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kept at 1,000 degrees, regulated by an old electric fence control box to which Eric has attached a pyrometer. “That’s a $200 thermometer,” he joked.
When the annealer is full, it’s taken to 1050 degrees, just below the 1075 degree melting temperature of glass. "It’s liquid enough to take the stresses out but not loose its shape,” Eric explained. After 45 minutes at 1050 degrees, the annealer is shut off and left closed tight overnight until the temperature drops to 250 degrees and the finished glass is unloaded.
Art From Scraps
Glass can be made from sand, procedures the partners learned at Goddard. “We don’t have the equipment now and besides, it’s a pretty toxic process,” Nina said. Instead, they buy the raw material by the ton in huge barrels from a nearby factory that makes candy dishes. Before these shards and slivers can be turned into work of art, Nina and Eric have to pick through tiny pieces by the millions, discarding any which contain metal or other foreign materials.
Because of the special properties of glass, the partners face never ending maintenance work on their equipment. “When glass is molten, it’s the most corrosive substance in the world. It will eat anything and everything,” Eric said, groaning that the furnace will have to be rebuilt once a year. He emphasized that this corrosion appears when glass is in its molten, not liquid, state. “Glass is always a liquid. It’s just frozen at our normal temperatures. If you were to go away and leave
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