Post #4293918 · Elektrine

2026-07-31 22:49 UTC

Clearing roadblocks in the way of firing up a color furnace. I am consulting with Mike, who melts color at a big public glass studio in Brooklyn in Gowanus, and for another factory in West Virginia. I know I want a dark, ambery brown. We are going to get 100 pounds of Sprucr Pine "color base" - all the raw ingredients for the HotShop glass- minus the decolorants. We plan on using some of sulfur, black charcoal, and sugar along with a touch of black nickel to darken it up along with a few other things to tint it. I CNDd a thick scrap of MDF to make a lid for the cement mixer- which Mike mentioned is one of the best ways to mix it up- essential for proper glass. I also cleaned it from refractory cement with hammer, chisel and power washer. The furnace burner still needs to get its gas/air ratio set with a test firing, and I gotta find a time to rent 2 workstations (it's in the corner between them) #color #glass #residency #mixing #colorpot #neon #CNC #nonprofit #sculpture

Replies (1)

@JamesAkers@expressional.social 2026-09-12 18:42

Things are heating up for my dreams of a color furnace! My color base batch (raw glass batch without the usual decolorants) arrived and we found a time that Mike could stop by and offer his sage color melting wisdom while I have both of the workstations rented for the weekend. The furnace is getting dialed in and this will be the first time it is getting used! I mixed the color base really well and we split it in half for two melts. I added black nickel oxide, sulfur, pine rosin, Barium Nitrate and red iron oxide to *hopefully turn my color base into a dark amber Sunday my tube puller in Philly, (and myself) have to work- but Monday we will pull tubes out of the color furnace! Soon I will get all the glass out of the existing crucible, flush it with compatible glass, then take that out and begin charging the brown batch! So exciting! #neon #light #residency #art #sculpture #color #brown #glass #NYC #Brooklyn #science #craft #chemistry #DIY #Urbanglass #notes #sketchbook #dreams

Open ##4862667