Precious - Resolute Online

RESOLUTE is a registered trademark ofMANIFESTO Corporation - Seattle2101 9th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121 USATel 206.343.9323 Fax 206.343.9322email [email protected]©2002 MANIFESTO Corporation

Precious

05.2002

The Making of Precious

The Resolute idea is to balance industry and craft.Our Glass Lights group is based on the simple, yet verydemanding ancient craft of hand-blown glass. None of ourglass is pressed or slumped or blown by a machine; it is allcreated one at a time by hand. We rely on our ownhighly skilled and motivated team of master craftsmen.Many of the techniques we use are extremely difficult andusually reserved for so called “art glass”. Even so, we insiston viewing our glass as just one component, albeit a veryimportant one, of our products.

We endeavor to balance the traditional glass handcraftaspect of our products with the best that industry has tooffer. We utilize specialized state-of-the-art vendors for ourother components. We use very few off-the-shelf lampparts, preferring instead to develop our own parts exactlyas we want them. There is nothing typical about ourtechnical execution. We strive to make products that arenot only beautiful and impeccably crafted, but that alsoperform.

The Making of an Amber Precious

Precious utilizes the very demanding centuries-old processof incalmo. Two separate bubbles of glass are opened,matched exactly and joined together mouth to mouth tocreate a single piece of glass. Incalmo is one of the mostdifficult blown-glass techniques and requires a highlyskilled team of glass artists.

The team to make Precious consists of a gaffer (teamleader and finisher), two bubble starters and a moldrunner.

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Resolute glass is made one at a time byteams of skilled craftsmen in Seattle.

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Gathering

Molten glass is gathered on the end of the blowpipe.

A gather is taken by touching the end of the pipe to themolten glass and twisting it. Immediately after coming outof the furnace the pipe is held over a bucket and turnedagain. Some of the hot glass is stripped (flows off) andtakes surface bubbles and impurities with it.

The bubble starter blows briefly in the blowpipe and capsthe end with his or her thumb. The heat of the glassmakes the air in the pipe expand and “pop” a bubble intothe glass.

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Gathering the white layer

The bubble of glass is built up with successive gathers(layers). This is called cased glass. All Resolute glass iscased. On Amber Precious there are four gathers on thelarger bubble: clear / opal white / amber / clear and threegathers on the small bubble: clear / amber / clear.

The amount of glass used on a piece is controlled by thesize of the blowpipe used. Larger pipes pick up largeramounts of glass. Multiple layers of clear glass can buildup bulk for big pieces. The volume of glass more or lessdoubles with each successive gather.

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Amber gather

Amber is gathered over the white. Then a final gather ofclear glass finishes the bubble.

We batch and melt our own glass from scratch. We feelthe clarity and depth of our colors and the extremely highlevel of our blowing craft is unsurpassed anywhere in theworld.

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Blocking

Each successive layer of glass gathered is blocked, that is,carefully shaped and prepared for the next layer. It isimportant to control the shape, thickness and temperatureas well as working bubbles and impurities out of eachgather.

Wooden tools called blocks (essentially very simple molds)are used to assist in this process.

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Picking the larger bubble open

Tweezers are used to pick a hole in the end of the largebubble. This hole will become the mouth to be matched toa second bubble in order to create the incalmo.

Glass working tools are beautiful. Most of the tools yousee in these photos are handmade. They are meticulouslycrafted, mostly from stainless steel and fruitwood. Eachtool incorporates two thousand plus years of craft andexperience.

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Preparing the second bubble

While the larger bubble is being made at one bench, asmaller bubble is being made at a second bench. Theprocess is the same as the larger bubble except there is nolayer of opal white glass in the smaller bubble.

Both bubbles must be prepared simultaneously, bydifferent people, and yet come together in a perfect matchat the same moment.

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Necking the second bubble

A neck is cut into the smaller transparent bubble withjacks. This is done to create a place to break the bubble offthe pipe after it has been joined to the larger bubble.

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Joining the bubbles

The two bubbles are joined mouth to mouth to create theincalmo.

Precise alignment and timing is critical. Once one bubbletouches the other there is no second chance.

Resolute never paints its glass. If we change color within apiece of glass we do it by joining two different colorbubbles together. We feel the extra effort and skillrequired create a richness and depth unobtainable withother methods.

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Incalmo

The two bubbles are carefully fused together and the pipeattached to the smaller bubble is broken off.

You can see the eventual form of Precious starting toemerge.

