New Web Cam for Studio

I have a new webcam for the Blue Sage Studios. You can watch us blow glass at your leisure. It is most excellent. Check out the webcam at my Yahoo Messenger under the user name andyboatman. I am not sure how it works but you will need Yahoo! Messenger. I will try to get a feed to the website soon but for now this is what is working.
Keep it centered.

LOOK@OKC | Powered by NewsOK.com

LOOK@OKC | Powered by NewsOK.com I do not know if the page will take you to the right location but there is a great photo of our booth at the Paseo Festival. The photo is from a really cool angle. The Look@OKC Site is pretty cool too.

Summer Blowing

We are trying to get a summer schedule up and going. It seems to work well starting around 7:00 am and working until around 11 or so and then working again around 8:00 p.m. until around 11 at night. This way we avoid the heat of the day and folks can join us for blowing glass throughout the day. Afternoon's are reserved for naptime.

Here is a great photo of the glass and a bubble.  

All is Well

Everything is up and running. Brent has installed five new fans in the roof. They pull out a lot of heat. It is really amazing.
The studio is running well. My brother came to town and brought some new (used) equipment. We now have a great granny hanger for the pipes to hang from when working alone along with a new yoke/heat shield combonation. Gotta come check it out.
My folks were in an accident last week and that has made things a little crazy. Mom is at Intgris Jim Thorpe Rehabilitation Center. She has a couple of fractures in her pelvis but is on the mend. Room 361 I think. Dad is doing alright. but their car is toast.
Call. Drop by. I think evening blowing is going to be the thing as well as early mornings. The heat of the day is a bit hot even with the new fans.
Keep it centered.

Update on the Studio

Greetings faithful readers. This is for Chris and I thought I would post it up for all to see instead of just an email.
We are in the process of ordering a new Mercury Relay. I burnt our old one up. We discovered we are pulling about 65 Amps in the furnace. It is designed to pull 45. Why then 65 you may ask. Well, I have only ever been running two coils in the furnace. It is designed for three. With three it pulls 45 with two it pulls 65 Amps.
We rewired the furnace from the breaker box with a new number 2 service entrance wire. It should take the load. We put on a new 70 Amp breaker. We put in a new number 2 wire coming into the furnace itself, plugging into the Mercury Relay. The relay was rated for 60 Amps. It burnt up.
Last night.
We switched out a relay from the annealher so we can blow today. Hopefully I can get a new relay overnighted one rated for 80 Amps.
I guess that is about all I know for now.
We did get to blow glass yesterday. It was great.
We will be showing our glass this weekend at the Acousticadia Festival on Arcadia Lake in Edmond. 15th Street Spring Creek Entrance. www.acousticadia.com
Stay in touch.
Give me a ring 405-473-0754
This has been Andy Boatman at Blue Sage Studios.
Always an adventure.

Gallery

Gallery
This is a great thing.
Scroll down to First Pony Ride to see my little buddy Henry Creed.

Up and Running?

It looks like the glass studio is back up and running. I hope everything continues to work correctly. We should be blowing for Wednesday.
Fingers crossed.

The Paseo Arts Festival

We are gearing up for the Paseo Arts Festival. It is coming up this weekend. I will try to get a 10% off coupon posted soon. If not make sure and tell Brent, Drew, Calley, or myself that you saw this post and would like to have 10% off any purchases.

Once Again in the Abyss

Well. Getting out to the studio on Friday night I see the breaker has blown. I flip it on and get the temp. back up on the furnace. At about 1750 degrees the breaker blows again. I have the wrong coils in the furnace. They are producing enough heat to get to 1750 but when more is needed the resistance drops and too much electricity flows and the breaker pops.
New coils on order. They should be here after this next weekend.
Speaking of weekends. The Paseo Arts Festival is coming up. I can't wait. It should be a great show. I hope to see everyone there.
Keep it centered.

Up and Running Again

Many thanks to all those people who came out over the past few days and weeks in an effort to get everything running again.
We replaced the crown to the furnace. I had wanted to wait a little longer but it just made sense to go ahead and do it now. We tore everything down and started over basically. We finished up last night at around 11:00. I took the day off just to get that furnace up and running again. I hope this is the right solution. I am confident everything is going to work out just right.
We should be going and blowing on Saturday. We should have hot glass on Friday night. Fingers crossed and all.
Thanks again.
Keep it centered.

Fixing

I am looking at the furnace tonight. i hope I can fix it so it will last a while longer. Fingers crossed.
I am going to try to get to Tulsa to get some refractory supplies. They have a bunch of stuff there aht can not be found else where.
Keep it centered.

The Saga Continues

The Furnace is down again. There are little points of mortor dabs to hold the coil in place. These dabs broke off on Saturday. Sometime during the night and coild moved forward and pulled off the shelf and broke and fell into the pot of glass. I got the coil out. We are letting the furnace cool now and hopefully Wednesday we will have it up and running once again.
It seems one thing leads to another. Problems compound and progress and fall into place just so it messes everything up.
Oh yes, I need about $70,000 to purchase everything we need for the next little while. Please let me know if you are interested in making an investment in a glass blowing studio.
Keep it centered.

Unscheduled downtime. If you are a blogger you may know something about this.
The furnace is up to temp again. It is now blowing the curcuit breaker. Up and Down, Up and Down, Up and Down we go when it gets fixed? Nobody Knows.

1000 Degrees

The furnace is at 1000 degrees again. We are working our way up there. It should be hot tonight so blowing should take place on Friday, Saturday for sure. I hope everything goes well this time with the new cement in place.
Dilima.
I am looking at getting a new furnace. The Denver is great. Economical, easy to use. It has drawbacks in the door and the elements burn out, hence our trouble as of late. I could get a new Denver and rebuild the one we have now and switch between them.
I am looking at the EZTherm by Henry Halem. It is a very nice furnace. It is like the Lexus of the glass blowing furnaces.
I am looking at the Moly furnace that Steve Stadelman builds too. More econimical then Henry's. More of the Cadilac of the furnaces.
We need to go electric for ease of use and consumption of electricity. Do we jump off the deep end and go expensive or keep it small and within reason?
The charging bull has two horns. We are back to this once again and always it seems.
Keep it centered.

glassblowing - a photoset on Flickr

glassblowing - a photoset on Flickr
Here is another good set of photos. digging this flickr.

Hanging Vases

DSC_0999 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
This is a nice photo of some hanging vases. I like this style. You can also see a witches ball hanging behind the red vase.

Forming Glass Vase on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Forming Glass Vase on Flickr - Photo Sharing! There are some good glass blowing photos posted over at Flickr. It looks to be a cool service.
Maybe it is just me but I am finding more and more on the internet these days on glassblowing. Very cool! or should I say Very Hot!

Furnace Down

We are having more trouble with the furnace. I bought some high temp. cement from a guy in OKC. He sold me something with the assurance it was the right stuff. Needless to say it is not the right stuff. We got up to temp. and the cement just melted. We are trying to clean out this stuff now. I just hope this works.

Color Order in the Works

I am looking at making a color order today. There are so many beautiful colors available. I would like them all. It is unrealistic to get them all however. If you see a special color that grabs your eye let me know and I will be happy to order it too see how it comes out.
Scheduled to blow on Saturday. It looks like everything is going to be ready. Cleaned up in the studio a bit last night. We just need more space.
Keep it centered.