Recycled Glass

[glassworks]

oh heck yes they did stuff - i think you'll find lamp makers aren't easily put off by merely "dangerous" glass!!  

besides - our studio space was as well "ventilated" as sitting outside - some of our artists were wrapped like Eskimo's, and photographed in Sarah's photo blog!!..

i'll dig through the photos folder and see what i can find... i seem to remember that Corina had a go too, but got sidetracked with Sarah into a bead relay...

with the most abject thanks to sarah i found this pic of the beach glass.....


this one of the beach itself....


and this one of di and cosita...

[Steampunkglass]

the lumps that got the most excitement where ones that were called "uranium glass" by daniello - it was a kind of milky, creamy, bluey kinda glass that is apparently no longer safe to produce!... ;-)

I read an article about that somewhere, from what I remember there was an English glass company making it just before the WW2 who had 3 tonnes of uranium confiscated when war broke out. I've seen a few pictures of old glassware made with it, and has a really nice green/yellow colours to it. I have a small bit of frit I was given called 'uranium glass' which is yellow but might be made in a modern safe way without anything radioactive - however under UV light it glows wonderfully! 

[llewennog]

Ive got a stack of 1inch Uranium marbles they live in my fishtank,oh heck thats why my fish all have 2 heads:d hehehe

[theflyingbedstead]

Thanks for the pics Q...you'd have to wear shoes on that beach!  And what an impressive collection of glass shards...far more varied than you'd find at Worthing.  Lovely photo of Di and Cosita too.

I am now tempted to go round the junk shops looking for uranium glass...I've also heard that the proper stuff glows an erie green colour under UV, so maybe that frit is the real thing!  I've got some modern 'Uranium' Effetre glass that is not made of radio-active materials...I'm off to check if it glows...now where's me UV light?

[Steampunkglass]

Wandering around in my workshop with a UV light was quite an eye-opener (Yes, I know, I am odd!) , I found that some beads I made with light amber mixed and streaked into opaque white glowed an amazing orange colour!

[Yellow friend]

I bought a few collections from ebay whence I was in my enamelling phase & I have some old yellow enamels that are no longer in production - due to potential hazardous material presumably - & aren't some reds meant to be a bit dodgy too? Me thinks a quick whizz around my shed with a UV lamp may show up some interesting things too.

[Flyingcheesetoastie]

Yellow Uranium glass is still in production, Gaffer sell it for glass blowing and it has a lead crystal base.  I'm working with it for casting and yes it does glow green under UV light.  A lot of glass was tinted with Uranium up till the second world war so it doesn't have to be the iconic greeny yellow to glow!  There's quite a few places in Edinburgh that if you have a UV keyring and shine it at the chandeliers you get glowing greenness!

Going back to the original thread, if the glass your hubby dug up is 100year old or more it could be that it's lead rather than soda which would make it softer to work with too!

[Yellow friend]

I suspect you're right - its quite nice to work with - he's now come back with nearly whole bottles which are the size of an old fashioned milk bottle - about 1/2 pint - and they weigh a ton. The walls are about 10mm thick in parts, so probably lead based too.