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Prepping the piece for the gaffer

The pipe has been broken off the smaller bubble. Thenewly joined piece is tidied up by the bubble-starter beforehanding it off to the gaffer. The mold runner is stationedbeside the bench, ready to blow in the pipe during theincalmo process.

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The gaffer takes the piece

The gaffer picks up the joined piece from the bubble-starters and takes it to his bench. The bubble-starters nowbegin new bubbles for the next piece.

A production glass team is always moving. Everybody onthe team touches every piece produced. Every step iscritical to the process.

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Preparing to go to the mold

The gaffer prepares the joined piece for the mold. It isshaped and carefully heated to ensure it will blow outsuccessfully in the mold.

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Going to the mold

The mold is pulled from the bucket of water where it hasbeen waiting and is opened by the mold runner. The veryhot piece is put in the mold. It must be very carefullypositioned, and in the case of Precious, a mirror is neces-sary to help the gaffer align the incalmo with the neck inthe mold.

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Turning in the mold

The gaffer blows into the pipe while also spinning it. Hemust feel how the piece is filling out within the mold.Once the mold is opened the piece cannot go back inside.If it stays in too long it will chill and have a poor surface.Mold blowing techniques require skill, training, strengthand confidence.

The mold runner cuts a neckline into the bubble at thepoint it exits the mold. This is where the piece will later bebroken from the pipe.

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Leaving the mold

Going into the mold and blowing the piece out all happenvery quickly. Every nuance is critical.

We use a mold on Precious to ensure enough consistencyfrom piece to piece to guarantee that the supportinghardware fits the glass.

The mold we use for Precious is made from graphite on acomputerized milling machine. Most of the molds we use,though, are hand turned from fruitwood. Graphite moldsare harder to blow in, but the definition at the neck ofPrecious would quickly be lost in a wood mold.

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Attaching the punty

After the piece comes out of the mold it is taken back tothe gaffer’s bench for finishing. A punty is attached to thesmall bubble so that the blowpipe can be broken off.

The punty is a solid rod with a moil of hot glass on theend. The moil is pushed onto the end of the bubble. Thehot glass sticks the punty in place.

A drop of water is put on the neck of the bubble at theblowpipe end. The shock of the water causes the glass tocrack around the neckline. In this way, the piece istransferred from the blowpipe to the punty.

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Trimming the mouth

Working from the punty now, excess glass is trimmed offthe large bubble and it is carefully opened up.

The glass team at Resolute, while very young, is veryexperienced and extremely talented. Everyone on the teamis capable of making their own work and in fact our teamincludes several of Seattle’s outstanding glass artists.

Our team regularly assists the Venetian master LinoTagliapietra. Lino is widely considered to be the bestglassblower in the world. He produces most of his work inour studio.

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Finishing the piece

Wooden jacks, called parciofi, are used to smooth out thelip and create the final shape of the glass.

The finished piece is knocked off the punty and put in anannealing oven where the glass is carefully and very slowlycooled down. The annealing process relaxes stress out ofthe glass. This is especially important for glass used inlighting where it will be subjected to repeated heating andcooling.

The piece now leaves the hot shop and moves on to thecold shop for cutting, grinding and polishing.

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Cutting off the button

After the piece has been annealed, the button remainingon the small bubble is cut off on a wet band saw using adiamond blade.

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Flat grinding

The cut edge is ground smooth on the flat wheel. Grindingis done in sequence with progressively finer grits. The firstgrind is coarse and the wheel aggressively takes materialoff the lip. The second grind is less coarse and starts tosmooth out the lip. The third grind is done with a polish padand is smoother still.

All of this grinding is done wet.

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Coning the edge

After the lip is ground smooth the corner is beveledslightly using a fine grit diamond cone on the puntygrinder.

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Polishing

The final mirror polished finish on the lip is done usingserium powder on a wet polish pad.

The finished glass is thoroughly washed, the Resolutehandmade sticker affixed and the glass moves on to ourassembly facility.

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Boxing

Precious glass is shipped independently from its mountinghardware and so is simply boxed up for shipment. All ourglass is shipped in foam. A two part mixture is injected intoa plastic bag and the foam forms itself around the glass.

From here, Precious is shipped off to our customers.

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Precious

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Main Page RESOLUTE is a registered trademark ofMANIFESTO Corporation - Seattle2101 9th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121 USATel 206.343.9323 Fax 206.343.9322email [email protected]©2002 MANIFESTO Corporation


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Precious - Resolute Online