Earlier today I watched a Mark Matthews video making sphere after sphere in his shop. Years of experience do not begin to explain his accomplishments. What is even more fascinating than his creations is hearing his inspiration for (each unique) series and the development TO create them. Okay equally fascinating. 😁 I found the video on this Channel and highly recommend searching for it.
Yey george speaks!! So used to him being busy helping with the pieces it was nice to hear him talk for a bit too. Love marks work, i'd been wanting to see this one for a while. I've watched the studio demo vids for the canes being made a few times, but couldn't find a vid that showed how the canes got turned into marbles. As i know pretty much nothing about glass, it answered a lot of questions.
Thank you so much for this event. This guy is so engaging while doing his work. I am delighted I have been recently watching all of the Corning videos featuring Mark, so that I can bring together in my head the entire process (well most of it) of making these spheres. I have been sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to see this whole video released as I came in late when it was being featured.
It is astounding to watch the process regarding the spacing between the canes. I still have not gotten to the point where I tuned in the first time. It is nice to see the early process of these careful adjustments.
I wish you would give us shots of whatever the host is talking about, like the koogler bars or whatever, rather than yet another view from inside the reheating furnace. That said, this did have more of those than usual.
My guess is, it would simply have been too much of a distraction. In the cane-pulling videos, there's always lots of waiting around so he has time to talk and do other things, but here, it's just two hours of keeping eye on the ball and making sure the canes are straight; you simply can't afford to be distracted and slip up there.
@Corning Museum of Glass ; if you put a small cheap digital scale with a steel fork welded to the table,, you'd be able to answer the 'how heavy' questions, at least somewhat.
Most batch is already misted and dried to form pellets - which greatly helps with dust reduction. People still worry about it. Misting it as it comes out of the bag could be an option, but when shoveling or scooping, you would still break that surface.
Hi, the camera we use is actually behind the furnace protected by a layer of fused silica, which melts at a much higher temperature than the furnace is set to. You can learn more in this blog post: blog.cmog.org/2016/12/12/the-view-from-inside-the-furnace/. Thanks for watching!
He certainly is worried about it, but unlike other artists who might be making larger objects, he is working on a narrow cylinder-like form and can still gain a fair amount of heat at the back end when flashing.
