Fenton Art Glass was founded in 1905 and is located in Wheeling WV.
Once one of the top glass producers of handmade art glass, Fenton has now produced any large production pieces for the last two years. Now they mainly produce and design handcrafted glass beads.
Why do you think that a company that specializes in handmade items has been forced to stop production for something that is slowly becoming a dying art?
In the glass bead production room, there are a number of employees with different jobs. One person was the designer, there were a few employees creating and making the beads from glass and then the ones that were actually painting the designs on the small beads.
Now, lets talk about the process and the tools used to create these small wonders.
First, the glass is melted and formed on a small metal rod. The man below is not forming beads but is creating the teardrop glass pieces that are used to create the ear rings. But much of the process is the same as with the beads.
So lets talk a little about the rods that hold the molten glass. The very tip of the rods are coated with a substance that has a sandy or gritty texture to it. This will enable the release of the glass later on in the process to be easier.
The glass maker will the turn the molten glass on a mold called a marver. Look at the picture of the marver below and hypothesize as to why you think it would be used.
There are three different sizes for the different items that they make. The marver is used to keep the size of the beads consistent and even.
Once the beads are made, they are put in an annealing oven to sit overnight and then a release agent is used to get them off the rods. Once they are checked for imperfections, the beads are then lined in the center with metal to create a protective layer between the beads and the chain or necklace that they will eventually be placed on. You can see that in the picture below.
As you can tell, there is a wide variety of designs to choose from.
Use the diagram below to create a pie graph of the percent of ingredients used to create class and compare it to the chart. What do you notice?
Once one of the top glass producers of handmade art glass, Fenton has now produced any large production pieces for the last two years. Now they mainly produce and design handcrafted glass beads.
Why do you think that a company that specializes in handmade items has been forced to stop production for something that is slowly becoming a dying art?
In the glass bead production room, there are a number of employees with different jobs. One person was the designer, there were a few employees creating and making the beads from glass and then the ones that were actually painting the designs on the small beads.
Now, lets talk about the process and the tools used to create these small wonders.
First, the glass is melted and formed on a small metal rod. The man below is not forming beads but is creating the teardrop glass pieces that are used to create the ear rings. But much of the process is the same as with the beads.
So lets talk a little about the rods that hold the molten glass. The very tip of the rods are coated with a substance that has a sandy or gritty texture to it. This will enable the release of the glass later on in the process to be easier.
The glass maker will the turn the molten glass on a mold called a marver. Look at the picture of the marver below and hypothesize as to why you think it would be used.
There are three different sizes for the different items that they make. The marver is used to keep the size of the beads consistent and even.
Once the beads are made, they are put in an annealing oven to sit overnight and then a release agent is used to get them off the rods. Once they are checked for imperfections, the beads are then lined in the center with metal to create a protective layer between the beads and the chain or necklace that they will eventually be placed on. You can see that in the picture below.
Here is another picture of the different styles that are created at the company.Use the diagram below to create a pie graph of the percent of ingredients used to create class and compare it to the chart. What do you notice?
Great post Kellie. Enjoyed the questions and the little information that went along.
ReplyDelete