15 Jul Rebuild Underway! Back in Action August 1st.
Our glass furnace is the heart of our studio…holding 300lbs of 2000º glass day in and day out…it’s HOT and never turned off! Every two years we have to shut er down and do what’s referred to as a ‘rebuild.’ Hot glass is a corrosive material and 2000º is HOT! It sits in the furnace in a bit pot, called a crucible…it looks like a big cereal bowl….and is made of a specialized high temperature ceramic. It does a great job holding that glass, but over time becomes pitted and weak. Rather than taking chances and having the pot break, we plan to replace it every two years, to preempt a big problem! Ask any studio owner who has had a cracked pot! Not fun. So here we are…in rebuild mode. Saturday Dan, Jeremy & Margaret gathered all the glass out of the furnace and shut it down. Almost 48 hours later and its still over 800º! By Thursday we hope to get in it and start the process of replacing the pot and furnace port. We’ll post photos on our Facebook page so you can follow the process & progress! We plan to be blowing glass again on August 1st!
We are taking a 36 hour team art adventure so we are closed July 23rd & 24th. We will be back on the 25th. Our gallery will be open and we will be here to chat, although we might ask you to hold something while you are here!
The controller on our furnace.