Crafting Glass

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Learn about the possibility of blowing glass at home with this glass blowing video. Expert: Todd Hansen

Video transcript:

Hello, my name is Todd Hansen. We are here at the fire Art of Fire Temporary Glass Blowing Studio in Laytonsville, Maryland. We’re at www.artoffire.com. I’ve been a glass blower for about twelve years now. I’ve got several different lines of glass work that I work on and I’ll be talking to you about glass blowing. If you wanted to do glass blowing at home, you could probably do it on a really limited budget with a very small space. You’d have to be really careful how you handle this equipment because you’ve got a lot of heat, you need adequate ventilation. Really, you are generating a lot of BTU’s so it’s going to be, uh, it might be a little bit cost prohibitive so you want to be careful how you do it because it really does take a lot of time and take a lot of energy. You can get a small, uh, a small electric furnace, a small electric kiln, to melt coalit, which is clear glass that has already been melted, so you’re basically recycling somebody, uh, someone’s clear glass to make yours. Small glory hole, you could build that, uh, maybe 8 or 10 inch diameter but it’s going to run through a lot of propane so I’d be careful about how you handle your material and how you handle your energy. Don’t forget you need something you can also kneel with. And an electric kneeler is something you need to run. It’s not only cooling the glass down after you’ve made it but it’s going to have to run while you’re making the pieces as well. So you’re going to have to look at 12 or 14 hours of running an electric furnace or electric kiln while you’re cooling your glass. So there are a lot of factors to consider. Electric consumption isn’t the only concern but it’s probably the biggest chunk of the budget you’re going to have after you buy your equipment. So you’re going to need a lot, you’re going to have a lot to think about and people do it but it just takes a serious element to the art.

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The history of Murano glass was born in 1295 when Venetian Republic ordered glassmakers to move their foundries to Murano.
Murano glass industries were soon to become very important on an international level, especially for blown glass and vases.
Murano glass industries is one of the most important, especially for blown glass and vases.
In this scenario many artisans has been famous for its works.
Fabiano Amadi and Rita Cardi are really famed in Murano and in all Venetian Lagoon.
Fabiano was born in Venice in 1962 and now live in Murano, where he has founded a furnace 15 years ago.
Amadi have a great experience, because he study the glass techniques since 14 years old. Now he have over 30 years of experience in this kind of art.   
Fabiano now collaborates with the most famous designer in different kind of markets, such as house furnishing, design objects, and so on.
The most famous creation of Amadi is probably the vase. Very often the vases of Fabiano are a huge and heavy creation. He like especially black and gold glass vases, but Amadi works are not a serial production because he as an artist, not a factory.
An example of Amadi’s creation is Gilded vase with vertical waves, especially vase that only Fabiano can create. This pot is 45 kg (99 lb) weight ! There dimension are 55 cm (21,65 inch) of height and 30 cm ( 11,80 inch) of diameter. It’s really awesome.
Rita Cardi was born in Venice and now live in Cavallino-Treporti, where she have an artisan laboratory with a magic atmospehere.
The specialization of Rita are the pearls. With them she create fantastic necklaces, earrings, bracelets and more jewels. All workglass of Rita Cardi are handmade using the lampworking technique. Rita use every kind of mineral, such as topaz, amethyst, and each bead  contains a 24k gold leaf in typical Murano style.
Rita use also a wide range of color, such as different kind of red, emerald, gray, blue, and so on.

mauro