Glass Fish Bowl Pre-Orders

Termato said:

Today was a tough day at the studio. This new glass we got in is very different. It's SO much better but there is a learning curve. I ended up breaking about 3 of the 5 pieces I made. I only got 2 into the annealer to get out tomorrow. I'll be able to make Phil and Mason's pieces tomorrow or next weekend so no worries. With the new glass, I put two trials per piece type until I moved on otherwise I wouldn't get to experiment as much with how this new stuff moves. It's a lot stickier and it stay hotter longer. It's much softer. I think it's better glass and I'll be able to make bigger and lighter bowls with it.

This was the only nice one that made it out today though. It's a big one because I was fed up with breaking smaller pieces. I had to get something nice out. We'll see how big once it's cold. (I was so exhausted by the time they took this picture):

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You should get in the bartending business.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/28741

lkelly said:

You should get in the bartending business.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/28741

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hahahah great clip. My friend tried to light his drink on fire once and it didn't turn out too well hahaha.

It was a great day at the studio today. After last weekend, we got really used to the glass and it's working well for us. I pumped out a huge who knows how big fish bowl. It's monstrous. I think it may be 4G...I hope. It took some effort. I am now quite certain I can make a 5G without burning myself hahaha. I'm still having issues making wavy fish bowls because the lip keeps cracking. It's a different process at the end which require different preparation and makes it riskier when doing. I'm slowly minimizing risks by taking my time with steps in the process but when they are that big, unless you make it thick (which adds time and cost), is hard to make. It's all learning how this new stuff works and pushing it to it's limits.

Here is the new beast:


Here is a shot of me taking Mason's piece off of the pipe. I was cutting the connection with sheer to chill the glass. I then applied water with tweezers to the connection and knocked the piece off. I'll have some videos of the entire process out soon.



and here is the annealer where we put all of the pieces to go down to room temperature. You can see how big these things are. Those cups on the right can hold two beers easily.

I took some better pictures to give you all some idea of what I've made. 3.2G:


Wide top bowl (bad image). 3.2G:


and size reference. The one of the left is over 4G. The one of the right is for Mason:

Really nice work!

Matt

These are so beautiful, I would be interested in a 4-5 gal when they're available. Mother's day is coming up, and the only thing she will keep is a betta bowl, but boy does she love those little guys.

Has NASA called you yet?

dogofwar said:

Really nice work!

Matt

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Thanks Matt!

Blmarsha said:

These are so beautiful, I would be interested in a 4-5 gal when they're available. Mother's day is coming up, and the only thing she will keep is a betta bowl, but boy does she love those little guys.

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Thank you! One of those new ones I just made is a 4+ gallon bowl. The giant one on the left of that image. I'll me making 5+ gallon ones around April 16th. I'll be in Brazil from March 24th to April 9th (so I'll miss the next meeting).

You could either have that one I already made or wait until I make those new ones . If you wanted a specific color lip, shape, etc. just let me know. Do you prefer taller or wider? etc.

lkelly said:

Has NASA called you yet?

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They didn't like my designs

I made two options for @jstlstn but I made them both with red lips instead of blue. I also took some nicer pictures of all of the fish bowls:

This one is more than 4.5 gallons


4.5G


~3.5-4


3.5G


3.5G


2G

Awesome! These bowls are heavy duty. I dropped mine filled with water and daphnia, about 2 feet, from over my head, landing on a 10g, and then a shelf, and back into my arms somehow. The 10g shattered lol, the bowl didn't have a scratch.

MDB_fish_newbie said:

Awesome! These bowls are heavy duty. I dropped mine filled with water and daphnia, about 2 feet, from over my head, landing on a 10g, and then a shelf, and back into my arms somehow. The 10g shattered lol, the bowl didn't have a scratch.

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Oh man, yea it's def tougher glass than the tank glass but wow that could have broken though hahahah. Sorry about the 10G. Glad the bowl survived the mishap. Having water in it helped because it took a lot of the impact away from the glass.

I do make them quite thick just for safety. That BIG one is about 1/4-1/3" thick at the bottom.

The flared ones like the wavy tops aren't as sturdy. They break easier because of the non spherical shape at the stop. It creates more weak points in the shape along with making the glass thinner because it stretched out. A sphere is one of the strongest shapes to build with because it distributes the weight evenly. Those flared top ones can be hard to make at a large size. That 4.5G+ gallon one is huge. The pictures don't really give you a good size reference.