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CHOIS Connection is published quarterly by Christian Homeschoolers Of Idaho State.
This article appeared in a previous issue.

CHOIS Connection

Discovering Idaho
by Connie Seward

"Zion Mountain Art Glass Gallery and Studio"
Fall 2008

If you are looking for a warm spot to visit on a cool day, then this is the field trip for you! Zion's glass studio is a "way cool" destination year round, but the blazing glass furnaces make it extra cozy during the chilly fall and winter months.

Zion Mountain Art Glass is located in the scenic woods near Robie Creek, north of Boise and is owned and operated by Zion Warne. Zion's first artistic adventures were as a potter, but after taking a class at Seattle Glass Blowing Studio, he was hooked on the molten medium. Upon returning home, he started Boise's first hot shop with a friend. In 2001 he opened his own shop along with his wife Colbie. Together, with their two young daughters, they now operate a hot shop, gift gallery and inspiring glass blowing school. They welcome visitors of any age, Wednesday through Saturday afternoons. Other hours and group tours are available by appointment.

Glassblowing is the process of creating artistic glass works through the manipulation of molten glass. This style of glassblowing is also called off-hand or furnace work. Off-hand glassblowing requires an extensive collection of equipment and tools. Glass blowing also requires time, skill, creativity, perseverance and patience, not to mention, much perspiration.

Be prepared to be awed and amazed with the creativity and dexterity of Zion and his helpers. "There is nothing more exciting than the flow of the team working as one unit, continuously spinning and moving the piece until is completion", says Zion. With several furnaces heated to a minimum of 2000 degrees, an impressive array of tools such as blow torches, wooden paddles, steel tables, and long pipes, the perspiring and aspiring artists carefully mold delicate glass objects for both decoration and practical use. Your children will be mesmerized as they watch a molten mass take on a recognizable but intricate shape. Zion strives not only to make something pleasing to the eye, but something that confuses the eye as well. He says, "If you pass by my glass pieces and do a double take, I have done something right."

You will be doing many a double take in the marvelous gift gallery that is chock full of beautiful creations of every shape, size and color. If you don't find something to your particular liking, Zion will be happy to provide you with a custom made object. Even their website is a feast for the eyes. Don't forget to pay them a visit at www.zionartglass.com

1. Gather. Collect glass from the furnace; the closest analogy to gathering is turning caramel onto an apple.
2. Marver. Shape the glass on a steel table, called a marver, into an even, on-center cylinder.
3. Cap. Blow into the pipe and cover the hole with your thumb to trap air inside the pipe. The heat of the glass will cause the air trapped inside the pipe to expand. The bubble will begin to inflate.
4. Gather again. Collect more glass around the bubble.
5. Shape and inflate the form.
6. Add a neckline.
7. Finish the shape and flatten the bottom.
8. Transfer the piece onto a punti for finishing the top part.
9. Heat the lip and flare open.
10. Knock the piece off the punti and put into an annealer for slow cooling.

This will be very hot! 2000 plus degrees hot. Use extreme caution. Do not try this at home. Find an instructor.

Before the glassblowing session begins, the pot furnace or tank furnace must be brought up to temperature (about 2050°F) from the setting it held overnight (about 1800°F to save fuel.) (The process of melting batch or cullet to get workable glass is too much to go into here. Go there)

The glory hole must be brought up to temperature (~2200F) as well as the annealers (~900F) and color oven. Depending on equipment design, these steps take about an hour. During this time, the artist is normally setting up the preheating of color bar and laying out stringer, frit, and powder (linked below as discussed), arranging tools, and pulling the previous day's or afternoon's work from the annealers. Pipes and punties are arranged in the pipe warmer for use during the session. Water is put in buckets and crack off bins/buckets , if used. If hand torches are used, they will be lighted or set out.

The creation of an object commonly begins by making or taking out a drawing so that all involved know the piece to be made and the steps involved. In a production situation there may be metal templates or calipers to gauge heights, diameters and shapes. Building the object begins by taking the pipe from the pipe heater where it has been pre-heating so the glass will stick, opening the door to the furnace, tipping the tube at an angle into the pool of glass while turning the pipe and pulling out a gather of glass. Keeping the pipe turning to maintain an even shape of glass, the glass worker most commonly goes to a marver to roll the gather into a blunt cone against the flat surface. Using breath, a small bubble is started in the center of the glass and enlarged to the size the worker desires. (The primary glassworker is called a gaffer from an old word for grandfather, but I am not using the term here because when a team is working glass, any of the workers, not just the gaffer, may marver and otherwise work the glass.)  If the pipe end is too cold, the glass will stiffen immediately and the bubble won't start.  If it is too hot, only a thin shell of glass will be picked up, wasting time. When the glass is shaped, it is allowed to cool further. This both assures that the shape will not collapse when more molten glass is gathered around it and increases the amount of glass that can be picked up in the second gather.

