irritating news

[Bert Weiss]

I haven't been around for a while, but this news came across my screen this morning. This was the factory I visited decades ago, where I was taken to lunch with 5 industry experts who let me pick their brains. Years later, they told me that my advocacy for using colors designed for ceramics on glass built a major growth sector in their worldwide business. This speaks heavily to the size of the influence of WGBB.
https://www.wtae.com/article/ferro-corp ... PBDyDkzX2E

The irony is that I used to buy a medium they recommended to me that was made in Washington PA. It cost a lot less than the one they made in Germany that is usually recommended. The good news being that they taught me enough so that I can make my own now. (propylene glycol and glycerine plus a binder). The glycerine slows down drying. I like a slow drying medium because I paint on large pieces of glass. I never figured out how to get the right amount of binder in my liquid mix, so I use powdered gum arabic mixed in with my powder according to the way I was taught by Albinus Elskus in "The Art of Painting on Glass"

For a personal update, I stopped working in glass for a few years due to a bad hip. I couldn't haul around 150lb pieces of glass anymore. The good news is that I had hip replacement surgery and I am back functioning at 100%. The bad news is that when I fired up my kiln after a long hiatus, my 30 year old controller died. I bought a TAP controller and it never worked. I bought Chinese relays and one caught on fire. Then I ran out of money. I know what I have to do to fix everything and I have some funding and a project a client is begging me for. So I hope to get it put back together and up and running soon.

[FusedLightStudio]

Welcome back, Bert! I have learned a lot from your (old) posts so I am glad you are amongst the glass clan online again!

[Brad Walker]

Great to hear from you, Bert, and glad you're back 100%. Missed you.

[Buttercup]

That's great news to hear that you are back in form, Bert. I, too, have benefited from the expertise you have so generously shared.Jen

[Greg Rawls]

Bert - very glad you are back! You are an ICON!

[The Hobbyist]

Welcome back! I'm happy for you that you are, at least partially, rebuilt and newly functional.

Can we look forward to pictures and reports of your progress with your studio repair?

Jim "The Hobbyist"

[Nikki ONeill]

Welcome back, friend. Glad you';re on the mend! I'm in week 5 after hip replacement and doing well too. I finished and shipped out two commissions the day before surgery, and during recovery dreamed up all kinds of new pieces. Do report on your new works.

[Bert Weiss]

Welcome back, friend. Glad you';re on the mend! I'm in week 5 after hip replacement and doing well too. I finished and shipped out two commissions the day before surgery, and during recovery dreamed up all kinds of new pieces. Do report on your new works.

Nikki, after my surgery, I had a large important commission. There were 22 days of consecutive firings. Each had different molds and several pieces of glass in each. I had my cane in my right hand and could carry glass in my left hand. Fortunately my millennial nephew was staying with us then. Each evening he and I would go down to the studio, open the kiln, and ready it for the next firing. The job came out quite fantastic. If you happen to be north of Philadelphia it is in the David Witchell Spa in Lahaska PA (New Hope). All the glass is 12mm thick gray float. My favorite piece is a table made by sand casting with a mold pressed with old barnboard. There are about 50 pieces of glass scattered around the facility.

So Nikki, it will take a year and a half to get over the surgery. What everybody told me was true. “Your only regret will be not having the surgery sooner.” The doc told me my legs would be the same length, I wouldn’t limp, I would feel no pain, and I would be 100%. It was hard to believe, but it has come true. Even on a nasty damp low pressure morning, I feel nothing in that hip. Sadly, I still fear skiing downhill on XC skis, just because I don’t want to go anywhere near risking a break. I do go skiing on the flats though.

[Kevin Midgley]

Nice table Bert. It is underneath all the stuff they are selling. Barn board pattern shows well despite all the stuff sitting on top of it.
https://homeplushome.com/

[Terry Gallentine]

I am glad that you are back in the glass Bert. I don't have any hip problems but I have started using a lot more winches and good old Egyptian engineering to get things into the kiln. As far as the Ferro thing, it seems like everything is going south. I too have back engineered some of my mediums to make do with what is available. Glad to hear you are back.

[Bert Weiss]

Nice table Bert. It is underneath all the stuff they are selling. Barn board pattern shows well despite all the stuff sitting on top of it.
https://homeplushome.com/

Odd Kevin. You describe the table. Your link is for my guy but at a different location. I don’t see the picture you reference. I’m so out of the loop that I have to figure out if I can throw a picture up on my website I never look at. Hopefully the ftp software will work on my OS.

[Kevin Midgley]

The link when I click on it takes you to a scrolling series of photos the first of which is a barnboard pattern table with various things on top of it. Don't blink the scrolling is speedy. It gives the idea of what the table looks like.
Obviously they could move things between locations and in this case may have moved it electronically for the website.