Post by @JamesAkers@expressional.social

2026-09-27 00:48 UTC

Today I learned that you can dissolve silver nitrate crystals in water and pour it all over the glass batch. The furnace is tuned much better and is getting to really nice glass cooking temps. We will even be able to do a "bubble squeeze" - there the temp is lowered to below working temp which helps the bubbles rise up to the surface and makes nice clean glass. Then we will raise it back up to 2150 tomorrow morning for tube pulling :) Very excited. Others in the studio are also getting excited as word is getting around about the color furnace. I hope some of my pro glassblower friends can take a dip out of the color furnace and use it after me to make fun colors. The studio manager wants to experiment with decoloring glass to enhance recycling with it. Being able to melt the custom glasses really opens up possibilities. We are all excited to see what the Silver, Tin, Zinc glass does. #residency #glass #color #furnace #experimental #neon #light #purple #beige #nyc #Brooklyn #silver

Replies (1)

@JamesAkers@expressional.social 2026-09-29 03:17

Yesterday, while Sean an I were having coffee- were texted that the #furnace was at 300 F (it crashed overnight). They warmed it back up over the course of the day, and by the evening, had it back up to 2200 F. This morning, we came in to bubbly #glass - which cleared up by the end of the day. The Silver Tin Zinc color was really a dream come true! Mike and I didn't know what it would do, and he based it on a borosilicate, pipe maker batch when I asked for "super reactive and changes every time you heat it". Really excited to pump these. Working with it produced gorgeous colors that revealed how the glass was gathered and worked with as it is cooling and being reheated. Each stretch would end up a different shade of the silvery glass. I do believe that they are all yellowy amber filtering though. The #silver turned blue when we put it over the Nickel Sulfur brown from last week. We did one purple pull. It was very light and disappointing. #dreamcometrue #glassblowing #residency #art

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