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To contact us…. |
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The Longhouse Plymtree Near Cullompton Devon EX15 2JW |
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Siddy Langley Glass |
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Three heating chambers are used during the production. One, the furnace, contains a “pot” of molten clear glass (approx 50kg). This gas fired furnace is on permanently and keeps the glass at a constant temperature of 1,040 degrees centigrade. From here the glass is gathered onto the blowing irons. The second, the “Glory Hole” is on only during the working time. The glory hole is an open-mouthed furnace which is gas fired and kept at a temperature of approx 1200 degrees centigrade. The glory hole has a number of swinging doors to accommodate pieces of various sizes. The worked piece, on the end of the blowing iron, is heated in this chamber from time to time. The third, called a lehr, is used to cool the work down at a slow and steady rate after it has been finished and removed from the iron. Cooling the work down slowly, “annealing” is important to remove stresses from the glass. If the glass is not annealed and cools too quickly it is likely that the glass will fracture when it is cold. |
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Working at the glory hole |
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The hot shop |
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Gathering glass from the furnace mouth |
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The studio at Plymtree (visitors welcome by appointment) |
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The colours are all applied before the glass is blown. There are many different ways of applying colour. The molten glass can be rolled in glass powders, strands of hot glass can be applied in “trails” around the piece, coloured glass rods can be applied by lampwork to the piece and precious metal oxides can be added to the colours for different, lustre effects.
Because the design is applied before the glass is blown it grows with the piece and therefore the decoration will always work with the form of the glass. In some cases the decoration will even dictate the form of the glass—three evenly spaced blocks of a hard colour would encourage the form to be triangular, four, would incline it to be square.
Once the colour is applied to the artist’s satisfaction the glass is blown into the desired shape. Siddy uses a pad of wet paper to shape the glass and to cool the areas that need to be left thicker. After the blowing is complete, the glass is cracked off the blowing iron and attached on the bottom to a pontil iron. Once on this iron the neck of the vase (where it has broken away from the blowing iron) can be trimmed, fire polished and opened out to form a vase or bowl or turned over to form the flange of a delicate scent bottle.
When the hot work is complete, the piece is broken off the pontil iron leaving the distinctive “pontil mark” that is the sign of hand made glass. It is then placed in a lehr or kiln to cool slowly over a period of about twenty four hours.
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Tools and colours laid out in preparation for glassblowing |
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A glimpse of the pot inside the furnace |