Post by @JamesAkers@expressional.social

2026-09-26 03:34 UTC

It is happening again! This weekend I have the color furnace rented- and everything was in place to pull tubes- but all of the metal oxides I ordered to tint the glass were still in the mail. Mike could help with all the metal oxides I needed except for the silver nitrate. I called around- got in touch with some wet plate photographers before I paid about double what I already paid to get the silver nitrate- but I was able to avoid shipping entirely by taking the train. We will be mixing a silver and tin and zinc color that I think will be strange, reactive, and beige, and a smaller, 10 pound amount of a manganese, cobalt purple that could potentially go brownish if kept at annealing temperatures too long. So far, the furnace is heading up to temperature so that by tomorrow, Mike and I can meet in the morning, and we can send it up, so that by the time the colors are mixed, the furnace is at charging temp. I plan to charge all day tomorrow. #residency #glass #color #furnace #nyc

Replies (1)

@JamesAkers@expressional.social 2026-09-27 00:48

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

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