The post Studio Sale :: November 28 first appeared on StudioBlog :: Jeff Benroth Glass.

The site makes available a selection of the objects that we actually have in stock, but it also lists some things that were previously available only at the studio: seconds, prototypes, and some one-if-a-kind pieces that you would never think we made in the first place. Keep an eye on this as it is a work-in-progress, and constantly being updated.

The post shop.benroth.com first appeared on StudioBlog :: Jeff Benroth Glass.

In collaboration with 100Watt Network, I have designed some new glass pieces which will be the foundation for a new line of lighting, called Bodega. These pendants are all handblown into molds that we built in-house (see a brief video here). The geometric forms are a blend of art deco light fixtures, crossed with mod glass of the 1960s and ’70s. I’ve tried to update the ideas using the magic of CAD to develop the forms, more contemporary colors, and really excellent hardware.

100 Watt is putting the final touches on the lighting components to go with this glass. At present we’re expecting to be able to offer the lamps with either traditional incandescent, medium-base sockets or the new, super-swank LED emitters which will draw only a couple watts and will NEVER NEED A BULB CHANGE.

Please direct inquiries to 100 watt network – they will be handling all retail and wholesale lighting orders.

The post Let there be LIGHT first appeared on StudioBlog :: Jeff Benroth Glass.

These metal forms are new blow molds we’re building; they’re the beginning of our new lighting that will be formally introduced later this year. I’m really excited about this as a new line; I’ll give more specifics later, right now these are just a little eye-candy to whet the appetite.

I hope that these pendants will become a contemporary riff on the geometric forms that have preceded them starting with white glass Art Deco fixtures, brass-camed stars built from flat glass, and the crystalline geometric  molded forms from Venini during the 60’s and 70’s. These pieces will be available in clear as well as a couple of colors, and we plan for the hardware to feature a new design of LED light source that will debut with these fixtures – ultra-low wattage and no bulb changes, ever.

Stay tuned for more info. I’ll post more pics as we start to produce the prototypes.

The post Geometry is useful, after all first appeared on StudioBlog :: Jeff Benroth Glass.

Please check out:

– our new web page on the logs
– the LA Times blog posting
– Chad DeWitt’s site and latest work

Thanks also to my good buddy Jon Taylor, who has enough taste to design not only his clients’ homes and workspaces but also his own – enough so that I decided to shoot the logs in his Oakland hills home, just up the hill. Thanks, Jon and Tom – the photos came out much better this time…

Last, thanks to my Scott Hammond for taking care of, and improving, benroth.com post-haste. It was a shambles before and during, but now it sparkles again.

UPDATE: An edited version of the blog post also ran in the LA Times print edition, Home section on August 1, 2009. Thanks David!

The post “The Scout” digs our glass logs first appeared on StudioBlog :: Jeff Benroth Glass.

The post Make your own casting :: Saturday August 8, 10am – 4pm first appeared on StudioBlog :: Jeff Benroth Glass.

More generally called open-face casting, it’s a very basic and direct process used also with resins, metal, plaster or wax (sand candles, anyone?).

But it also involves that element of playing with sand, reminiscent of a day at the beach, that I think gets people into a spontaneous, creative mood. Watching the glass ooze out of the ladle and into the form will impress most anyone – it looks like electric honey. And since the process doesn’t require a lot of skill to participate in, the accessibility gives everyone a chance to try making something in glass. The trick is to extract from this process something that looks as good four days later when it’s cold as it did when it was being poured hot, and you had a beer in your hand.

The post Not-blown glass first appeared on StudioBlog :: Jeff Benroth Glass.

Each log is cast individually by pressing a piece of real cordwood into the sand. Using special binders we are able to get some pretty great texture of the rough wood faces, and each log has a clear flat surface where the pour was completed that is signed and numbered as part of the edition.

The logs are available directly from the studio, and through some of our most tasteful stores, such as Highcotton Living in Berkeley and Good in Boston. Check out the store locator on our website or email us directly to get yours.

The post Glass logs redux first appeared on StudioBlog :: Jeff Benroth Glass.

Unless it’s painted or stained somehow, glass gets its hue from metal oxides and minerals. These are incorporated into the mixture of raw materials  before it is melted, and voila – colored glass.

In factories and large-studios, colors may be formulated and melted in-house. These are usually proprietary, and some are easier to replicate than others. If a studio or factory is melting an entire furnace of colored glass, the intensity can also be controlled with the formulation. Additionally, the number of colors available will depend on the number of furnaces or melting chambers, and unless it’s a very large factory or one that uses only a few colors, it is not unusual to see a cycle of colors melted over time – the melts often go from light to dark over a period of weeks or months, then the pot is “washed” with clear glass and the cycle begins again.

In “small” studios like mine, we have one furnace and it’s got clear glass in it. With all the different colors required by our production and custom projects, it would be impractical to try to melt color to satisfy our needs, on-the-fly – although some studios maintain a second furnace with one or more smaller pots in it, which can be filled with colors as needed for individual runs. We (and many other studios) use pre-formulated, concentrated colors which come from color houses and are standardized – much like tubes of paint. There are hundreds of colors available and a whole science and technology has developed over the years for their use and application.

They typically come in three basic formats: rod, powder, and frit. The rod is a baton of solid glass, powder is self-explanatory, and “frit” refers to granules, which are sorted and sold in different sizes. All of these are applied to each piece as it is worked, rather than thrown into a furnace. This make the process of blowing any one piece slightly longer, but with much more color control and possibilities for variation.

Because the color is so concentrated, we use a very thin layer of it; if you were to evaluate it by weight, the colored glass only accounts for perhaps 5% of the volume of the finished piece, at most. So if you’re lucky enough to break a piece of our glass, look at the edge of one of the pieces. It will show you that what looked like a totally colored object is (or was) in fact clear glass with a thin layer or two of color sandwiched into the wall.

Amen.

The post How do you get color in the glass? first appeared on StudioBlog :: Jeff Benroth Glass.

clear prototype vase

One of the “new” things I’m working on is actually a design I’ve brought back from a long time ago; a simple bubble of glass that lies on its side, with a finely polished opening that allows a flower to extend from it at an angle.

I made a few of these sweet little things as gifts and even sold a couple of them, but it was before I had really begun to consider starting a line of products so they went by the wayside – until I remembered them just recently.  Here is a studio shot of one of the clear pieces, I will probably also make this vase in a transparent graphite blue and either an amber or olive green. I look forward to hearing what you think of it.

The post Sideways first appeared on StudioBlog :: Jeff Benroth Glass.