WarmGlass.com

Salem Distributing , in N.C. is where I used to get mine.

I've seen several older gas fired glass decorating kilns. The gas can work, it just takes a lot of experimentation until you understand the intricacies of your equipment. Many of the larger glass decorators used gas kilns for many years and a lot of the large bent glass companies used them as well. ...

find a second hand potter's wheel and convert it over to use for different grits and use the foot speed control to adjust the speed depending on what grit you are using. You can cut steel circles to affix to it and peel them off and change them as you progress thru the grits. It's a good answer to a...

It sounds like this was the 4th firing for this piece and it had gone thru a lot of stress and development thru all this. In my experience, I've found that the more times you fire a piece the more likely you are to have problems. Glass changes each time you melt it. Some glasses will even change the...

I never bought diamond belts. I found that as I used the 80 grit it became smoother and ultimately it became about a 220 grit. Silicone Carbide belts are relatively cheap and if you need to they can be recoated if you have a lot of them. I have had belts get torn up many times and I would be very up...

the ones Marty mentioned are good and I've also used Art Glass House in Fl to go overseas. depends on how much you want and when. Prices can vary a lot. Finding the right consolidater/broker that can put it in their container is the real quest.

Try and find a used older Somaca. They were the tried work horses of the flat glass industry for the last 50 years. The old ones are almost impossible to destroy and most parts are still available. There are 100's and maybe 1000's of them still going strong.

Actually, I began my glass sales in a small gallery, some years ago. I had under $100 worth of work in the place and all went well for 6 months or so. Then one day I went by and poof, they were gone. So maybe that's part of my lack of excitement about being in galleries. being in the "wholesal...

my experience is that multi purpose machines always leave a lot to be expected and quality of all the functions is compromised, be it glass, wood, metal or anything. I love my 1940's Somaca 24" laps and my MK 10" diamond saw. Lots of the really old stuff is so much better than any of the n...

Kevin is correct in many cases, but if you are talking about really true glass galleries, there are few that are going to buy items outright that are over $500. A few will but I can assure you that to have a decent representation of your wares at a good gallery requires they have a good display of y...

Been making my own frit for over 30 years and never had a problem with any metal. You've just got to use very hard metals, tool steel, for busting things up. Have friend that has made over 200,000 paperweights over the last 20 years that has made all his own frit and has a large commercial crusher t...

to go even further off topic- Jim- your tag reminds me of the ditty I sing when driving: "This lane is my lane, that lane is your lane, stay out of my lane, I'll stay out of yours. The double yellow, will keep us mellow. Keep the f--- out of my lane." Marty: love it. Are there any verses ...

turn it into laminated panels and forget the tempering. IMHO laminating is better and safer than tempering anyway,

no one ever said it was easy!. " keep slugging away"
Why should you be any different than the rest of us. "sweat & tears"

It's all about design. If you have little background in art and design it makes no difference that you have the knowledge and skills for doing the fusing, casting, etc. Being able to produce and design items that will sell and are marketable at different price levels is what can make the difference....

since you're in southern CA, contact Laguna clays and tell them what you are attempting to achieve and see what they recommend. I've just used a stoneware clay body for mine. you can roll it out with a large dowel rod or rolling pin and then just impress whatever texture into it you choose. lots of ...

If you have a lab that can actually offer a service that is well calibrated and and can hold standards consistent, they may be willing to work with you. There are so many uses and so many different applications for using their materials that I'm certain they can't start to begin to test all the diff...

I would suggest that some of you visit one or more of the factories that produce this stuff and see what some of the variables are that are very difficult to control. controling the temps of the individual sheet of glass is difficult and many times there are multiple sheets done in one chamber and g...

I've been using ceramic kilns for the last 40 years, before any glass electric glass kilns were produced and before any controllers were available. Have many thousands of items this way. You just have to learn what your equipment will do in different situations and then adjust it to get the results ...

check out these books on color:, Interaction of Color by Josef Albers ISBN 0-300-01846-0
The Elements of Color by Johannes Itten ISBN 0-442-24038-4.
These guys were from the Bauhaus and did some of this work in the early 20th century.