to the bottom of the piece. He then scores the hot glass with the giant tongs and taps it gently with the tool. |
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The piece breaks off the original pipe and is now attached to the punty. |
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Now it's ready to be finished. |
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The piece is than reheated, |
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The piece is cut and shaped with jacks to form the final piece of art |
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The piece is reheated several times and allowed to expand and open up with the heat. |
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Eventually Rich pulls it out of the glory hole and swings and turns it quickly to let centrifugal force open the piece to it's final shape. |
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He reheats the glass with a giant blow torch to get it exptremely hot. He then holds the pipe up high and allows the glass to fold down to create the beautiful fluted shape of his shell. When he uses the torch it's called "Flashing " the piece. This brings out the Iris color in the piece. |
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The piece is then scored at the pipe with a special tool and then Rich places the finished piece inside the enealing oven and taps the pipe again. The finished piece drops off the pipe and settles back to it's perfect base ready to be cooled for several days. |
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The piece is then scored at the pipe with a special tool and then Rich places the finished piece inside the annealing oven and taps the pipe again. The finished piece drops off the pipe and settles back to it's perfect base ready to be cooled for several days. |
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The temperature in the annealer is a constant
945 until it starts to cool. |
