Here's some of my glass paperweight collection, as requested by Gnat, ranging in price from $2.00 at a flea market for the small yellow, green & red one, to $75.00 for the mauve/gold coloured one. :
One of my very first customers (since passed on, unfortunately) collected paperweights. She had hundreds! They were real dust collectors, so she had someone custom make her a coffee table that was like a large, long drawer covered with a glass top. She was able to set all of them inside the drawer part (so you could still see them clearly) & all she had to dust was the *top* of the table!
Hey....jewels is good with her hands, maybe she can MAKE you one! Haaahahaha!!! :-)
Ok the picture is not working but I will go from memory of what I think I remember.
#1. The white/mauve/gold.
Gather up some clear glass about the size of a large grape. Then someone else heated up the white glass and they wrapped it around the clear bit. Then they heated up the gold/mauve glass and wraped it around the now clear and white bit to cover up any clear.
What you have now is a piece of glass on the end of a 52 inch steel rod cooling to about 1500f. This was the center of your piece. They went into the furnace again and gathered a layer of clear glass and while still hot rolled it on a "diamon marver". This is in the most basic way of saying this evenly spaced spikes on a flat surface. This put perfect little dimples in the still hot glass. They then let this cool down again until the glass was not longer moving but still very very hot. Plunged in to take anouther gather, and everywhere that a dimple was trapped a little bubble of glass. That is how they made the matrix of perfectly spaced bubbles. Next they go to work on shaping the piece into a round paperwieght shape with a wood block. Think of a large wood spoon with the handle on the side of the spoon length wise instead of at the back where the fat part is. Shapped, removed it from the pipe and put into an annealer. This is where the piece then gets cooled to room temp over about 26 hour period. If it cools to fast it shatters, this is called thermalshock. Poor cold water into your coffee pot after it has been on the heating element for an hour and you will get a really quick lession in thermalshock.
After it is annealed, the piece is removed and sanded down so that it is perfectly flat on the bottom. I do this a lot of people don't. I like them to very really clean like a optical lense.
Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to explain the process, and it makes me appreciate the pieces even more, now that I know what it takes to make one of these.
Not sure if you do international orders, but I sure did like the orange (red?)/yellow ribbon one on your site.
Honestly I think I sold that one a long time ago. I just happened to have a picture of it and really liked how it looked on the window seal.
This Friday night is gallery night and I will try to make a couple paperweights and marbles just because well I have not made a paperweight in well over a year now.
Also, check back at the my blog soon. You have remided me of an idea I had not to long ago.
I am going to start giving away a marble or paperweight every now and then and I think that I will start today. Some kind of contest or something....ponder. Maybe the first contest will be what the contest will be....
10 comments:
Cool paperweights!
One of my very first customers (since passed on, unfortunately) collected paperweights. She had hundreds! They were real dust collectors, so she had someone custom make her a coffee table that was like a large, long drawer covered with a glass top. She was able to set all of them inside the drawer part (so you could still see them clearly) & all she had to dust was the *top* of the table!
Hey....jewels is good with her hands, maybe she can MAKE you one!
Haaahahaha!!! :-)
Jin
I cheat. I have them in my office at work, and they get dusted by the cleaners.
I would've loved to see your customer's collection.
Jewels probably could make me a glass top table. I think she can create anything if she sets her mind to it.
blogger is eating my comments!
Argh.
Thanks for posting them if you would like I will come back and tell you how they are made. If you like the mystery I will keep the info to myself....
My fav is the mauve/gold/white one. There was extra effort in that one and good quality color.
Mystery shmystery!
Thanks, I'd love to know how they're made.
Gnat
BTW. I love the yellow/red "free form" one on your site, and wish I could attend one of your booth shows.
Ok the picture is not working but I will go from memory of what I think I remember.
#1. The white/mauve/gold.
Gather up some clear glass about the size of a large grape. Then someone else heated up the white glass and they wrapped it around the clear bit. Then they heated up the gold/mauve glass and wraped it around the now clear and white bit to cover up any clear.
What you have now is a piece of glass on the end of a 52 inch steel rod cooling to about 1500f. This was the center of your piece. They went into the furnace again and gathered a layer of clear glass and while still hot rolled it on a "diamon marver". This is in the most basic way of saying this evenly spaced spikes on a flat surface. This put perfect little dimples in the still hot glass. They then let this cool down again until the glass was not longer moving but still very very hot. Plunged in to take anouther gather, and everywhere that a dimple was trapped a little bubble of glass. That is how they made the matrix of perfectly spaced bubbles. Next they go to work on shaping the piece into a round paperwieght shape with a wood block. Think of a large wood spoon with the handle on the side of the spoon length wise instead of at the back where the fat part is. Shapped, removed it from the pipe and put into an annealer. This is where the piece then gets cooled to room temp over about 26 hour period. If it cools to fast it shatters, this is called thermalshock. Poor cold water into your coffee pot after it has been on the heating element for an hour and you will get a really quick lession in thermalshock.
After it is annealed, the piece is removed and sanded down so that it is perfectly flat on the bottom. I do this a lot of people don't. I like them to very really clean like a optical lense.
Anyway, there it is.
gnat.
.
Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to explain the process, and it makes me appreciate the pieces even more, now that I know what it takes to make one of these.
Not sure if you do international orders, but I sure did like the orange (red?)/yellow ribbon one on your site.
Honestly I think I sold that one a long time ago. I just happened to have a picture of it and really liked how it looked on the window seal.
This Friday night is gallery night and I will try to make a couple paperweights and marbles just because well I have not made a paperweight in well over a year now.
Also, check back at the my blog soon. You have remided me of an idea I had not to long ago.
I am going to start giving away a marble or paperweight every now and then and I think that I will start today. Some kind of contest or something....ponder. Maybe the first contest will be what the contest will be....
Gnat.
.
OK...we here we go.
Come on by the contest has started.
Gnat.
.
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