Transcript
Hello, my name is Todd Hansen. We are here at the fire Art of Fire Temporary Glass Blowing Studio in Laytonsville, Maryland. We’re at www.artoffire.com. I’ve been a glass blower for about twelve years now. I’ve got several different lines of glass work that I work on and I’ll be talking to you about glass blowing. If you wanted to do glass blowing at home, you could probably do it on a really limited budget with a very small space. You’d have to be really careful how you handle this equipment because you’ve got a lot of heat, you need adequate ventilation. Really, you are generating a lot of BTU’s so it’s going to be, uh, it might be a little bit cost prohibitive so you want to be careful how you do it because it really does take a lot of time and take a lot of energy. You can get a small, uh, a small electric furnace, a small electric kiln, to melt coalit, which is clear glass that has already been melted, so you’re basically recycling somebody, uh, someone’s clear glass to make yours. Small glory hole, you could build that, uh, maybe 8 or 10 inch diameter but it’s going to run through a lot of propane so I’d be careful about how you handle your material and how you handle your energy. Don’t forget you need something you can also kneel with. And an electric kneeler is something you need to run. It’s not only cooling the glass down after you’ve made it but it’s going to have to run while you’re making the pieces as well. So you’re going to have to look at 12 or 14 hours of running an electric furnace or electric kiln while you’re cooling your glass. So there are a lot of factors to consider. Electric consumption isn’t the only concern but it’s probably the biggest chunk of the budget you’re going to have after you buy your equipment. So you’re going to need a lot, you’re going to have a lot to think about and people do it but it just takes a serious element to the art.
