Along with Nicky and Jodie and with help from Amy, Loz and Adam we represented Plymouth College of Art at the International Festival of Glass this year. I did some demos (see pic below) on how to make stemware without an assistant but the main reason we were there was to run an affordable furnace making course. Louise Cloke and Sarah Fell, recent graduates from PCA were selected for the prestigious Biannale exhibition and Louise was awarded an honoury mention.
We built the furnace in 2 1/2 days without the use of a workshop. In fact we built the whole thing with an angle grinder with a cutting wheel, a welder (borrowed from the brilliant Merlin), a drill and an assortment of hand tools. The group was fantastic, with lots of enthusiasm and a great sense of excitement and fun.
We lit the furnace and went on to make glass from it. I learnt a tremendous amount from the other demonstrators and would like to thank Merlin for all his help and tremendous support. Thanks too to Katie, Kieth, Gaz and all at Ruskin.
Special thanks to Plymouth College of Art for their continued support for this project.
We put together a facebook page and have uploaded all the photos that show construction of the furnace. It's called BOB Too and you can find it at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.144297652377597.30650.142804709193558&type=3#!/Bobtoo2012 .
Abobe. This is the first piece of glass to be made from Bob 2. Look out for the introduction of a user friendly version Bob 3 sometime in the new year.
Below. Demonstrating at the Ruskin Glass Centre. I was delighted to find that on that day, the glass quality from Bob was better than that from the larger glass furnace at Ruskin
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