Welcome back! This is our third and final look at the glassmaking process at GA. I hope you were able to check out parts one and two. In part one, I talked about how we choose and formulate color; and last week’s focus was on the start of our process, mixing crushed glass and our formula to make up our recipe. We were just about to really turn up the heat!

Our kilns are the soul of our shop. They might not be what some would call pretty, but there are few things more beautiful to me than peeking into the opening of a kiln and seeing that beautiful glow, knowing that the magic happening inside will result in new glass.

Glass Alchemy is an outlier in that we design and build our kilns, which is important in making glass the GA way.  We have been at the forefront of kiln innovation since the early days and we continue to invest in the design and performance of GA's custom made furnaces.

Last week I mentioned that the kilns are a point of no return for our glass batches. Once we put the batch in the kiln, there is no going back.  While it’s true that we can pull some glass halfway through the melt for a status check, we never really know what the final product will look like until it’s finished. I tell people that glassmaking reminds me of cooking pasta: you can’t take it out too soon, no matter how eager you are!

On any given day we are melting thousands of pounds of glass, all at different stages of the cooking process. When the color is ready to be extruded from the pot, our skilled team of draw technicians are able to do what they do best. Our lead technician has been pulling your glass since 2001!!

It is our dedicated team of employees who are responsible for ensuring the high quality of our product, from start to finish. 

After reading this three part blog series, I hope you have a better understanding of how we make your glass here at Glass Alchemy!

Peace - Thomas

Check out Part One here.

Check out Part Two here.