Equipment Building

Glass fusing and moreso glassblowing places incredible demands on resources and energy.  When I was an emerging glass artist, I was appauled by the fuel requirements of traditional studio furnaces and how they seemed to be based on a never-ending suppy of cheap energy and hard furnace bricks, a technology straight out of the early 1900’s.  So, out of necessity I have designed and built all of my own furnaces, annealers, glory holes and fusing kilns and most of my tools to meet my own requirements of energy efficiency and ecologically responsible operation.  Many of these designs are already in use throughout the glass community.  I am melting glass for between 6 to 10 cents per pound in energy cost.  This is 1/8th to 1/10th the cost of operating traditional furnace designs.  I am continually re-designing and prototyping new equipment ideas to meet my needs for energy efficiency, ergonomics and capital cost, while being tested by the demands of my commercial production shop environment.  I am most willing to provide this experience to others.

Since 1998 the goal has been to provide a series of instructional videos covering the design and assembly of most equipment for use in both the small hobby glass studio and the commercial production shop, improving and evolving glass equipment designs.

I had a hard time sourcing the resources that I required in 1995 in order to access hot glass on a small, affordable scale. I am happy to say that I can now provide this to other emerging glass enthusiasts.