Many pieces start with an additional step. The worker heats the end of the pipe, but rather than gathering the glass, a chunk of color is picked up as a short cylinder preheated in a color kiln. The old skin of glass on the pipe is usually enough to stick the pickup. The color is softened in the glory hole and marvered to shape as described above. As other glass is gathered over it, the color forms the inner lining of the piece and colors the whole piece. When desired, two or more chunks of glass may be worked this way to form layers. If the color chunk contains lead or other heavy metals and the object will hold food or drink, the color may be picked up after the first gather so the inside of the piece is a thin layer of clear with color over it and more clear (later gathers) over that. Some studios melt colored glass which may be used for the first gather or for adding details later but most studios melt a large pot/tank of clear and use solid color.

After the second gather, the worker normally has enough glass that a change of techniques is required, although returning to the marver to shape the second and third gather or even the whole piece is used by some workers. Most workers will go to the bench and use wooden blocks or a pad of newspaper to block or shape the glass. A team member may blow while the gaffer turns to shape the glass against the block; a solo worker may use an extension air tube. If further gathers are to be made, the object of blocking is to control the shape of the piece including the thickness of the glass. Again the piece will be worked and cooled to stiffen the shape to permit more glass to be gathered. During gathering, steps may be taken that are part of the design, where the design calls for color within the glass. This may include threading, picking up cane, or adding bubbles. The bubble inside the glass may be enlarged during the gathering. The glass may be selectively chilled (on the sides or the bottom) to cause more glass to be gathered there or to encourage the bubble to move into the hotter area. Following gathering, the worker may drain excess glass just gathered into a water filled bucket to form a thinner smoother layer around the piece.

At some point enough glass has been gathered to make the piece. The next step is normally to use bladed jacks to narrow a neck on the piece near the end of the pipe. This is the line where the piece will separate from the pipe. The piece is taken back to the glory hole for reheating. The glory hole is usually maintained at a temperature higher than the furnace, so it reheats the glass quickly. The heat transfers from the walls and air of the glory hole, heating it all around, supplying more heat per second than a torch would. Because the glass near the pipe is behind the rest of the piece (in the shadow of the heat) it may take several reheats to jack the line properly, so other work may be done as the jacking proceeds. The gaffer must work to keep the glass centered in line with the pipe.

During this stage, the worker may use other jacks, other blocks, the newspaper, the paddles, and the marver to form the piece. A co-worker may kneel at the end of the pipe on the bench and blow in the pipe as it rolls (a fun task), blowing while the gaffer applies shaping pressure with the paper, etc. (A gaffer, especially working alone, may also use an air hose over the pipe mouth piece to apply air pressure while the pipe is on the bench, using breath or low pressure compressed air.)   Air or pads may also be used to selectively cool the glass so that when it is reheated, other parts will begin at a higher temperature and get even warmer and softer than the chill parts.

Gravity and centrifugal force may be used. If the pipe is pointed down while turning, the piece will tend to lengthen; while pointing it up will shorten. If the pipe is swung back and forth or (spectacularly in demonstrations) swung completely overhead the piece will stretch and thin, doing more so near the neck (because more glass is pulling from further out) or where the glass is hottest.

The worker is mostly working on the lower half of the piece. Steps the worker might take include using an optic or other mold to impress a pattern or shape on the glass and using various techniques to add color including threading and rolling the piece in frit or powder which may be in a scoop shape or laid out on the marver.

The last step before taking the piece off the pipe is finishing the bottom where the punty will be attached. Normally this involves flattening the bottom and adding any foot or feet desired. It may also involve adding a pad of glass (cookie) to keep the bottom from breaking out when the piece is puntied.

If glass is being produced as quickly as possible and a polished rim is not important, all the following steps are ignored and the piece is cracked free and taken to the annealer immediately. The top of the cooled piece is sawn square and ground to final shape. Low cost vases and garden decorations with added caps may have this shortcut used as well as pieces blown into metal forms. The most critical step in working the glass is getting the piece off the pipe and onto the punty. The problems are rooted in the desire later on to remove the punty with little scarring and as little cold working as possible. The artist or assistant gathers a small amount of glass on the punty and quickly marvers it to shape, usually a blunt cone. The glass is then usually touched to some surface to chill it and pattern its surface. The goal is to make a good enough but not TOO good connection to the glass. If the connection is not good enough the piece will fall off the punty. The first and perhaps most likely time for this to occur is when the pipe is rapped to crack it free. If the connection is too good, it may crack the bottom of the piece at the end of the session.  In production situations, it is common to have a mechanical punty (a gimmick or sabot) that encloses or grips the piece to avoid the risks and time of the hot punty process.) If the worker has successfully jacked the piece and properly tempered and attached the punty, when the pipe is rapped with a hard tool, the piece parts cleanly and without much shock. Many glass workers put water on the joint with tweezers to cool and shock it. If the punty glass is too hot, there may be a bit of frantic turning and twisting of the punty to keep the piece centered and in place. Most commonly, the gaffer places the punty tip with shears while an assistant holds the punty level. The gaffer then raps the pipe when everything seems right and the assistant catches weight of the piece and goes immediately to the glory hole. (If the piece has not been properly puntied, or the neck not properly narrowed or chilled, rapping on the pipe may result in both ends of the piece breaking free, resulting in a "floor model" - a broken piece.)

