fire and glass

the beads the jewelry

There aren't too many glass artisans that I know of who do not covet and hoard rods of the very lovely silver glasses that are available out there. The term 'Silver' glass doesn't refer to the color of the glass but rather to the content of silver nitrates and metals in the glass recipe. These are very expensive rods of glass..sometimes costing 100.00 or more for a single lb. According to Abe at Northstar Glass there are several reasons for the value placed on these phenomenal rods of lampworking glass. This is a quote from Abe at Northstar Glass in April 2009 "Cost of Silver rich glasses. 1. $300-400 per pound for Silver Salts each batch might have 1lbs in one 30 lb batch. 2. $200 per crucible we try to change each crucible every 3-6 batches some times we ONLY get 1 batch out of a crucible because the silver metal drills a hole through the crucible, if that happenes it destroys the furnace floor and this is not cheap $300-500 just for the floor. 3. each f...