Commonly, in a small studio, the gaffer follows the assistant and takes the punty while handing the pipe to the assistant who puts it in the crack off bin while the gaffer turns the piece in the glory hole. In a larger operation, a team member other than the gaffer will reheat. Notice that the end of the piece going in the glory hole has been determinedly chilled for the past several minutes so it will crack free and now it must be heated up to soft working temperature while keeping the rest of the piece tepid or at least firm.. It is possible that the end has gotten so cold that it cracks in error, so it should be eased into the glory hole. When the piece is pulled from the glory hole, it is time to work on the rim and upper body of the piece. If the piece has been necked severely, the inner hole may be too small and it must be worked open with pick or tweezers. In more ordinary work, the jacks are used with the blades parallel to form a broader working surface to turn the rim open. Many glass workers next pick up duckbill shears to trim away excess glass and shape the lip. Trimming is normally done with very soft glass and at the bottom as the piece is turned horizontally, so the scrap falls toward the floor and does not mar the piece. On goblets and thin pieces, the goal may be to remove the thicker or uneven glass at the jack point. On a pitcher, the goal may be to provide the profile that will yield a projecting lip. The cut glass normally falls on a metal tray provided for the purpose.

Frequently these days, a lip wrap of contrasting color is added. Continuing work shapes the top of the piece, perhaps the size being gauged to match a lid previously made or to allow for a stopper. With an assistant or alone, additional bits are added for decoration and for handles. During this time, the worker will return the piece to the glory hole to keep it from cracking. A torch may be used to apply heat to the bottom of the piece and/or the punty glass when trying to heat this area in the glory hole would soften the rest of the piece too much. A torch may also be used to heat a spot where a bit or garaged section is to be attached.

When the piece is complete, the next critical step is to remove it from the punty, which requires that the punty glass be removed without taking a chunk out the bottom of the piece. If the punty was applied properly, removing the piece is merely a matter of chilling the join, usually with a thin knife edge. If the worker has any doubts about the separation, a number of tricks/techniques exist to encourage the break to occur in the punty glass and not in the piece. They must be applied quickly as the glass is cooling rapidly and unevenly.

The piece is normally removed with a sharp rap to the punty. What happens to the piece depends on the worker and the piece. Some pieces can be placed in the annealer by holding the punty vertically, lowering the piece to a fraction of an inch above the annealer floor, and rapping. Gloves are available which will withstand the 800-1000°F heat for a short time. The worker may hold the piece over a padded drop table and crack off onto that and then use gloves to move the piece into the annealer while positioning it as desired. With an assistant, the gloves can be used to catch the piece (usually above the crack off table for insurance) at the rap and carry it to the annealer. With large pieces of glass, the assistant will be garbed in full silver fire fighting reflective gear. Handling the piece permits the option of setting it on its bottom or side.

With the piece in the annealer, it is likely that members of the team and any audience will applaud the success, especially if it is a large, tricky piece. Water, etc., is drunk, a snack eaten. The various tools and pipes are arranged for working the next piece and it begins again. The piece will soak in the annealer for an hour or more (often to the end of the day) and then will be annealed (cooled slowly) so the glass is as free of stress as possible. For ordinary art glass pieces, the temperature is reduced from about 900°F to about 600°F over 6-8 hours in a controlled way and then allowed to cool to near room temperature over 3-4 hours or more. Thicker pieces including castings may require days for proper cooling.

Depending on the time taken for the piece, the production nature of the shop, etc., the people involved may take a break, drink fluids, etc., before continuing the piece.  In a factory, the team works for a couple of hours, making a piece every few minutes, before breaking, some people sitting all the time, others carrying the glass.  In a production studio, the gaffer may work at the glory hole or remain seated.

At the end of the session, the glory hole is turned off, the furnace turned down or recharged, the annealer is set to begin the cooling process, water is thrown out, tools picked up or lined up, the floor swept, and trash thrown out, ready for the next session.

Kile Glassworks Renaissance style how difficult the glass blowing process is! While an individual piece may take only 20 minutes to an hour to draw from the furnace and create, the entire process of charging the furnaces, coloring the glass, and cooling it in a kiln, known as an "annealing oven," can take a combined 24 hours.

HOURS


CONTACT INFORMATION
Plan extra driving time if you choose to stop at any of the lovely picnic spots along Robie Creek.

DRIVING DIRECTIONS

*During winter months, it is not advisable to travel Robie Creek Road with out 4-wheel drive and studded tires.
*Call ahead for road conditions.

*EXTRA SCENIC ROUTE HOME


*Cell phone service is not available past Lucky Peak.

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